He was one of seven Lions to score a goal in the match, which ended in a 76-73 win by Collingwood, who had 12 AFL-listed players on their team.

Jonty said he thoroughly enjoyed the high standard of the game.

"There's a lot of good footballers in that league - very quick, very skilful," he said. "It was pretty surreal to be playing against people like Ben Reid, who's been an AFL All-Australian before."

His girlfriend, parents and two younger brothers came along to watch and mum Rebecca said they are enormously proud of what Jonty has achieved so far.

"It was so exciting watching him make his debut and seeing how much he has grown as a footballer," Rebecca said. "All his hard work and determination made us so proud."

Jonty began his junior football career with the Bellingen Bulldogs before moving to Sawtell Toormina Saints to start playing senior footy.

In 2015, with a string of championship titles covering athletics, cross country and cricket, he was named the shire's Junior Sportsperson of the Year at the Australia Day awards, 

His citation noted that: "Jonty's favourite sport, however, is AFL Football, and to pursue this avenue he has to find opportunities outside the school environment, which he does."

The Neaves family moved to Bendigo in 2016, which allowed Jonty to continue his climb up the footy ranks.

An outstanding 2018 season in the Bendigo League, where he was a member of the representative side and won best on ground honours in Eaglehawk's premiership victory, led to Jonty being signed to play for the Coburg Lions in the VFL, which is one level below the AFL.

Coburg's GM Sebastian Spagnuolo has described him as "a courageous, competitive and agile player that can play forward and also in the ruck with his great leap".

Jonty now has a very full schedule, balancing his commitment to VFL training three afternoons a week and hopefully a game each weekend, studying Exercise and Sports Science full-time at RMIT, and supplementing his match payments with his casual job at an RSL Club.

"Playing footy, going to uni, and working at the RSL. So it's full-on, not much time left," he said.