Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera's AFL decision down to two as Adelaide ruled out
South Australian-born St Kilda superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera will not play for the Adelaide Crows if he is to request a trade home at the end of the 2025 AFL season.
That's according to The Agenda Setters' Caroline Wilson, who revealed on Monday night that the in-demand Indigenous defender would be uncomfortable at the Crows after a racism incident that dates back to 2021.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: St Kilda star rules out one Adelaide-based club ahead of contract decision.
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Former Adelaide captain Taylor Walker was slapped with a six-game ban and fined $20,000 in 2021 for a racist slur he made towards then-North Adelaide SANFL player Robbie Young.
Wilson says that still burns in the mind of Wanganeen-Milera, who is yet to commit to the Saints beyond this year and has strong interest from both Adelaide-based clubs.
'My understanding is that if Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera does leave St Kilda — and that's not certain, and Stephen Silvagni (Saints list manager) and Ben Williams (Wanganeen-Milera's manager) are speaking on almost a weekly basis — he won't be going to the Adelaide Football Club,' she said on The Agenda Setters.
'And one of the reasons he won't be going to the Adelaide Football Club is that he has concerns about an incident that happened back in 2021, an infamous incident that happened involving Taylor Walker and Robbie Young.
'Now, I'm making no comment about the club's handling of that incident, because my memory is that Matthew Nicks, the coach, was shattered by that incident, and the club did everything they could to get around Robbie Young.
'But Wanganeen-Milera has asked, clarified, that Matthew Nicks was the coach at the time, and has indicated that he doesn't want to go to the Adelaide Football Club.'
Walker has since completed training and education programs to help better himself in the wake of the incident, which threatened to derail his career at the time.
As it turned out, Walker bounced back from his disgrace to re-establish himself as a leader within the Adelaide and AFL communities, and has played some of the best footy of his career in recent years.
He was asked about the incident in a TV interview on Nine during Gather Round earlier this year, after which he was applauded for 'walking through hell', as host Eddie McGuire described it.
'I made a mistake, and one that I've got to live with for the rest of my life,' Walker said in April.
'But I suppose, when you make mistakes, you get a choice whether you look at it as: you can dwell on it, or you can learn about it.
'I'm very grateful for the support I had around me and I feel like I've learnt a lot, and I'm enjoying my football.'
Wilson said 'a lot of Wanganeen-Milera's friends' and members of 'the South Australian Indigenous community' remain irked that Walker, in that interview — though by no means through any fault of his own necessarily — was painted somewhat as a victim.
'I can't speak to the work that Taylor has done behind the scenes with Robbie Young and the South Australian and footy's Indigenous community, and he didn't set up those questions and that interview — but there was a view from Indigenous leaders across footy that it portrayed Taylor Walker as more of a victim than Robbie Young,' Wilson said.
'And it's just a small thing, but it wasn't a small thing to others who were still badly (hurt) by what happened back in 2021.
'So, for a variety of reasons, but specifically Wanganeen-Milera's issues with Taylor Walker and what happened back then, the view from Port Adelaide and from others in the footy community is that if he does leave, he will be going to Port Adelaide.'
Asked where she thinks Wanganeen-Milera will be playing next year, Wilson said she remains unsure.
'I'm really struggling to call it, I really am,' she said.
'I do know, that although St Kilda say they're confident, that he has some real issues with life in Melbourne and is very keen to return to home to Port.'
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4 hours ago
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Lyon had to laugh at himself the replays of him sitting under two of Melbourne's best ever marks as both Shaun Smith and Jeff Farmer used their teammate as a stepladder. It was fitting in one sense: Lyon made his teammates better. He coached Australia in International Rules but never wanted to be a coach. His love of the game had no limits, but he limited how much the game controlled his life. Now 26 years – almost to the day – since he retired after 226 matches due to back issues, his contribution to the game has finally been recognised. Joining him are two modern greats, both No.1 draft picks, who also parlayed their football brilliance into media careers in Hawthorn's Luke Hodge and St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt. Of course Hodge's final 41 games were spent in a Brisbane Lions jumper, but he is a Hawthorn great. He led the club to three consecutive flags in 2013-2015 and was best on ground in his first in 2008, one of two Norm Smith medals won by Hodge. He played on the biggest stages without losing the perspective he'd gained in the rough and tumble of football in Colac. A brilliant left foot kick he attacked the football with zeal and controlled the game from wherever he was positioned, maturing into the game's best leader. The saint Nick Riewoldt was a blond high-flying forward who ran opponents off their legs to mark on the wing or around the 50-metre mark or deep in the goal square. Part of a golden generation at the Saints who just fell short of a premiership he became their best player and captain. His mark at the SCG in 2004 when he tracked the flight of the ball to storm into oncoming players is regarded as one of the most courageous taken this century. Set to be inducted last season he was living overseas with family; with his moment arriving now. AFLW pioneers Daisy Pearce and Erin Phillips have been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame ahead of time as the league considered it necessary to ensure the vital contribution of these champion female players is recognised. Phillips becomes the first father-daughter inductee joining her father Greg who was inducted in 2020 while Pearce's name is synonymous with AFLW. South Australian goalkicking freak Ken Farmer became a legend for his incredible goalkicking feats while former greats South Australia's Peter Darley, Western Australia's George Owens and Tasmania's John Leedham were also inducted.
