In the space of a month, Josh Corbett has gone from lugging around 25kg bags of fertilizer to make a living, to living his AFL dream with Gold Coast.

The high-flying forward is less than two weeks into his SUNS' career and is beaming over the turn his life has taken.

Corbett had a terrific season for Werribee in the VFL and was on Gold Coast's radar for much of 2018 before being taken by the club as one of its mature-age priority picks in October.

"I'm just trying to be a big sponge and take it all in," he told AFL.com.au. "I've just loved every minute of it."

The 22-year-old impressed on day one at the SUNS' 2km time trial and said the facilities, recovery, lifestyle, and "everything" was beyond what he'd hoped for.

It's a far cry from getting to Tigers' training tired after a hard day of work.

"My most recent job I worked in a fertilizer company stacking 25kg bags of fertilizer for eight hours a day," he said.

"It was good fun.

"It was pretty tough to balance that alongside footy … it was tricky.

"The coaching staff realised (how hard it was) though – there's a lot of tradies in the VFL system and you just can't flog everyone."

Corbett said it was his attention to detail 12 months ago that helped him burst to prominence in 2018.

He trained harder, got fitter, got stronger and importantly, got more skilled.

"I worked on my strength. I worked on my marking," he said.

"My goalkicking was down and I did a lot of work on that. If you're a forward, you've got to kick goals.

"I think it's given me the opportunity to be in the position I am now, which is fantastic."

With the SUNS bringing in a plethora of fresh faces during the off-season, Corbett knows he has a chance to play senior football and contribute in 2019.

Now the hard work really begins.

"Personally I want to play round one. There's a lot of boxes I need to tick before that. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can to be the best footballer I can," he said.