Shepparton United jet Kaedyn Napier is only just getting started in Goulburn Valley League

With 35 goals in 2024, the fifth-best tally in the competition, Napier has thrived from an individual perspective during his first full year at full-forward despite United only scraping together two wins.

Anyone watching him would think he’s played the position his whole career.

The 21-year-old looks ready made for inside the arc, taking hangers and slotting with laserlike precision game after game.

But where did Napier’s football story start?

“I started off my juniors at Mooroopna footy club because I lived over in Mooroopna and went to school at St Mary’s,” he said.

“I played thirds there and then my top age I made the move over to United just purely based on having really close friends going to Notre who played for United.

“That’s the reason why I moved here, that’s where it started from and I’ve been playing here ever since.”

Since 2020, Napier has been a glove-fit at Deakin Reserve.

However, he said there was no shortage of raised eyebrows when he did decide to move from one side of the Midland Hwy to the other.

In his final year at the Cats, Mooroopna’s under-18s had made it through to the preliminary final where it just lost out to a Seymour side featuring Sam Durham, and the side's future looked promising.

“It was very tough and a lot of people sort of took it the wrong way when I did leave,” he said.

“They all thought it was personal, but it definitely wasn’t anything like that, it was purely friend based. It was a hard decision, but we got there in the end.

“I’ve been loving it (at United); it’s such a young club and there’s so many close friendships — everyone is pretty much best mates.

“Our oldest player this year is 24 or 25 I think, so we’re young as. It’s just a massive young group and we bond so well.”

United clearly has one of the greenest teams in the league.

However, without the commodity money can’t buy — experience — wins can often be tough to come by.

It also means Napier has explored a whole variety of roles since arriving at the Demons.

“My first few years at United I was playing everywhere; my second year in seniors I was playing ruck pretty much the whole year, so that was tough,” he said.

“I started off back last year and then made a move forward, but I had a personal tragedy in my family last year, so I only played about eight or nine games.

“This year I started fresh up forward with ‘Huey’ (Duane Hueston) throwing me up there and I’ve been loving it ever since.”

Napier’s game has elevated to a new level since he transitioned into the forward line.

This season, according to GVL Data, the United gunslinger ranks elite in many per-game averages including marks (6.3), marks inside 50 (3.7), goals (2.5) and score involvements (6.8).

When asked why he thinks he’s slotted so well into United’s attack, Napier couldn’t take all the credit for himself.

“I play with a few handy half-forwards — Ed Adams and Liam Serra — which helps very much, they do a fair bit of work up the ground kicking me the ball,” he said.

“But I sort of feel like I’m a smart mover down there and I can open up space and get to spots which has been easy.”

Sure, he’s got some handy teammates to lace him up.

But in Napier’s eyes, who’s the trickiest defender he’s played on?

“My hardest match up I reckon would probably have been Jack Lear from Mooroopna,” he said.

“He always does a number on me, he’s very hard to play on. He’s a very touchy defender, loves the arm bar across — he’s always pretty hard to play on.”

If he continues on his current trajectory, Napier will have a long and prosperous career in the game — filled with tough tussles — ahead of him.

From debuting in his bottom age year for the Murray Bushrangers in the V/Line Cup alongside Adelaide’s Josh Rachele, an experience he ranks highly, to now having a breakout year in front of the sticks in 2024, Napier has aspirations of making it big.

But for now, he just wants to “keep doing my thing”.

“I would definitely like to go to the city side, I definitely aspire to do that if VFL opportunities did come to arise,” he said.

“I’d love to try and do that stuff, but I want to get content playing here doing my thing in the country and hopefully an opportunity arises out of that.

“I’m trying to get up the ground a bit more and sneak a few goals, which has been good.

“As a team, though (against Benalla), we played pretty well with probably our best disposal-efficient game of the year.

“Hopefully we can drag that on in the next couple of weeks and just see how we go.”