A young Aboriginal AFL player from Nauiyu in the Top End hopes to be the first to represent his remote community at a national level.

Adam Sambono, 20, is one of 85 players who could edge closer to their dreams at the National Combine, beginning today in Melbourne.

All attendees have been nominated as being of interest by several AFL clubs, and the three-day camp run by the AFL gives recruiters a chance to see prospects perform before potentially drafting them.

Until he was 17, he played the majority of his football in scratch matches on his local oval with family and friends at Nauiyu, also known as Daly River, a community of about 500 people 220 kilometres south-west of Darwin.

But it was those same family and friends who saw something in him and persuaded him to try his luck in Darwin.

"My uncle had some encouragement in me and wanted me to step up my level so asked me if I wanted to go play up in Darwin for a try out for an NTFL team, and I was keen about it," Sambono said.

In his first year playing with Darwin Buffaloes, he claimed the Northern Territory Football League's rising star award.

A solid second year was enough for him to earn a contract with the NT Thunder in the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) competition, where he also won the league's 2017 rising star award.

"I reckon it's a real privilege to go that far with my footy and achieving big things like that," Sambono said.

Adam Sambono wants to be a role model for younger kids in his community. ( ABC News: Henry Jones )

Sambono a role model for young people in the community

NT Thunder coach Andrew Hodges said Sambono's meteoric rise wasn't a surprise.

"Adam's a great talent," Hodges said.

"He got the NEAFL rising star nomination, and that really put him on the map.

"From that, he got the opportunity to play with the Allies as an over-age player in the National Championships, and he performed quite well."

The Allies is a team made up of the best underage players from the "non-football" states of NSW, Queensland and the ACT, along with the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

Hodges said Sambono had worked hard and deserved a spot on a list.

"Hopefully he finds himself on an AFL list. That's what he really wants to do," Hodges said.

Adam Sambono is carrying the hopes of his family with him into the national combine. ( ABC News: Henry Jones )

Having secured an invite to the 2017 draft combine, Sambono's been training hard at his local oval in Nauiyu — a far cry from the sort of elite facility other draft hopefuls would have access to in bigger towns and cities.

He often has company in the form of his younger cousins, who follow his every move.

"It's good to have my younger cousins follow me around, like being a role model for my community, showing them how I first started and how to get good," he said.

Even if Sambono tests well at the combine, nothing is guaranteed.

But if clubs call out his name at the draft later this year, Sambono will be the first from Nauiyu to play at the elite level.

"It would mean something big for me and my family," Sambono said.