Geelong running machine Gryan Miers is beginning to ‘hit his straps’ according to assistant coach Nigel Lappin after a pre-season interrupted by injury.
An ironman early in his career, Miers played 58 consecutive games for Geelong after debuting in Round 1, 2019 before his extraordinary streak ended in Round 10, 2021.
According to Lappin, Miers’ 20 touch, six tackle and three goal performance on the weekend were signs the livewire small forward has begun to regain confidence in his body after pre-season surgery interrupted his preparation.
“Sometimes when you get surgery early in the season you work really hard to get your fitness back up to a level that you're ready to play and quite often it'll mean you've had 10-12 weeks of really hard training,” Lappin told geelongcats.com.au
“So we decided to manage him (pre-RD10) and just give him a rest and he was able to work for five days on just his craft, his skill, and his running capacity while giving him a break from footy.
“To be able to do that helped him get to work on things that make him confident and he was able to come out and deliver, so we're definitely starting to see Gryan really hit his straps in terms of where his body is at and where he's at physically and aerobically.”
While hitting the scoreboard has always been a feature of his game – his spinning goal out of a pack of Crows in the third quarter was a stunner – it’s Miers’ ability to play multiple roles that makes him such an important player according to Lappin.
“His aerobic capacity and his decision making, are two of his greatest assets,” Lappin said.
“I could add in his skill level, obviously some of the goals on the weekend were pretty impressive, but the beauty of Gryan is that he can play a number of roles.
“He can play all of the running roles that we ask our forwards to do and if we need someone to change up and play on a wing or through the midfield, he's obviously got the capacity to do that.”
The high-half forward role is one of the more difficult roles in modern football to play but a fit and confident Miers has all the attributes to excel and make the Cats an even more difficult proposition in the back half of the season.
“It’s a really difficult role to play because we ask them to be really good in a contest, and when the opposition wins the ball, to hunt them, and try and win the ball back,” he said.
“And if we can't win the ball back early, we ask them to transition into defence and set up our structures and systems as well, and then when we turn the ball over, to get creative and get in dangerous spots forward of the ball.
“Sometimes that's really difficult when they're working back into defence but he does it unbelievably well, his aerobic capacity is huge, his attitude is amazing, and his will to want to work and to be a really good team player is another huge asset of his.”
“He's an incredibly important player to our team.”
