Gryan Miers on Bailey Smith, Geelong’s forward line and footy’s next generation
Gryan Miers first came across Bailey Smith when he kicked seven goals in a TAC Cup Grand Final. Eight years on, Miers says the Cats are determined to help their high-profile recruit deal with being Geelong’s newest rockstar.
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Gryan Miers couldn’t have made more of an impression on a 16-year-old Bailey Smith when the pair first crossed paths.
It was 2017, and the then-Geelong Falcons forward was a constant in the forwardline on TAC Cup grand final day, his long dreadlocks flinging about the 50m arc as the “Falcs” eventually saluted by just two points over the Sandringham Dragons at Marvel Stadium.
Teenage Smith was a Dragon then, with that day the pair’s first and only meeting until the mulleted midfielder joined the Cats at the end of last season.
“I played on him in the TAC Cup grand final, but that was really the only experience I’d had with him,” Miers told this masthead.
The stats sheet doesn’t lie from that day, but how did Miers rate his performance?
“Pretty well,” he said sheepishly.
“I kicked seven and got best on ground.”
Fast-forward to 2025 and the pair are two faces of a talented new brigade that is taking the reins at the Cattery.
Miers and Smith, the likes of Ollie and Jack Henry, and electric speedster Max Holmes are just a few who enter 2025 with more games, more experience and more maturity under the hood for another tilt at it.
“I think that’s been the ongoing theme at Geelong for the last 20 years,” Miers said.
“We’re all a cog in the whole system and it’s been rotating quite well that each player is in a different time frame for that kind of experience.
“Some people are really good leaders in their second year, but some are really good leaders in their 10th year, and I think Geelong have done that really well. We’ve always had leaders rotating in and out, and great people that make you become a great person once you enter the club.
“It’s been a great pathway. For me, I feel a lot more ready now than I was two or three years ago, when I was in my fifth year, whereas Max is in his fifth year now and I think he’s a ready-made leader.
“It’s been a really good thing that we’ve got that going and different avenues that people lead that makes it easy for us.”
Not much about this week has been easy.
Cyclone Alfred has delayed the Cats’ start to 2025 with the team’s clash with Brisbane – scheduled for Thursday night – officially postponed on Tuesday in a move skipper Patrick Dangerfield admitted would take a mindset adjustment, particularly for young players.
But safety is paramount, particularly for those on the ground in southeast Queensland in coming days.
Miers said on Tuesday that players had been kept in the loop as forecasts continued to come to hand before the ultimate call was made, and that now the process was simple – “back to training for 10 days and prepare for Fremantle” for a Round 1 home game to now start the season.
"It was a wonderful night... the best part was Lambys after!" 😆
— Geelong Cats (@GeelongCats) July 3, 2019
Gryan Miers reflects on his seven goal TAC Cup Grand Final haul ðŸ†#StandProud#WeAreGeelongpic.twitter.com/h0pOKSfoZN
THE BAZ EFFECT
Smith hasn’t played at AFL level since August of 2023 — 564 days ago — having ruptured his ACL at Western Bulldogs training in December of that year.
He missed the entirety of last season, jetting to Europe as he recovered and then requesting a trade to Geelong at the end of the year.
As one of the game’s hottest prospects and spotlight players, skipper Patrick Dangerfield laughed this week that he “hadn’t seen celebrity like it” when Smith arrived in the coastal city.
“You go out for coffee with Baz and traffic just stops in the street,” the captain said on SEN this week.
“I was around when Junior (Gary Ablett Jr) came back to the Cats, and still there’s nothing like what I’ve seen with Bailey.
“I think that would at times be tough to deal with, because you want him to cut his teeth as an AFL player and let your footy do the talking. But we know that the game is bigger than that now and social media has been a big part of that.
“I couldn’t have been more impressed with the way that he’s turned up to training, his attitude towards working hard and wanting to be the best possible player he can be. We’re really excited with what he can bring to our team as a line-breaker and that’s important in the game.”
Miers echoes his captain, with both noting Smith’s long absence from the game and how mindful his teammates and the club are of that.
But a social media following of some 350,000 and an ability to stop traffic on Pakington Street aside, Miers said “being a good Geelong person” is what matters.
“We’ve had Jezza (Cameron), Isaac Smith, Bailey, Danger if you go back a few years — they’ve all come in with high profiles,” he said.
“Obviously Bailey’s as big as it gets, but he’s just another teammate to us and I think that was the big part that we wanted to show him, is that we’re all the same. We’re all going through the same things on field and off field, and he’s just going to be a part of our team and he didn’t need to do anything out of the ordinary to come in and take the spotlight.
“He’s just going to come in as a good player and a good Geelong person, and that’s all we want and expect from him.
“I hope he feels the same way, that he’s just comfortable being himself, and that there’s no pressure on him to do anything out of the ordinary apart from just wanting to win football games and be a good person.”
With flashy white headband in tow, 24-year-old Smith showed a glimpse of just what he is made of at a practice match at GMHBA Stadium against Hawthorn a fortnight ago, linking with the likes of Holmes in the midfield and Miers up forward in a sign of what could be to come.
It’s an accessory Miers declares he originated — but copped plenty more stick for.
“I bought that one, actually, eight years ago, but (teammate) Tom Atkins got stuck into me for it,” he laughs.
“I was going, ‘why aren’t you getting stuck into Bailey?!’. And he said ‘yeah, you didn’t look as good as Bailey’, so I thought that was completely fair enough.”
CAT ATTACK
Coach Chris Scott has forecast Dangerfield playing out of the goalsquare at times this season as the Cats forwardline enters its post-Tom Hawkins era, with Miers, Brad Close, Ollie Henry, Tyson Stengle and Shannon Neale set to combine with Coleman medallist Jeremy Cameron in attack.
And Miers can’t wait.
“I think our forwardline is one of the most damaging in the league, and adding Danger to that really makes those really awkward match-ups to opposition defenders,” he said.
“I think the flow-on effect of helping the rest of us will be great for all of us, and when you’re trying to figure out a match-up for Jezza, and you’ve look to the right and you’ve got Danger there, and then Ollie’s kicking a few and Shannon’s bobbing up … and Tyson’s sitting there too.
GRYAN MIERS. STOP IT.#AFLCatsLionspic.twitter.com/s6bVyRh0Oy
— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 21, 2024
“I think those match-ups are going to be really hard for oppositions to figure out.
“It might be a bit of a tough start for us, because once you’ve all played together you’ll find a bit of continuity. But I’m very excited for it.”
EYE FOR NEXT GEN
If you thought you saw Miers in the Cats’ draft night war room, you weren’t wrong.
The forward has a penchant for young talent, and is eyeing a life in recruiting or football administration once his days in the boots are done.
He’s watched Under 18 championships with the experts, and attended the draft combine and will soon complete a 100-hour university placement within the list department.
“I’ve done a little bit, a little taste of different areas that will hopefully improve my sight of recruiting and list management but there’s more to come and more to expand on for me, for sure,” he said.
“I absolutely love it. I’m always doing work with the coaches or the recruiting team or anything that I can get my hands on within the club.
“I just find it really fun, and hopefully that’s my life now and post-footy.”
Originally published as Gryan Miers on Bailey Smith, Geelong’s forward line and footy’s next generation
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