Kevin Miller , in his third season at South Fremantle, found himself out of the side for the first game of the 1985 season. A last minute withdrawal was to see him back in the line up, but in an unaccustomed role on a half back flank. “I had played most of my footy as a half forward,” Miller told us when we chatted to the former Royal Fremantle Golf Club Captain over a cleansing ale at the Club. Miller took to the defensive position like a duck to  water, and went on to win the Walker Medal for South’s Fairest and Best that year.  A dashing, hard running player who could run even time over a hundred yards,  with a penetrating kick, he was one of the original “first line of attack” half backs, and was a favourite with Bulldog fans.  Kevin Miller began his football at the tiny goldmining town of Bullfinch, where, at the age of seventeen, he was a star for the local team, winning the Yilgarn Association Fairest and Best. Having already been signed on a “form four” with South Fremantle, he and a few mates travelled  to Fremantle Oval for a few seasons to do pre season training and then return home, happy to stay in the bush.When the gold started to peter out, the Miller family moved to the city, and Kevin went to Bunbury with his mate, where he played with Bunbury for two years. Joining South Fremantle in 1963, he made 26 appearances in his first two seasons as a half forward. He was an explosive player and a natural free running forward, also suited on the centre line, so his  reincarnation as a defender in 1965 was a surprise to many.  After three consistently good years alternating between half back and wing, Miller caused a further surprise by announcing his retirement from league football. “ I had to start thinking about my family and future,” he said. “ I asked for more money, the committee refused, so I quit. It was a common theme those days when there was no money in football. I had seen too many others play until they were a shadow of their former selves, and end up with no footy and no job. I also wanted to give it up before I got to the “has been” stage.” He was subsequently offered a lucrative three year contract with West Perth, but they wanted him as a half back flanker. He has regrets about refusing. “West Perth under Polly Farmer went on to win a premiership so, yes, I do feel I might have made the wrong decision, but I think I really  wanted to get away from a defensive role.  I was often criticized for being a bit loose as a half back, but when you’re only five foot eight and a half giving height away to opponents it’s not an ideal matchup. I  wanted to play to my strengths, which were more suited to a position where I could use my pace.”Kevin Miller’s appraisal was borne out the following year when he won the Fairest and Best in the Avon Football Association with a record tally of votes as captain coach of Tammin, who he guided to a premiership. After another good year with the club in 1971, when they were beaten in the grand final, Miller took on the reigns at Beverley, where he added to his coaching credentials by taking them to a flag in 1973. Looking toward his family’s future, he returned to Fremantle to  begin the first of his thirty six years in the WA Fire Brigade, and was persuaded by a mate to pull on the boots in a brief stint  at Spearwood. Swans wingman, Tom Stannage, was Miller’s choice as his hardest opponent, and as for the best  he played with:  “John Gerovich. He was a great player with all the skills.” Asked about the game today, he commented: “I wish they would stop changing the bloody rules. They are on the road to nowhere, they are killing the game as a spectator sport. They are propping up the guys with average ability to the detriment of the brilliant players.” He did concede one plus for the modern coaching approach, though, which one senses could be close to his own heart. “Coaches these days will play players anywhere,”he said. “ In the past if you were going OK, you’d stay wherever you were, coaches didn’t make changes when in strife as much as they do now.”  Although he never played in a grand final while at South, every other club he played with enjoyed finals action, and he had an unblemished finals record as  a playing coach, with those premierships being highlights of his career. When reminded of his Fairest and Best at South, Miller remarked, “ Yeah, that was great, but premierships are shared with the teammates who help win them,  fairest and bests are an award that team mates help you win but you can’t share it with them.”He spoke of the year that all at South thought they threw a flag away. “In the 1967 preliminary final, we  led by 23 points at half time against East Perth,” he recalled. “Browny cleaned Keith Smith up at half time and we were all fired up, ready to get into them in the third quarter. Toddy calmed us down, and we got mauled in the second half. We should have stayed angry,” Miller said.  As a postscript he ruefully added:”I was playing on Syd Jackson. At half time I had 19 kicks to his 2, which he reversed in the second half. Plus five goals.”These days Kevin Miller is a keen golfer and is often to be found doing renovations on his house, as well as planning for a new one. The dashes he was known for off half back are now to be seen heading for the nineteenth hole at Royal Fremantle.