His father, Geoff Miles, played the last season of his league career with the Cats in 1992 after having tallied more than 100 games with Collingwood and West Coast. His sister's boyfriend is Geelong premiership player Mitch Duncan.

So the irony of being drafted by Hawthorn, Geelong's great modern nemesis, certainly hasn't been lost on him.

He's been at all those epics between the Hawks and Cats, and still remembers vividly Geelong's loss by just five points in the 2013 preliminary final. "A pretty crap feeling," he recalls.

But the opportunity to forge an AFL career of his own transcends emotional attachments. And so as Miles took his first steps as a Hawk on Monday alongside fellow draftees Daniel Howe and Marc Pittonet, the brown and gold was already coursing through his veins.

"It's a dream come true. Every young player would want to be at a club like Hawthorn, and I'm just stoked to be here," said Miles, a defensive midfielder taken at selection No. 49 by the Hawks.

That was one pick before the same club plumped for Pittonet, the first genuine ruckman taken at last Thursday's draft. The Hawks' first pick, Howe, is a tall midfield option who has played much of his football off half-back.

Miles watched the draft unfold on his own in his room while the rest of his family looked on elsewhere. "When my name got read out, everyone was jumping around and very happy," he said.

Miles' father has been a constant in his football education. "He's been there every game this year and always given me plenty of advice, not always positive, but I cope with the negative feedback and learn from that," he said.

Pittonet, like his new teammates, was still coming to grips with the prospect of training alongside some of the AFL's very best.

"Obviously it's a bit daunting when you've got players like Luke Hodge and Jarryd Roughead there, but when there's the ability to learn off them, you figure there's nowhere else you'd want to be," he said.

Pittonet has plenty of available ruck mentors in Ben McEvoy, David Hale and Jonathon Ceglar. "It's only one day in, but already I'm really learning a lot," he said. "I'm actually the same weight as McEvoy, but just looking at him compared to me I can see he's got a few more years in the gym, so I've got a lot of work to do."

His ruck game has been modelled on both the bullocking of Greater Western Sydney's Shane Mumford and the round-the-ground work of Adelaide's Sam Jacobs. "I'm a physically aggressive type of ruckman, but I like Jacobs and how he impacts around the ground, so I try to get a combination of those two aspects."

For 19-year-old Howe, meanwhile, last Thursday's draft was second time lucky after having missed out in 2013, that disappointment in the back of his mind until he finally heard his name called out.

"There's always doubts there, but you've just got to think positive and put your best foot forward," he said. "To miss out last year was disappointing, but I put all my focus on to this year and I'm really grateful for the opportunity. I was pretty surprised on draft night, but I'm really excited to be here and I can't wait to get into it."