After bursting onto the AFL scene with 21 goals in eight games, Cam McCarthy has been rewarded for his explosive form with this round’s NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.

McCarthy, 20, has made a habit of making a sudden impact in his footy career so far.

A talented junior cricketer, the West Australian native had always played footy but only decided to take it seriously when he was 17 after leaving school to begin a plumbing apprenticeship.

“Towards the end of my 17s year I went down to South Fremantle Colts, mum and dad pushed me to go down and just try out.”

That led to state selection, a match-winning goal to hand Western Australia a famous win over Vic Country at the NAB AFL Under-18 National Championships and the enigmatic forward rocketing into draft calculations.

A broken leg meant the 193cm footballer with the blonde mop of hair was an unknown quantity to many ahead of the draft, but he’d shown enough to be invited to the Gold Coast to hopefully hear his name read out.

"If he does go early, it’s going to be a gutsy call," one recruiting manager told The Age’s Emma Quayle ahead of the 2013 NAB AFL draft. "It’s going to be a good, old-fashioned recruiter’s gut call."

And it was the GIANTS' recruiting team who made that gut call with the club’s third pick.

“Getting invited to the draft, you sort of have a reasonably good feeling you’re going to go sort of high-ish but I never knew where I was going to go, it was all sort of a whirlwind,” McCarthy said.

“But to get my name called out at pick 14 for the GWS GIANTS, I was rapt, it was one of the best moments of my life, that’s for sure.”

The man dubbed ‘Sunshine’ by ruckman Shane Mumford after the quarterback in Remember the Titans played 17 games in the NEAFL as both a forward and a back before making his debut as the substitute in the GIANTS’ final round 23 game against the Western Bulldogs.

Just minutes after being subbed on and with the game hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter, McCarthy leapt high and took a strong mark on the boundary line 50m out from goal.

With sure hands and a booming, straight kick that has become his trademark, McCarthy’s audacious shot sailed through, helping the GIANTS to a victory in their final match of 2014.

“I’ve always played footy on the edge, just trying to back my own ability and my own skill and sort of just try and take the game on,” McCarthy said. 

With a quarter of AFL football under his belt, McCarthy headed into the 2015 season trying to stake a claim in the GIANTS' forward line after an injury to Jonny Patton and the departure of Tom Boyd.

And with seven goals in three NAB Challenge games, McCarthy made sure he was unable to be left out of the GIANTS’ round one clash against St Kilda.

Eight goals in the first three games of the year were followed by a career-best five goal haul against the Suns in Canberra on ANZAC Day.

“I definitely didn’t expect to come straight into the side. I was really hoping to grab a handful of games if I could, maybe later in the season.”

With 21 goals for the season, McCarthy is sitting seventh in the Coleman Medal ahead of the likes of Buddy Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Matthew Pavlich. 

He’s also forming a formidable partnership with fellow forward Jeremy Cameron (third in the Coleman Medal with 26 goals) with the duo second only to Adelaide pair Taylor Walker and Eddie Betts for scoring for the season.

“Jezza’s been a huge mentor for me, not only on-field but off the field as well - on Mondays showing me a few things and out on the training track with leading patterns,” McCarthy said.

“He’s been absolutely enormous for me and I just love playing footy with him. He’s not only a ripper footballer, he’s a ripper bloke as well.”

The relaxed character seems to be a GIANTS cult-figure in the making with his laid-back attitude, flowing blonde locks and questionable facial hair. 

“I’ve been called a free spirit a lot of the time growing up, mum and dad said I never seemed to stress too much about things which always worried them, especially with school and stuff like that,” he said.

“I look to enjoy every moment of life and just look to make the most of the opportunity I’ve been given.”

McCarthy will play just his 10th game of AFL football when the GIANTS take on the Western Bulldogs as part of Indigenous Round on Saturday at Etihad Stadium.