AS A YOUNG child, Joshua Toy preferred watching footy videos to episodes of Play School. He idolised the mercurial talents of James Hird playing for his beloved Bombers, dreaming of one day himself pulling on a guernsey for an AFL club.

A member of the AIS/AFL Academy squad, Toy’s primary focus has long been football. AFL Youth and High Performance Co-ordinator Jason McCartney described his playing attributes as outstanding. But perhaps the most honourable of Toy’s achievements to date is receiving the Ben Mitchell Medal at the end of the AIS squad tour of South Africa last month.

Named in memory of a former AIS squad member who tragically lost his life in a car accident on his way to training in 2002, the medal is awarded to a player who shows exceptional personal qualities.

“[Ben] seemed like not just an all-round footballer, but a really great guy to be around,” Toy says.

“Being voted by my peers for that award was very humbling and I was really rapt and humbled by taking it out.”

Past recipients have all gone on to play football at the highest level. Toy says to join the ranks of former medallists Garry Moss (Hawthorn), David Myers (Essendon), Jack Grimes (Melbourne) and Jack Ziebell (North Melbourne) is a huge honour. While he hopes to follow in their footsteps, the year 11 student is conscious of taking his football career one step at a time, with studies at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar high on his list of priorities.

“It’s important to not think too far forward because if you get ahead of yourself you might fall on your face,” Toy says.

A half-back flanker with a penetrating kick, Toy showed impressive athleticism playing with the AIS squad.

“He played extremely well against Williamstown,” McCartney says of the warm-up match before their tour to South Africa.

“We played him full-back, he played on Scott Welsh, a premiership player and senior player with the [Western] Bulldogs, and he just played extremely well.”

While Toy falls in the eligible age bracket for recruitment to the Gold Coast through 2010 draft concessions – being born between January 1 and April 30, 1992 – he says that possibility is a distant thought as he looks to playing out the year with the Calder Cannons and Vic Metro under-18s.

Adopting a cliché that says he will fit into the world of AFL just fine, Toy says he will take it “one week at a time”.