The pint-sized youngster has come along in leaps and bounds in his first six months at Arden Street, despite the challenges of an extremely busy schedule.
As Turner explains a normal week, you can quickly gain an appreciation of just how hard he’s working.
"On Monday I’ll come to training until about 1:00 and then I’ll head off to school for two periods – English and PE," he told NMFC.com.au.
"After that I’ll come back to the club to finish weights and other loose ends. Tuesday’s pretty much exactly the same.
"Wednesday there’s no school so it’s a full day of training. On Thursday I’ll be at school all day from 6:30 (am) to 3 (pm). I’m doing a footy program with the school which is the reason for the early start.
"Friday’s no school, so all footy and then obviously Saturday and Sunday are game days."
Luckily for Turner, he had a head start on Year 12, completing one subject (Sport and Recreation) back home in 2013 at Tallangatta Secondary College. However, there has still been an adjustment period this year.
"Moving from a school that had 400 kids to one this year that has about 1200 this year at Maribyrnong is just a little different to get used to.
"There’s still one more subject to do to get the requirement which will be next year. I do as much training as I can as long as it doesn’t conflict with school times."
In a footballing sense, Turner started the year on fire kicking four goals for North Ballarat in his first VFL practice match.
Since then he has been a solid performer at Werribee (his permanent VFL alignment). His slight build means the coaching staff has been cautious throwing him in the deep-end, limiting his game time where possible.
For an 18-year old, Turner is incredibly mature and understanding when discussing the situation.
"I had two games at the start of the year and then had one off, and then played another couple before the bye last week," he said.
"I see why they did it although if I had the choice I would have wanted to play. It’s alright though because with the time off I had the chance to get back and see the family.”
Since Turner’s arrival at Arden Street, he has made inroads building up his body, but there's still plenty of room to move.
"He’s put on about seven kilos but he started at about 60 so that’s not too hard," Development Coach and Werribee team-mate Jarred Moore joked.
"He’s worked really hard on his diet with Jona (Segal - Nutrition and Conditioning coach). He’s the first one to come up and see us. He wants to learn and get better at every facet of his game."
The first-year player has already seen the benefits of an AFL training regime in his tackling and contested work
"His attack on the ball and in the contest and the way he goes about it is top notch," Moore added.
"We’ve seen gradual improvement over the whole year so far."
On rookie draft day, the buzz surrounding Turner was how his style of play belied his small stature. He even played a half of football with a broken arm for Wodonga early in 2013.
His approach has stayed much the same at senior level, with Moore extremely upbeat about youngster's progress.
"He’s going the right way about it and you wouldn’t know about his small frame sometimes when he tackles and the way he puts his body on the line. It’s more of a case of look out when ‘The Enforcer’ puts the extra 10 kilos on.
"The tackling is the cornerstone of his game. He smothers a lot, he dives in, puts pressure on, and gets a hand in here and there."
Most of Turner’s football this season has been played as a half-forward, in a similar role to Lindsay Thomas and Leigh Adams.
The knowledge of the more senior pair has been invaluable.
"I have a fair bit to do with Lindsay and Patchy; they’re both sort of my mentors. I go over vision with both of them, look at what to do, where you can go better, so it’s really helpful,” he explained.
“I’ll watch Lindsay’s vision with him, see what he can do, then we’ll go over mine and see what I could have done better.
“It’s the same with Patch so I’m watching extra sets of vision trying to get better.”
Although Turner has only been at North for six months, he can already reflect on how far he's come.
“The first few weeks before Christmas and the break I was really nervous. After coming back in January everything felt good and then once the pre-season finishes everyone’s happy because you get to play.
“Everyone made me feel welcome so early and took me under their wing which was great and really helped me out.”
Turner will be back in action this Saturday for Werribee against Sandringham at Trevor Barker Oval.
