Blake Austin believes the faith coach Ricky Stuart showed in making him Canberra's chief playmaker is behind his rapid rise to State of Origin contention.
The 24-year-old's name has been thrown in the NSW selection mix after he scored three tries and saved two in Sunday's City-Country clash in Wagga Wagga.
His performance caught the eye of Blues great and City coach Brad Fittler, who declared him a potential match-winner and "in the frame" for a coveted halves jumper.
Austin, flattered by the comments, said he enjoyed his first taste of representative football and put his impressive form down to new found confidence as the Raiders' go-to man.
Having been a utility at the Wests Tigers in seasons past, Austin said the added responsibility had only worked to better his game.
"For me, personally, I definitely need confidence to play well," he said on Tuesday.
"From the moment I got here, I had confidence put in me.
"Sticky (Stuart) always told me that I was coming here to be a No.6 and that was always going to be good for me.
"I feel like I'm getting better every week.
"I'm only eight weeks in and I think I've got a lot of improvement to do."
Austin said spending the week with Fittler had also helped, given his similar approach to coaching as Stuart.
"He's not going to give you a 34-page playbook, but he'll get you to the line ready for a game of footy," he said.
"It's something Sticky really prides himself on ... and it's something I got a lot out of last week."
While he said he'd love to play Origin some day, his focus right now was to maintain the Raiders' NRL form.
The club has won its past two matches, against the Tigers and South Sydney, but face in-form Gold Coast at GIO Stadium on Saturday.
Prop Paul Vaughan said the team is still riding high from those victories, and the performances of Austin, Jarrod Croker, Jack Wighton and himself in the City-Country match.
"All the boys are really pumped and training pretty hard," he said.
"We want three wins in a row and we're pretty keen on getting that."
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