diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.txt
index e58bb6f703b3d..e202bea960e12 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.txt
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 
 
-
+- Bug in using grouper functions that need passed thru arguments (e.g. axis), when using wrapped function (e.g. ``fillna``), (:issue:`9221`)
 
 - DataFrame now properly supports simultaneous ``copy`` and ``dtype`` arguments in constructor (:issue:`9099`)
 - Bug in read_csv when using skiprows on a file with CR line endings with the c engine. (:issue:`9079`)
diff --git a/pandas/core/generic.py b/pandas/core/generic.py
index dd48a470e7dd4..7fa64e0b4ca91 100644
--- a/pandas/core/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/generic.py
@@ -2252,7 +2252,7 @@ def convert_objects(self, convert_dates=True, convert_numeric=False,
     #----------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Filling NA's
 
-    def fillna(self, value=None, method=None, axis=0, inplace=False,
+    def fillna(self, value=None, method=None, axis=None, inplace=False,
                limit=None, downcast=None):
         """
         Fill NA/NaN values using the specified method
@@ -2295,6 +2295,10 @@ def fillna(self, value=None, method=None, axis=0, inplace=False,
                             'you passed a "{0}"'.format(type(value).__name__))
         self._consolidate_inplace()
 
+        # set the default here, so functions examining the signaure
+        # can detect if something was set (e.g. in groupby) (GH9221)
+        if axis is None:
+            axis = 0
         axis = self._get_axis_number(axis)
         method = com._clean_fill_method(method)
 
@@ -2383,12 +2387,12 @@ def fillna(self, value=None, method=None, axis=0, inplace=False,
         else:
             return self._constructor(new_data).__finalize__(self)
 
-    def ffill(self, axis=0, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None):
+    def ffill(self, axis=None, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None):
         "Synonym for NDFrame.fillna(method='ffill')"
         return self.fillna(method='ffill', axis=axis, inplace=inplace,
                            limit=limit, downcast=downcast)
 
-    def bfill(self, axis=0, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None):
+    def bfill(self, axis=None, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None):
         "Synonym for NDFrame.fillna(method='bfill')"
         return self.fillna(method='bfill', axis=axis, inplace=inplace,
                            limit=limit, downcast=downcast)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_groupby.py b/pandas/tests/test_groupby.py
index 039bb2cd599e5..4077f468d8b1f 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_groupby.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_groupby.py
@@ -4322,6 +4322,21 @@ def test_filter_non_bool_raises(self):
         with tm.assertRaisesRegexp(TypeError, 'filter function returned a.*'):
             df.groupby('a').filter(lambda g: g.c.mean())
 
+    def test_fill_constistency(self):
+
+        # GH9221
+        # pass thru keyword arguments to the generated wrapper
+        # are set if the passed kw is None (only)
+        df = DataFrame(index=pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['value1','value2'],
+                                                         date_range('2014-01-01','2014-01-06')]),
+                       columns=Index(['1','2'], name='id'))
+        df['1'] = [np.nan, 1, np.nan, np.nan, 11, np.nan, np.nan, 2, np.nan, np.nan, 22, np.nan]
+        df['2'] = [np.nan, 3, np.nan, np.nan, 33, np.nan, np.nan, 4, np.nan, np.nan, 44, np.nan]
+
+        expected = df.groupby(level=0, axis=0).fillna(method='ffill')
+        result = df.T.groupby(level=0, axis=1).fillna(method='ffill').T
+        assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
     def test_index_label_overlaps_location(self):
         # checking we don't have any label/location confusion in the
         # the wake of GH5375