The Cats’ 2017 draft class already has its fair share of admirers with Tim Kelly proving to be a steal as the Cats’ 24^th pick.

But one young Cat who is flying under the radar is Gryan Miers, who is putting together a superb first season in the blue and white hoops.

The 19-year-old sits atop the list of goalkickers in the Cats’ VFL side and is yet to miss a game, a statistic that Miers is most proud of.

“I don’t want to jinx myself, I’ve never missed a game through injury or illness, so I’m trying to keep that going,” he said.

“I like playing week by week, I don’t really like byes, it slows me down a little bit, so I’ll play as much as I can.”

Despite the composition of the VFL side changing on a weekly basis, Miers has been able to lock down in the role as the team’s high-pressure small forward.

“I’ve stayed in the same role since round one which is really good and comfortable for me, so I know what I’m doing each week and what I can provide for the team,” he said.

“I started the season off a bit uncomfortable and didn’t really know my role too much but the longer the season’s gone I’ve just really adapted to it and know what I’m doing out there.”

Miers is up there with the leading tacklers in the VFL side and has racked up over five tackles on four separate occasions, including 10 against Essendon in round seven.

“The forward pressure will give me the ball from there and just brings others into the game too and helps the defenders down the ground,” Miers said.

“I look at the tackles straight after the game and see how I went in that regard.”

Whilst he prides his game on pressure acts, goalkicking is another aspect of Miers’ repertoire that continues to develop.

After a 50-goal season at TAC Cup level in 2017, Miers came to the Cats full of confidence but after some wayward kicking early in VFL the season, he sought help to get back on track.

“I was very confident going into the year, but I had a few hiccups that hurt it, I went back and did some work with Daniel Menzel and James Rahilly,” Miers said.

“Recently I’ve been kicking well so I’ll just use that as confidence to go further.

"With his own form trending upwards, the young forward already has one eye on finals football with the Cats sitting third on the VFL ladder and only four matches left in the season.

Miers believes that playing finals will be important for his development and he has already benefitted from experiencing games against high quality sides during the home and away season.

“(Against Casey) it was pretty much a replica of a finals game, it shows how much pressure there is and that’s the pressure pretty much every week at AFL level,” Miers said.

“I need to be in those situations if I’m going to take it to the next level, to learn from those.”

The Cats sit at 10 wins for 2018 and their four losses have come at a combined margin of only 16 points so there is excitement building amongst the young players with finals around the corner.

“We know we’re good enough, we know if we play our best footy we can be up there with the best sides,” Miers said.

The VFL Cats will have a bye in round 17 before facing ladder leaders Richmond the following week.