SOUTH Fremantle's Kris Miller continues to show no signs of slowing down and is confident the Bulldogs' can continue their improved form to push into another finals campaign.
South Fremantle looked out of the running for finals with Jaymie Graham, Nathan Phillips, Reece Adams, Theo Adams, Gerard Wilkie, Andrew Siegert and Scott Thornton out and not coming back in 2010 to go with the stars that retired after last year's premiership, but things have quickly turned.
The Bulldogs have now beaten third-placed West Perth and fourth-placed Subiaco in impressive fashion the past fortnight. The team has had to change the way it's played with the different personnel and Miller was happy with the majority of the game against the Lions.
"We've been a lot more physical and harder, and we've got a pretty good team but we were trying to play the same way we did last year without the same calibre of players around. Now we've realised that and are playing the style that suits the side we've got," Miller said.
"We were a bit slow at the start, but ground our way into it and in the second quarter we really put the hammer down. If we fully took our chances we probably could have blown the game out, but we let it slip for 15 minutes in that third quarter. Outside of that we were good."
South Fremantle will move into the top four for the first time since Round 1 with a win over East Fremantle at Shark Park on Saturday.
Miller is confident that the Bulldogs can continue the form now over the last four games, especially with the last three coming at Fremantle Oval against Swan Districts, West Perth and Subiaco.
"If we keep playing like this we should play finals and the destiny is in our own hands. We don’t need any results to go our way or anything like that, we just need to keep winning. We might be a bit like Hawthorn in the AFL where if we sneak into the finals sides not wanting to play us," he said.
"Our last three games are all at home so at the end of the day if we get there we will deserve to and it will mean we're playing good footy. It will be better to get there and make an impact rather than just making up the numbers."
Miller is having another tremendous season in the midfield playing every game and averaging almost 27 possessions. The 29-year-old veteran of 233 WAFL games was simply brilliant in Saturday's 19-point win over Subiaco with 35 possessions that were highly effective.
"I think I've been playing OK again this year even though I've been pretty sore. I've probably been sore since November and if it wasn’t for Greg Wootton our physio I probably wouldn’t get up. I'm just lucky enough that I know where the ball is going half the time and as long as I don’t fumble it I should be right," he said.
"I think I had fair leadership in there last year along with Belly and Smithers with some of the young guys coming through and I personally haven’t changed too much. My leadership hasn’t changed. If I've got something to say to them I'll say it and if they've done something bad I'll let them know or if they do something good I'll be the first over to tell them that too.
"At the end of the day, it's in my best interest that we have blokes playing good footy because all I'm here to do is win games, to hopefully play finals and win premierships. That's all I'm still playing for."
While Andrew McCarrey was recruited from East Fremantle to strengthen the forward-line, he has cemented himself as the best nullifying defender and continued his strong form by keeping Blake Broadhurst goalless against Subiaco. His one goal came when Kyle Hams was on him.
The defence of the Bulldogs is outstanding with Sam Hunt, Chris Bossong, Hams, Corry Amato and Hayden North working in combination with McCarrey. Ryan Murphy and Callum Wilson have been superb up forward combining for 98 goals so far in 2010.
Miller has noticed that the forward-line and defence is the strength of the team and while there has been no Peter Bell, Ray Smithers or Theo Adams in the midfield this season, Miller has continued to lead the way and with Toby Bairstow, Adam Guglielmana and Jarrod Parry getting better.
"We are very lucky that we've got the two best forwards behind Chad Jones and we have one at full-forward and one at centre half-forward. Our forward-line is one of the best in the comp, so is our back-line and our midfield is just around about the mark," Miller said.
"He (Parry) is a very handy player, he just needs to get his skills a bit better. He's nice and hard and tough, and has a good tank. Some of these young guys are good players, but are nice and hard as well and even though Parry has a fragile frame, he throws it around."
Miller's younger brother Mark was going to play last Saturday against Subiaco until captain Toby McGrath declared himself fit, but Kris hopes he gets a crack again soon after his good form this year on comeback from a knee reconstruction.
"He's played some awesome footy this year. He started off really well after a limited pre-season because of a knee reconstruction at the end of last year, but played Round 1 and started off on fire," he said.
"He dropped off for four or five weeks and that's what happens sometimes coming back from long-term injuries, but I'd say for the last seven or eight weeks he has been the reserves' best player across the board."
