Australian Football

There are few bigger names, and no greater characters, in the history of Australian sport than Keith Ross Miller. 

One of cricket's greatest all-rounders, Miller strode the cricket field like a colossus from the late 1930s until his retirement from the game in 1956. Not even the outstanding raw stats - 55 tests, 2958 runs at a touch under 37, 170 wickets at 22.97, as well as 38 catches, do justice to the impact that Miller had on any match in which he was involved. What is less well known about Miller's sporting career is that had it not been for his focus on cricket, and his lengthy, and tumultuous, service during the Second World War, Miller may well have had a similar impact on Australian football.

Born in Sunshine, in the western suburbs of Melbourne, in his teens he moved with the family to Elsternwick, and first showed his football prowess in 1937 when he joined his brothers at the local football club, Brighton, then one of the leading teams in the VFA . A highly rated defender for the Penguins, he played three seasons with the club and had just begun a fourth when he suddenly signed on to play with St Kilda in the VFL. Playing against Coburg, Miller held champion spearhead Bob Pratt to a solitary goal and so impressed the Saints officials that they nabbed him on the spot. Brighton did not stand in his way and Miller began his VFL career the next week.

Miller played 32 games with St Kilda over the next two seasons, establishing himself as a highly skilled and versatile footballer of the first order. Excelling as a full back, he was switched to the forward line during the 1940 season and made an immediate impact, kicking 28 goals in the 10 games so positioned, including eight in one game against North Melbourne. Then, just when it appeared that he was ready to take the football world by storm, wartime exigencies intervened and Miller joined the RAAF, finding himself posted to the European theatre. 

It was during his wartime service as a Mosquito fighter-bomber pilot that the legend of Keith Miller was born. Hair raising near death experiences, bombing raids over Germany (including a solo excursion over Bonn, Beethoven's birthplace), interspersed with some outstanding cricket for Services' teams, established his reputation as a bona fide hero, albeit a humble one. His wartime exploits gave him a greater sense of perspective when he returned to the sports field. When asked many years later about pressure in cricket, Miller responded “Pressure, mate. In cricket? You’ve got to be kidding. Pressure is turning around and seeing a Messerschmitt flying up your arse.”

Returning to St Kilda for the 1946 season, Miller picked up where he left off, and capped off an outstanding season at full back for the struggling Saints with selection for Victoria against South Australia in the annual interstate game. It was to be his last season in the VFL, however, as work and cricket opportunities took him to Sydney in 1947, although not his last season in senior football. 

Turning out for Sydney Naval in the local competition, he took a more relaxed approach to the game. In his first practice match for his new club, "he turned up at half time after spending the early part of the afternoon at the races. Sydney [Naval] put him straight on and despite his suggested ‘dabbling’ at Randwick, Miller starred." He was subsequently selected as vice-captain of the New South Wales team that competed in the interstate carnival in Hobart that year, and thereby became the only man to represent both Victoria and N.S.W at two sports. But 1947 was to be his last year of football. A consistent 'target' of the local league's thugs, and with an outstanding cricket career in the making, Miller called it a day. 

He never stopped proselytizing for the Australian game in Sydney, and in 1987 he held the post of Chief Commissioner of the NSW Football League, albeit for a single year.

Author - Adam Cardosi