ASSISTANT coach Corey Enright has praised mercurial first-year forward Gryan Miers’ willingness to stand up and take his opportunities when called upon.
Enright says Miers has played to a level higher than he had dared to hope for when the goalsneak was named as a surprise Round One selection.
“You never go in with too much expectation, especially with a first-year player,” Enright says.
“The thing with Gryan is every time we give him an opportunity he takes it. He works really hard at is game and his pre-season was outstanding – that’s half the reason why we gave him a chance early in the season. “
“To his credit he’s taken every chance and he’s looked at the level every game that he’s played. He’s looked to improve and take his game to the next level.”
Miers has returned to form in the previous two weeks, booting five goals after a lean patch saw him kick just one goal from Rounds 15 to 19.
“I think in his last couple of weeks in particular he’s got back to playing some really good footy. He’s important to how we want to play,” Enright says.
“Obviously when you’re playing your first year of full footy it can take its toll at times but he’s got the ability to focus and refocus on what he needs to do during the week and within games to give himself a chance to perform on the weekend.”
“His ability to understand what he needs to do every week to get himself right is pretty professional for such a young age.”
As well as hitting the scoreboard, Miers has utilised his elite aerobic running ability to pile on the pressure and continue working for his teammates offensively.
“It’s a nice thing to have up your sleeve late in the game – to have that ability and faith in your running capabilities to continue to push and grind and find those spaces and keep working,” Enright says.
He’s a really good athlete and it’s obviously his strength and he knows he needs to use that within games.
He had a few rundown tackles (against the Lions) and stayed in the game with that so his ability to keep the ball in our area and also take his chances was great.
Along with the others in Dahlhaus, Ablett and Atkins, I thought their ability to chase and pressure and put some pressure on the ball coming out was pretty good.
