In a headline week for the code in NSW, the Sydney born and raised graduate of the Swans Academy joined the likes of Adam Goodes, Nathan Buckley and Nick Riewoldt on a star-studded honour roll. The red-hot l favourite was the top pick of nine of the 10 judges, beating the Western Bulldogs' pint-sized midfielder Caleb Daniel and last year's No.1 draft pick Jacob Weitering, of Carlton.

Despite playing very little football last year, Mills has become an automatic fixture in the Swans' team that claimed this year's minor premiership and will start the finals as favourites for the flag. And he has done so playing as a defender after spending much of his junior career in the midfield.

Mills is the third Swan to win the award, inaugurated in 1993, joining Dan Hannebery and Goodes. The list of Rising Star winners is a who's who of contemporary football, with past winners including Brownlow medallists Buckley and Ben Cousins, and premiership-winning captains Sam Mitchell and Joel Selwood. The Swans' list manager Kinnear Beatson believes Mills, 19, will fit right into this elite company in time.

"If you use the past winners as a guide, they don't often get this wrong, most of the players on here are very good," Beatson told Fairfax Media. "There's a lot of Brownlow medallists, club captains, who knows? Don't put a limit on him, that's what I'd say about Callum."

Mills' success will be seen as a major victory for the game in Sydney and vindication for the controversial academies held by the four clubs in NSW and Queensland.

Mills played his first competitive game aged 12 as a fill-in for an under-13s team part-coached by Swans chairman and family friend Andrew Pridham. As he has done in his debut season of league football, he starred in his first game against older players and was judged best afield. He was introduced to the Swans Academy by coach Mark Drinkwater before flourishing into one of the best young players in the country.

Whiz kid: Callum Mills (right). Photo: Getty Images

Beatson defended the Swans Academy, which has been heavily criticised by chiefs of Victorian clubs who perceive it as an unfair advantage for the northern states, as it had provided Mills, who also played rugby as a child, with a pathway to the elite level. He could otherwise have been lost to the game, Beatson said.

"It's so annoying when you hear people trying to pot northern academies," Beatson said. "None of them have bothered to watch the volume of work that's been done.

"With us, there's a lot of work to go into finding a special talent like Callum or Isaac [Heeney]. There's a lot of kids who go through that system who do not end up at AFL clubs but they go back out in the AFL community as players, coaches and, in time, administrators. With 18 clubs, trust me, we need to grow the talent pool. We don't need to be shrinking it."

Mills said the 360-degree dimension of the code won him over from rugby. adding: "In rugby, I used to kick the ball too much so my coach used to get angry. I thought AFL was the game for me."

Mills paid tribute to the Swans for helping him make the transition into defence in his debut season.

"There's a lot of resources around me that I can feed off," said Mills, who is a massive fan of John Longmire. "It's pretty much spoon-fed to you. All you have to do is open your mouth."

Remarkably, Mills was not nominated until round 16 - the latest for any winner. It has proven adequate consolation for missing his brother's wedding in the US that weekend.