Mitch Toner didn't see it coming early in the year. By Tuesday afternoon, he had a phone call that changed his week.
The Dandenong Stingrays forward had spent the Talent League bye periods training alongside Williamstown, using the downtime to put himself in the shop window. It paid off quicker than he expected.
"I found out on Tuesday — Plappy (Justin Plapp), the Williamstown coach, gave me a buzz and said, 'come train with us, I want to play you this week,'" Toner told Zero Hanger.
A powerfully built medium forward listed at 186cm, Toner has become a genuine focal point inside Dandenong's forward 50 this year, using his strength at stoppages to break tackles and finish off the football himself rather than simply setting up teammates.
Having already finished school, he's also playing out a full Talent League campaign this year, giving him the runway to chase opportunities like this one while some of his 2026 draft classmates juggle it around Year 12.
It capped off a build-up that had been quietly taking shape for weeks.
Toner had done a pre-season with the Seagulls and used his bye rounds at the Stingrays to continue training with the VFL club, hoping to show he could translate his form up a level.
"I thought it'd be a good idea to put my name up for selection at VFL, to try and show I can still play the way I play at the Stingrays," he said.
Even so, it wasn't something he'd banked on early in the year.
"If you'd asked me at the start of the season, I wouldn't have thought I'd play VFL," Toner said. "But it's kind of been in the back of my mind the last six to eight weeks."
The turnaround has coincided with a broader shift in his footy.
Toner missed a significant chunk of last season with a serious hamstring injury, and admits he spent the opening months of 2026 searching for the consistency and impact he was after.
"I probably wasn't playing as consistently as I wanted to at the start of the year, or having the same impact I feel like I'm having now," he said.
"I missed a lot of footy last year with a pretty bad hamstring injury, and I think I've just been finding my way since then, putting a few pieces of the puzzle together."
Toner also missed selection in this year's Vic Country squad, but rather than let it derail his season, he's kept producing at Stingrays level regardless — a three-goal, eight-shot outing against the GWV Rebels among his more eye-catching displays, alongside a 21-disposal, three-goal performance against Geelong Falcons in June.
Even with his form on the rise, Toner is not satisfied.
"I still don't think I've hit my best," he said. "There's still a lot of improvement to come."
Part of that has come from rethinking how he judges his own footy altogether.
"I needed to change how I measured my performance," Toner said. "It's not disposals, it's not how many touches — for me it's more about how many inside 50s I get, how many times I try to create a score or kick a goal myself.
Quality over quantity. If I have five touches, I want it to lead to five goals."
That mindset — being dangerous and hard to play on rather than accumulating the footy — has become the measuring stick he now holds himself to.
Family has played a part in shaping that outlook too. Toner's older brother, Jack, is in his sixth season at Williamstown and was one of the club's vice-captains this year, having been recruited from the same Dandenong system Mitch has come through.
"We're pretty different players, but he's probably had the biggest impact on my footy so far," Toner said. "Missing out on [Vic] Country, going to him for advice — the same sort of thing happened with him, he was kind of overlooked when he was 18 too.
"He knows what's going on. He's probably the hardest worker I know."
The impact extends beyond the contest itself.
"He's really shown me how to be professional, how to go about it," Toner said. "He keeps me on track, tells me not to stress, and just to keep getting back to work when things aren't going my way."
This professionalism has become an obsession for the young forward this year.
"That was something I wanted to focus on going into this year, and I've become really obsessive trying to do absolutely everything — diet, nutrition, training, recovery, all that stuff," he said.
"He's across all of it. Even little things, like trying to find your edge with different types of gym — he's really experimenting with things. I've taken a leaf out of his book."
The obsession shows up in the small habits, too.
"I try to get to training really early, before anyone else," Toner said. "If you touch the ball a thousand times, I might get a hundred of those touches in before training even starts. It's just getting that extra five per cent in."
The biggest addition to his program, however, was no small feat. In November, Toner and his brother travelled to Arizona for an NFL-style training camp.
"I went to Arizona for an NFL training camp with Jack in November, just to keep building on my speed and power," Toner said. "I was already a quick, powerful player, but that really held me in good stead for the year."
The pair spent 17 days at EXOS Sports in Phoenix, training under Nick Hill, a coach who has worked with the likes of Odell Beckham Jr. and Jalen Hurts.
"It was different training, really hard, but the machines they have over there were off the charts," Toner said.
"It was a great experience for me and Jack, and I think it's definitely helped us out a lot this year."
With his VFL opportunity now realised, the challenge for Toner is turning one selection into a sustained push, and continuing to chase the level of impact he still believes is ahead of him.
