Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has declared young gun Ethan Strange will make his Kangaroos debut this season, while the Australian coach revealed he is on the selector’s radar.
Strange scored a career-first hattrick to down the Sea Eagles and was arguably the best player on the field as Canberra reclaimed the top spot on the NRL ladder.
The 20-year-old’s running game proved lethal to slice Manly’s defensive line apart and Stuart made his thoughts of the rising playmaker clear in the post-match press conference.
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“I have got a very strong opinion of Ethan, I have a very strong opinion of where he’s going to go as a player,” he said.
“You look at his game today to where he started with us a year and a half, two years ago. He’s still only 25-30 games I suppose into his career. He has an unbelievable future in front of him.
“I think he will play for Australia this year and he will be our next five-eighth for NSW.
“I don’t sit here gloating, I don’t sit here as a happy coach saying that. I firmly believe that, he’s got Origin attitude, the way he defends, the way he runs the football.
“He’s got qualities of a representative player already as a young person. I don’t say that outlandishly.”
Strange’s tries also came at crucial moments, with the gun five-eighth responding to both of Manly’s four-pointers by crashing over.
Strange ‘destined’ for Origin next year | 01:58
Stuart was of the belief his ability to inspire the troops had him drawing comparisons with Raiders and rugby league legend Laurie Daley.
“You look for players like Joe (Tapine), Papa (Josh Papalii), Red (Corey Horsburgh) to inspire the team when you’re under a little bit of fatigue and adversity,” Stuart said.
“For a young player such as Ethan to be able to give off energy to his teammates, it’s similar to Laurie Daley when he was a young player.
“I know I’m talking about big shoes to fill and ‘are you putting too much pressure on Ethan?’. Well bad luck, handle it.
“If you’re ever going to make it in this game, you have to handle pressure and he will.”
The Kangaroos are set to travel to England following the season for an Ashes tour, and newly-appointed coach Kevin Walters made a big reveal post-match.
He explained that Strange had been in preliminary selection conversations and could earn representative honours with a big finals campaign.
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“He’s one of the names that was thrown up, from my experience with the Kangaroos someone through that finals series gets on a bit of a run,” Walters said on Fox League.
“They play their way into the Australian side because of their form. He’s one certainly that could force his way in.
“I just like the way he runs the ball, he’s big and strong. He enjoys the contact in defence and attack… he’s a good young player.”
Like Stuart, league legend Michael Ennis also believed Strange could usurp Mitchell Moses and Jarome Luai and wear the No.6 jersey for the Blues in 2025.
“Strange is charging towards representative jerseys… he was absolutely brilliant, best on ground. I think he’s destined to play Origin next year,” Ennis said.
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