Miller has chance to get one up on mate
GOLD Coast midfielder Touk Miller says he will relish the chance to test himself against former teammate Dion Prestia when the Suns play Richmond on Saturday.
Miller and his Suns teammates will meet Prestia for the first time on the field since the latter secured his requested trade to the Tigers at the end of last year.
The duo spent the past couple of seasons battling in Gold Coast’s midfield together as injury gripped many of the club’s top-line midfielders.
It resulted in Miller becoming a bona-fide midfielder
in his first two AFL seasons and the defection of Prestia ahead of this year helped him keep his spot in the centre despite the return
of regulars including Gary Ablett and David Swallow and the signing of Michael Barlow, Pearce Hanley and Jarryd Lyons.
With 55 AFL games now to his name and in his third season, Miller said he was eager to put the blowtorch on Prestia and lift Gold Coast to an unlikely win over the fourth-placed Tigers in the Round 19 clash at Metricon Stadium.
“(Prestia) probably opened up a spot for me when he left the club but I’m looking forward to going head-to-head with him,” Miller said.
“It was a bit the same with Jaeger (O’Meara) when we came up against him so I’m going to thrive off the opportunity to go head-to-head against somebody who played here.”
Gold Coast are 15th on the ladder and their finals hopes are gone while coach Rodney Eade and other members of the football department are yet to find out if they will survive an internal club review.
But with five games left, Miller said winning was enough motivation for the team who haven’t made finals in their entire seven-year history in the AFL.
“I feel like the win is what is going to spark us,” he said.
“I know we have Richmond this week who are a top-four side. We have potential to shape the eight as well.
“The spark of actually winning is what is going to motivate us for the next five weeks. Five games of AFL football are not to be wasted so there is no waste of a season.”