Fremantle Dockers star Hayley Miller says ‘it means everything’ to be fit for 2024 finals campaign

Fremantle veteran Hayley Miller says “it means everything” to be fit for the club’s finals campaign after recovering from an untimely injury that threatened her place in the elimination final.

As an inaugural Docker, the former captain and club games record-holder had missed only one game across eight seasons before she hurt her calf as Fremantle qualified for finals in her ninth campaign.

After three games on the sidelines, the durable star returned for her 78th appearance in the last game of the home and away season, ahead of the Dockers’ do-or-die final against Essendon at Fremantle Oval on Saturday.

“It wasn’t in my mind when I got injured (that I could miss finals),” Miller told The West Australian.

“It was only small but sometimes with these soft tissue things, they can take a little bit of time.

“I’ve had some calf issues before so I knew, potentially, it wasn’t going to be a really quick fix and one week quickly turns into three.”

The 28-year-old revealed she was close to putting her hand up the week prior, but was ultimately held back with Fremantle facing the lowly Greater Western Sydney to secure a spot in the top eight.

Despite being a “terrible watcher”, Miller admits waiting an extra week was “the right choice”.

“It was just not quite at that level that I felt confident enough to get through an entire game,” she said.

“I trust our medical staff so much and they were instilling the confidence in me that when it’s ready to go and we say that ‘it’s ready to go’, you’re going to be fine.

“You’ve just got to trust the process sometimes and as much as I really wanted to be out there (against the Giants) and I would have done anything to get out there, it was the right choice to have another week.”

The club sewed up a finals berth with a comfortable 30-point win over the Giants before Miller returned, predominantly as a forward, to help defeat the Dogs at Fremantle Oval on Sunday, with a home elimination final already secured.

Despite the setback, Miller conceded she had been fortunate across her career to date, given she had only missed one game, back in 2019, since she made her debut for the Dockers.

“To go 77 games without missing (more than) one through injury, it was probably about my time,” Miller said.