The majority of teens spend their final year of high school stressing about life after grade 12; unsure of their future plans, devoid of direction.

Not Cain Tickner.

The 17 year-old’s career path is as clear as a mid-summers day at one of his local Noosa beaches.

During early July, while his Sunshine Beach High School peers were enjoying a three week respite from schooling, Tickner was busy ensuring his footballing future.

Tickner, who’s similar in size and playing style to West Coast star Jack Darling, was a standout for Queensland as a bottom-aged player at the U18 AFL Championships in Blacktown.

His performance was highlighted by an opening round best-on-ground showing which led his State to their first ever win over traditional powerhouse Western Australia.

The youngster’s school holidays were capped off with the Brisbane Lions endorsing him for an extended AFL Club agreement for 2012 and 2013.

Fast-forward a fortnight and Tickner lined up for his first taste of senior Aussie Rules, playing for the Lions Reserves against the Gold Coast last weekend.

Tickner collected 10 disposals, three marks and a goal on debut, a showing he deemed to be “pretty alright for a first go”.

Despite his encouraging opening effort, the 193cm forward/midfielder noticed a marked step-up in intensity from junior football.

“The bodies are a lot bigger and stronger and the contests tougher; it’s much more physical than juniors,” Tickner explains.

“You need to go a lot harder at the ball, you can’t just always get easy kicks and outside ball, you’ve really got to earn it.”

While many teens shirk pitting themselves against grown men, the 89kg Tickner relished the hard-hitting nature of NEAFL football.

“Even though it was hard going, I loved it,” Tickner enthuses.

“Hopefully I can keep getting games, I’d definitely prefer that [NEAFL] over playing eighteen’s. I reckon it’ll be better for my development to get more senior footy under my belt too.”

The curly-haired kid’s development thus far has been heavily governed by the Hyundai Lions Academy; a system Tickner was hand-picked for at age 11.

He’s the first Academy junior to be signed to the scholarship-type program with Brisbane; a major step towards him being recruited with a priority selection before the 2013 AFL National Draft.

Tickner says he’s ‘absolutely stoked’ to be the inaugural scholarship signing, and attributes a lot of his improvement over the last six years to the Academy.

“The Lions Academy has been great for me; it’s a lot higher standard of training and footy compared to club,” says Tickner, who first pulled on the boots as a six-year-old.

“You learn a lot about diet and nutrition and how to look after your body too which is helpful; they really prepare you for U 18s, nationals, and hopefully moving on to AFL.”

After finishing school in early November Tickner plans to move to Brisbane and get stuck in to training.

He wants to do as much of the pre-season as possible with the Lions, and aims to pack on muscle to “compete better with the bigger bodies” and build up his aerobic capacity so he can “get a run in the midfield if needed”.

After a hard summer on the training track, Tickner reckons he’d like to play the 2013 season in the Lions’ Reserves before hopefully being picked up in the Draft.

Encouragingly for Lions fans, Tickner has the full support of his football-mad family behind him.

“My whole family’s very happy with me following my dreams with footy,” Tickner says.

“Even though I’m very young they’re really encouraging me to move to Brisbane and they’re very excited about my future.”

“They’re looking forward to hopefully seeing me in Lions colours at the Gabba in the next couple of years!”