A member of the 2007 and 2009 Cats premiership teams, Milburn played 292 games in 16 years at the Club. The All-Australian defender joined Adelaide’s coaching panel last October after good friend and ex-Geelong teammate Brenton Sanderson was appointed senior coach.
Sanderson, Milburn and Opposition Analyst Rob Harding, who also crossed from the Cats at the end of last year, helped orchestrate Adelaide’s 50-point win over the reigning premiers at AAMI Stadium in round seven. But this week’s clash at Simonds Stadium will be Milburn and Sanderson’s first trip back to the hostile venue in Crows colours.
“It’s going to be a bit weird,” Milburn told FIVEaa.
“I still keep in touch with the Geelong players. Now, coaching against them I obviously know a few things about them. In round seven, we were able to get on top of them early and put them away.
“Knowing how well they play at Simonds Stadium, it’s going to be a very hard match. It’s a reasonably long ground, but short on the wings. There’s a tricky breeze down there sometimes as well, so if you don’t play there that often it can be a tough ground to win at.”
The Cats responded to their critics and sent a warning to the rest of the competition with a 67-point demolition of fellow finals fancies Essendon last Friday night. Geelong will be bolstered by the return of Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel, who has served a two-match suspension, and possibly also James Podsiadly (ankle) and David Wojcinski (hamstring) for the match against Adelaide.
The Crows will regain leading goalkicker Taylor Walker from suspension. Milburn said he expected a tough game against his former team.
“I know them pretty well, and with the quality of people and players they have around the club, you can never write them off,” he said.
"They’ve done it for a long time … and they showed on Friday night they’ve still got plenty of fight. They’ll be a difficult match up.”
Milburn is in charge of the Crows defence, which has undergone a significant change in personnel in the past two seasons. A favourite for the NAB Rising Star, Daniel Talia has held down a key-position in only his third year at the Club, while veteran Brent Reilly is enjoying a career-best season at half-back.
“It’s been fantastic,” Milburn said of the development of the Club’s young defenders.
“We’ve got some experienced blokes down there in ‘Truck’ (Ben Rutten) and ‘Dogga’ (Michael Doughty), but the young boys coming through like Sam Shaw, Daniel Talia, Brodie Smith and even David Mackay, who has been down there at times, has been really good.
“Their form has been a real bonus for us.”
