By John Greechan
Lewis Miller would like it to be known that, by his own conservative estimate, he hasn’t left a certain fellow Australian free from pestering for a single 48-hour stretch in this summer of uncertainty. If Sunderland prospect Nectar Triantis does end up returning to Easter Road, ‘Millsy’ may well be entitled to a commission on the deal. Not that he needs any incentive to sing the praises of Hibs. Even if his early days in Edinburgh, half a world away from home, did put him through the emotional wringer. Miller, who turns 25 next month, almost pops and fizzes with enthusiasm when he discusses his time as a Hibernian player. As he reflects on his role in helping the Socceroos qualify for a sixth successive World Cup, the versatile defender freely admits the role played by coaches and team-mates he’s worked with in Scotland, declaring: “Hibs has moulded me as a player.” The former Central Coast star, who made 22 league starts in green-and-white last season, his performances on the right of the back three – plus the occasional shift at wingback – helping David Gray’s men climb from the foot of the table to finish third in the Scottish Premiership, is now a key member of Tony Popovic’s Aussie squad. Along with Martin Boyle, he can feel confident about his chances of making the final cut for next summer’s finals in Canada, Mexico and the USA. Long before that, he’s bursting to get stuck into his club’s crack at European football. For someone who grew up in a basketball-mad family in the northern suburbs of Sydney, his childhood including the near-obligatory membership of the Nippers, a lifesaving/swimming/beach club experience that couldn’t be any more Australian if it required participants to gorge on vegemite sandwiches and Tim Tams as a post-exercise snack, it’s been quite the journey. One not without its setbacks. Recalling those first six months following his arrival in the summer of 2022, as he made just a couple of starts and a handful of substitute appearances, Miller admitted: “It’s always tough when you’re not playing – but you need to learn resilience. You can’t really turn on yourself and kind of shy away from a challenge. “You don’t just put your head down and say: ‘I’ve just moved halfway across the world, I’m not playing, I just want to go back home somewhere where it’s comfortable …’ You have to get used to being in a very uncomfortable environment. “Once I got through that spell I kind of just started flying from there. And obviously Hibs gave me that platform. “I think Hibs has moulded me as a player. I mean, obviously I started off with the Mariners and that kind of introduced me to football. “By my first big club in my career was Hibs – and they really moulded me as a player. I didn’t play for the first year, I played about two or three games. “And then from there it’s kind of just been skyrocketing. I’ve played more and more and more under new managers that have put more trust and faith in me. I’ve adapted to the Scottish way of football. “I think that its intensity is one of the highest, probably in the top leagues in Europe. Every single player comes out and gives 120 per cent and I think that’s the main difference. “You don’t have a second to breathe. Having that experience has helped me in the big games – not just for the club but when I’m playing for my country, as well.” Miller played the full 90 minutes as Australia beat Saudi Arabia to clinch their World Cup qualification last month. He also featured in all but the closing dozen or so minutes in the previous game against Japan, a 1-0 win that went a long way to securing top spot in their Asian qualifying group. It made for a truncated close season, even allowing for David Gray giving his international players an extra week off, Miller admitting: “Obviously, completely worth having the shorter time because we qualified for a World Cup. It sounds quite generic, but it’s a childhood dream, the epitome of football. “So, glad to have got to that place in my career so far. It’s a very positive sign. And the best is yet to come, I think.” As a sporting nation, Australia regularly punches way above its weight division. Competition runs through an outdoors culture that seems to produce hardened competitors in any number of disciplines. “That’s just the winning mentality and winning culture that we want to maintain for our country,” said Miller, who pointed out: “Australia’s not really a one-sport country. We’re so diverse. “We have so many different people that specialise in so many different sports. So you’ve got AFL, cricket, rugby league, rowing, swimming. You can kind of dabble in everything. “When I was younger, I was a big basketball fan. My family are all basketball players. “I was a little bit too small at the time. I didn’t grow until I was about 18. So I was about five foot eight or five foot nine or something like that. So that kind of shut those dreams down straight away. “But it’s kind of always been football since the age of 13. I was a late bloomer, though, to be fair. “The beach club? Yeah, I did Nippers. I did Nippers from I think it was six to nine. Which is always good fun. “I did that Bilgola Beach, which is a bit north of Sydney. It’s a great stretch of beaches, beautiful all along that coastline – every one of them a 10 out of 10. “It’s unbelievable. The whole lifestyle and just everything that you can do there.” Having thrown his lot in with football, a young Miller was glad to join Central Coast Mariners. But he knew, even then, that playing in the A-League was never going to be enough; he wanted to play for something that really meant something. Having thoroughly enjoyed himself in the European arena in season 2023-24, he definitely can’t wait for the chance to take on Midtjylland in the Europa League second qualifying round later this month, declaring: “Oh, it’s beautiful. I mean, I love playing in the big games. “I think it’s a do-or-die situation. So you either shine or you sink. And I think that’s the environment I love to be in. GET THE LATEST HIBS NEWS DIRECTLY TO YOUR EMAIL INBOX WITH OUR FREE NEWSLETTER SERVICE “Yes, there’s some consequences if you make mistakes and you’re put in the spotlight. But it doesn’t outweigh the rewards if you go out there, get a result, play your best game. So they’re the games a footballer wants to be a part of, the high-pressure situations.” He paints such a positive picture of life at Hibs, does Miller, that it’s hard to imagine anyone NOT falling for his sales pitch. Which takes us neatly to his own half-joking confession about a supporting role in the club’s pursuit of their No. 1 transfer target, grinning as he declared: “Don’t worry, I am speaking to him. Just so everyone knows, I am on the phone to Nectar every two days!” Your next Hibs read: How long can Easter Road club wait for their top transfer target?