The hottest property in the AFL happens to have the coolest head in the game. St Kilda sensation Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera completed his sparkling rise from a damaging defender and one of the most exciting midfielders in the competition, to a proven match-winner after icing two goals in the final minute that sealed a historic comeback against Melbourne.
The 22-year-old has already shown he can do it all at both ends. But it is rare for a player to have a game-changing impact in all areas of the field in one game, let alone in a single breathtaking quarter that helped turn Sunday’s contest. Wanganeen-Milera started the game taking on the Demons’ decorated on-ball brigade, but with the Saints trailing by 46 points at the final change he was soon taking the kick ins, connecting play through the midfield and drifting forward to be a target in attack.
The defender-turned-allrounder gathered 10 disposals as the Saints came from the clouds to chase down the Demons in the final term. But it is Wanganeen-Milera’s last minute of action at Marvel Stadium that will go down in folklore. It is a tale that even the humble Saints star struggled to explain.
“I don’t know, I’m a bit speechless,” Wanganeen-Milera told Channel 7 immediately after the game. “It just sort of happened, I flew for it. But my teammates did a great job in the last quarter, the pressure was unreal, we just kept fighting and fighting.”
The Demons led by a goal with less than a minute left on the clock when Saints midfielder Mason Wood received a handball after a boundary throw-in on the wing and bombed the ball into the forward 50. Wanganeen-Milera first made his name as a rebounding half-back and has shown plenty of promise since moving into the midfield, but with the game on the line he soared over Bailey Fritsch to pull down a screamer in front of Demons defender Judd McVee within sight of goal.
The exquisitely skilled Wanganeen-Milera could hardly have split the middle better as he nailed the set shot to level the scores with only eight seconds remaining and leave the Saints looking like the only side thinking about victory. While the young St Kilda players were calm and composed amid the chaos that followed, even the most experienced Demons lost their heads as they turned the ball over with a 6-6-6 infringement for not having enough players set up in each area of the ground.
The Saints trio of Rowan Marshall, Marcus Windhager and Wanganeen-Milera quickly concocted a plan at the centre bounce for the ruck to take the free kick and pick out the man of the moment charging forward. A pinpoint pass from Marshall was enough to find Wanganeen-Milera just inside the 50m arc as he bravely marked while falling backwards. He sprang back to his feet before the siren sounded. “I just told the forwards, ‘get out of my way’, and then I told Rowan, ‘just hit me on the left side’, and it was lucky I got on the end of it,” Wanganeen-Milera said.
With the result resting on his young shoulders, Wanganeen-Milera only needed a point to clinch the greatest comeback from a three-quarter-time deficit in VFL/AFL history. It was no surprise to see his lethal right foot send the ball through the middle again for the icing on the cake of a stunning six-point triumph. Wanganeen-Milera finished with 34 disposals, nine score involvements, six clearances and a career-high four goals in just the latest display as his career keeps reaching for new heights.
If only to add to the mythical performance, coach Ross Lyon revealed after the game that the Saints’ hero of the day was on the brink of being a late withdrawal from the game due to a stye in his eye before getting the all-clear from the club doctor. “[The doctor] said ‘Nas has come in, [we’ve] upped his antibiotics, given him an injection,” Lyon said. “I mean, they can sound quite morbid at times, the doctors. I just said, ‘how’s Nas’, he’s pretty confident. Then I rang him, he goes, ‘no, I’ll be right’. But I just said, if you’re not right, no pressure, we’ll tap you out.” There will be a sense of relief as much as elation around the Saints’ camp that Wanganeen-Milera was available to take on the Demons, but both will only grow if the speedster commits his long-term future to the club.
The stepson of former St Kilda player Terry Milera and nephew of former Port Adelaide and Essendon great Gavin Wanganeen owns the most sought-after signature in the game, as he comes out of contract while being courted by both clubs in his home state of South Australia. Wanganeen-Milera has already ensured that St Kilda are etched in the record books for their fightback, but the club that drafted him at No 11 in 2021 AFL draft live in hope that his incredible performance against Melbourne was just one of many memorable moments to come in red, white and black.
