Fifteen-year-old Joel Garner devotes four nights a week to football training, countless hours reviewing footy tapes and in his spare time he studies to maintain his scholarship at Melbourne's prestigious Scotch College.
His father, Glen Garner, said the moment Joel began playing Australian Rules Football, there was no turning back.
"Joel's always had a ball in his hands, he's been playing football and right from the word go, that's all he wanted to do was play football," he said.
Joel was a standout in the Victoria Kickstart Team - an Indigenous program run by the AFL - and captain of the national under-15's squad, the Flying Boomerangs. His skill and work ethic has the AFL recruiters paying attention. Joel is pushing for selection in the Vic Metro squad this year, and said his dream is to make the 2017 draft.
"I want to get to the top I want to get to the AFL level one day but if that doesn't happen then I want to be the best I can be and get the most out of myself while I can still play."
Victoria AFL Indigenous Programs Director Aaron Clark said he doesn't like to talk about the draft, but it's certain that big things are in Joel's future if he continues to work as hard as he does.
"Certainly 2017 is going to be an exciting year for Joel and if he keeps on the journey he is on, there's no doubt he'll go a long way in life."
Joel's mother Colleen Garner said her sons involvement with the AFL Indigenous programs has helped improve both his game and his cultural ties. Mrs Garner - a Mara woman from the Northern Territory - said Joel relished the opportunity to meet Indigenous kids living a more traditional lifestyle in outback Australia.
"The Boomerangs program was awesome because the kids come from all over Australia. He learnt so much from some of those boys, some of those boys are still doing hunting so he was just in awe of their stories. It's a great melting pot," she said.
Nine per cent of the AFL roster identify as Indigenous, compared to just 2.5 per cent of the entire Australian population. It's an over-representation that Joel said he's proud of.
"I've learnt a lot about my culture over the past year, it is embedded in me, I feel really strongly about it and I love being Indigenous I love calling myself an Aboriginal."
Aaron Clark said the game is incredibly popular amongst Indigenous populations because AFL is the great leveller.
"AFL still remains after 150 years one of the things that Aboriginal people can play on a level playing field. There's one ball and four goal posts, it's one area where Aboriginal people can prosper on a level playing field."
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