The 15-year-old is not only on the radar of the Greater Western Sydney Giants, but he is fast establishing himself as one of their most promising players.

And not only is Johnston a member of the GWS academy, but he is a year younger than everyone else in the side.

He was recognised for his ability when he was awarded a $2500 Carbine Club of NSW Sports Development Scholarship recently at a lunch that was attended by greats of several sports.

“It was through the [GWS] academy that I got selected. Our manager Lachlan Buzzard consulted and they came up with a winner. I was lucky enough to be that person,” Johnston said.

“The presentation was really nice, it was a nice surprise. Kevin Sheedy was there and all the CEOs and administrators as well as some high profile people from other sports.”

Johnston is well known in Bathurst for his ability in several sports including cricket and athletics, but he admits that now AFL is the code he is leaning towards making a career out of.

The Bathurst Bushrangers junior made it through an exhaustive selection process to be picked in the Giants academy team for this year. They have already won the first of three games they will have against a Swans academy team.

“There were about 60 kids who went to a camp at Silverwater. They were picked from 150 who were at Albury. Then there were about 40 of us who stayed at Kings for a couple of days then we played our first game against the Swans on that Friday,” Johnston said.

“We had a win, we beat them about 87-50. Hopefully we can keep that going in the following games.”

As an underage player, Johnston is eligible for selection again next year and already his goal is to do enough to ensure he is there again. From there he would like to push for selection in a NSW team that goes away to national titles.

“Next year I will be the right age for this, so hopefully I can get selected again,” he said.

“I want to do all the testing and the camps again and see if I can make it into the [NSW/ACT] Rams, that’s a goal of mine.

“It’s been a fantastic experience. The coaching and the camps have been so good.”

Already Johnston has earned selection in one state team – the NSW All Schools CHS side that will play in the All Schools Championships in Adelaide in two weeks.

The Saint Stanislaus’ student knows that winning will be a hard task, but is keen to go down there, play his best football and help the team into a good position.

“I think we do have a really good side this year, but Western Australia and Victoria Metro are a step above everyone else really. We play South Australia first up, so that will be a good opportunity to see how we compare,” he said.

Despite having a busy schedule, Johnston plays for the Bathurst Bushrangers under 17s every week and when time allows, he also plays in the Under 16s Division One Sydney Harbour competition.

His Baulkham Hills club was recommended to him by the Giants and he said the extra competition is paying dividends for his game.

He hopes that it will help him in his goal to play in the AFL.

“I play with he Bushies every week and on the weeks we are at home, I also travel down to Sydney and play for Baulkham Hills. That’s just to get a bit more hard footy. It’s a very good quality,” he said.

“It’s about three years before I’m eligible to put myself into the national draft, so I have to increase my fitness and hopefully I can keep growing and we’ll see from there.

“It’s getting down to the business end now.”