The leadership and consistency of Canberra’s Josh Papalii has been hailed by coach Ricky Stuart ahead of the front-rower’s 250th NRL match.
The Queensland State of Origin representative will become just the third Raider to achieve the milestone for the club behind Jason Croker (318) and Jarrod Croker (292).
Stuart, himself a Raiders legend who made 203 first appearances for the Green Machine during his playing career, says no-one deserves more to be in such rarefied company.
“(He) doesn’t like to be singled out but he deserves to be singled out on this occasion,” Stuart said.
“The form that he is in, consistency that he’s played his career – the 250 games – I don’t think I’ve coached a game of Josh where he’s had a bad game.
“He’s had outstanding performances … to be able to say that with the position he plays, as a front rower, is an enormous credit to him.
“He’ll make a lot of people proud. His family, a lot of friends … 250 first-grade games is a massive feat.”
Stuart is also tipping Sunday’s clash against South Sydney won’t be the last milestone match for the 30-year-old.
“He’s got the potential to play 300 and over here at this club,” Stuart said.
“He’s a character that the boys all love having around. They love having him on the field.
“Definitely a leader that leads by example. When Papa talks he’s listened to.
“He doesn’t speak a lot but I know when he does speak, the respect and the regard that he’s held in, from the integrity that he holds, he’s very much a one off.”
Stuart, meanwhile, is sweating on the availability of several players for the trip to Sydney to take on the Rabbitohs as an influenza outbreak rips through the club.
The squad has been separated into groups of players affected and unaffected to avoid further cases and Stuart says he’ll wait until Saturday’s captain’s run before finalising his team.
“It’s been quite a disruptive week, but we’ve made good of what we could do on the field,” he said.
“The boys who are ill at the moment, some of them have had a bit of a training session yesterday afternoon, just together so they didn’t affect anybody else.
“I’ll give them until tomorrow morning.”
