Gryan Miers knows his right knee could let him down at any moment and end his AFL premiership dream.
But the deep-thinking Geelong playmaker has never been scared of failure.
Miers has been playing with a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) since April, when he opted against surgery to keep his season alive.
"I left the surgeon's office, sold that I was going for surgery in probably two or three days," Miers said ahead of Friday's semi-final against Fremantle at Optus Stadium.
Miers returned to Geelong and got different opinions.
"They just said, 'oh, let's just give it a week or two. It won't really affect the recovery' because at that time it wouldn't have affected until next season," Miers said.
"So I'm like, 'alright, we'll give it a week or two. I've got the confidence that it can work - it's more if I should.'
"And then once I made the decision to give it a day or two, I went 'nah, screw it, I'm playing'.
"I'm willing to fail with the opportunity to succeed.
"So I'm really happy with the route I've taken: that if it goes wrong, and it still might, but that could be for different reasons, that could be because we just lose, I play bad, or another injury - that I'm okay with that because I think I've made the right decision."
Miers consulted with around 30 people in the three days between receiving his scan results and deciding not to have surgery, including knee surgeons, physiotherapists and a local chiropractor.
The 2022 premiership forward appreciated coach Chris Scott, who was publicly cagey around Miers' injury, giving him space to work through it.
While Miers' injury is technically a partial ACL tear, the medical focus is around whether the ligament is functioning.
"I don't know what's functioning and what's not, but it's working for me," he said.
"So I'm not that worried about what it all says on the scans, as long as my knee's working each week."
Miers returned via the VFL, played four senior games then was managed out of the Cats' AFL team amid issues with form, injury and confidence.
But Miers had "a blast" in VFL games that sharpened him for finals.
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Fresh off 24 disposals and two goals in Geelong's elimination final against Carlton, it's felt worth it.
"I've really enjoyed the year, even though it's been really challenging at times for different factors and different reasons," Miers said.
"I've leant on the resilience that I've built in the past, and once I go out there, just enjoy the ride, and it's more of a blessing that I'm out there than it is that I'm scared to go out there and get re-injured.
"The longer it can stay good, the longer I'm getting more confidence from it, and hopefully I can keep building that."
And come season's end, Miers has no plans of surgery.
"It'll be a discussion, but I hope not," Miers said.
"That's not the plan."
