The 19-year-old glides so effortlessly across the turf it brings to mind Winx in the straight, whether he's kicking up pristine Sir Walter at WIN Stadium, or dust at Reed Park.

It's all the same to the Dapto product, who this week inked a contract extension keeping him at the Dragons until the end of 2024.

The deal elevates him to the top 30, something that was fait accompli given he's all but certain to don the No. 1 jumper come round one.

It comes after the club moved on another local junior in Matt Dufty, who occupied, but never quite locked down, the jersey in five top-grade seasons.

In many ways, his predecessor provides a cautionary tale. Few junior stars came more highly touted than Dufty, but his time in the NRL has been roller coaster.

Stepping into the fullback spot hot on those heels would weigh heavily on most teenagers but, as his answer to that question reveals, Sloan is not like most teenagers.

"I think pressure for me is a lot different to other people," Sloan said.

"Growing up, pressure was not knowing where my next meal was coming from or where I'm going to sleep that night. At the end of the day, footy's just a game to me and I love having fun.

"As far as the responsibility of wearing the number one, I'm just going to try and have as much fun as I can, help the team win and get it back to where it needs to be playing finals footy."

Given the way they finished the season, it's easy enough to forget that Sloan and best mate Talatau Amone in fact started the season at SG Ball level.

They were subsequently drip fed NRL action over the latter part of the season, with Sloan not playing back to back games until the final two rounds of the season.

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It was to the chagrin of a large section of fans who wanted to see more of them, but Sloan's aware 25 straight weeks of an NRL campaign is a much taller order.

"I'm not really sure how to answer that because I've only played a few games against men," he said.

"With the responsibility of the club putting faith in me, it's something I just have to [handle]. There's no getting away from it, I've just got to do it.

"It's going to be a challenge but that's something I love to take on. There's been a lot of challenges through my whole career and it's just another one I need to meet."

He joins the likes of Amone, Jayden Sullivan and Mat and Max Feagai in committing to the club long-term.

So high are the hopes for that particular Steelers junior class, barely a story is written about one of them without mentioning the others.

"Sully and the twins re-signing was a very big thing for myself," Sloan said.

"Junz (Amone) and I always talked about coming together through the grades. That's all we wanted to see. We all wanted to come through together.

"We're happy to be able to still be together at this young age and hopefully we can all progress through and play some first grade footy.

"It was a pretty easy decision [to re-sign]. It's home, my Nan's here, my family's down here, my mates are all down here playing footy with me.

"There's security there being top 30 as well and I want to repay the faith the club put in me from an early age."

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