Less than one month into his career on the Gold Coast, second-round draftee Touk Miller believes the biggest challenge of his transition to date has been the step up in intensity in comparison to underage football.
The former Vic Metro and Calder Cannons captain arrived at Metricon Stadium renowned for his leadership capabilities and he has begun to leave his mark on the playing group with his application to training.
In today’s elite football environment, training sessions are filmed and analysed with players accountable for their every action. Miller explained this ensures the intensity of each drill and each session is high, given the scrutiny.
“Definitely from junior footy to senior footy, the intensity around the track has been a huge one. You’ve got to be switched on the whole time. Even from the get-go in your warm ups,” Miller told SUNS TV.
“When we do interviews and reviews of training, they’ve got clips of what you’ve done wrong. They’ve pulled up clips from warm-ups and not being intense enough. I think that’s a massive step up from what you get in junior footy.”
Former St Kilda and Carlton star Matthew Lappin arrived at the Gold Coast a few weeks before Miller, becoming the club’s new development coach after spending the last few seasons working under Nathan Buckley at Collingwood.
The 18-year-old revealed he had worked closely with Lappin during his initial time at the club and the 251-game veteran had assisted him with understanding team structures, as well as honing his foot skills.
“I’ve worked pretty closely with ‘Skinny’ at the moment. He’s probably helped me the most in terms of getting my kicking right,” Miller said.
“(He’s been) sitting me down and talking about team defence and structures that we’ve done and sort of working me through small parts of my game I’ve got to work on.”
Miller has already set his sights on breaking into the side for round one. The tenacious midfielder admits he may struggle to secure a spot in the engine room, given the club’s array of midfield weapons, but he is eyeing a small forward role and is prepared to do what’s required to earn a berth.
“Making the round one team is the ultimate goal at the moment so fingers crossed I can work hard and get myself in the team.”
