Canberra captain Jarrod Croker believes the Raiders' teenage sensation Nick Cotric is a "moral" to be crowned NRL rookie of the year.
The 18-year-old winger's explosion onto the scene as been one of the highlights of an otherwise lacklustre season for the Green Machine.
Their slim finals hopes rely on beating Newcastle and Melbourne in the final two rounds, as well as benefiting from favourable results.
Playing beyond his years, Cotric has crossed for 16 tries in his debut season including 10 in his past nine matches.
His electric pace, scoring instinct and consistency are among the attributes which have seen him earmarked as a future NSW Origin representative.
Croker has declared Cotric him a near-certainty to be crowned the competition's best first-year player.
"Nicky's been great, and for an 18-year-old kid he's really handled it well," Croker said.
"He barely misses a beat. I'm sure there's plenty of kids out there that burst on to the scene and have ups and downs but Nicky seems to keep going up and up."
Centre Croker partners Cotric on the left edge, with the duo combining for 24 four-pointers throughout the year.
"He's been massive," Croker said.
"Hopefully he can continue that for the rest of the year and just get another good pre-season, it's only going to improve him.
"I'm looking forward to the partnership we've started on."
Cotric's main challengers for the rookie gong include Penrith duo Dylan Edwards and Corey Harawira-Naera and Cronulla hooker Jayden Brailey.
