Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks expects Wayne Milera Junior to one day be a leader at the Club.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Nicks praised Milera’s attitude around the Club and said he only narrowly missed out on the leadership selection in 2020.

“Junior is already leading in his own way, everyone leads a bit differently,” Nicks said.

“Junior does a lot of stuff behind the scenes and connects our group up really well.

“We were close this year to selecting him. We went with five, but Junior was right up there.”

In February, Milera signed a five-year contract extension with the Crows ahead of his fifth season.

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Nicks labelled the 22-year-old a “future star of the game” and applauded the work of Adelaide’s Indigenous players leading up to Round One.

“Tyson Stengle could not have trained any better to put his name up there and say I’m ready to play AFL football,” Nicks said.

“Benny Davis, another who I thought stood up right throughout the pre-season. 

“In fact, without taking favourites, (Davis) was one of our best both on and off the field.

“Coming into Round One, we thought our performances as a team were a bit up and down… but those guys were really solid in how they went about it.”