And Canberra Raiders prop Ryan Sutton feels 22-year-old Tom Starling being the first one to take on the Sydney Roosters shows exactly what the Green Machine's about.

A 170-centimetre 12-gamer up against a megastar.

"Yeah, little on big wasn't it. There was a lot of hype around [Williams] coming into the game," Sutton said.

"He's a really big rolemodel for a lot of people, a lot of people in the team have watched him.

"He's done a lot so for a young boy like 'Starls' to put a shot on him it was a really good indicator of what our team's about."

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Starling looks set to be rewarded with some security.

The Canberra Time revealed the Raiders had offered the young hooker a one-year deal to keep him at the club in 2021, but now they've upped it to two years.

Starling had come off contract with Newcastle at the end of 2018 and was waiting for the Knights to get in touch.

But they never did and he was set to join the Tweed Seagulls in the Queensland Cup when the Raiders came knocking.

A couple of his good mates, Hudson Young and Brendan O'Hagan, worded up Canberra recruitment guru Peter Mulholland he was looking for an opportunity.

Now he's the Raiders' starting hooker in the absence of Josh Hodgson (knee).

"Just waiting to hear back from his manager. He's got a two-year deal on the table and we're just waiting to hear back from him," Mulholland said.

"Tom's been wonderful. He's a great kid and he deserves that second year and a little bit of stability for him. The coach has got a lot of faith in him."

Sutton was excellent again against the Roosters, running for 176 metres with three tackle busts and 39 tackles.

It drew praise from Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, who was especially pleased after he was forced to make the tough call of leaving Sutton out of last year's finals series.

Sutton's determined it won't happen again.

He spent his off-season back in the freezing cold north of England running on treadmills and training in the gym.

It didn't go unnoticed with his coach, who praised not only the way Sutton was playing, but also his professional attitude.

This year Sutton will stay down under and spend Christmas with his partner's family.

He admitted it's tough not knowing when he might be able to go home again but, coronavirus allowing, his family might come to Canberra in the summer.

With Josh Papalii (shoulder) potentially out, it makes Sutton's form even more important for the Green Machine.

"After the end of last year, it's just about not taking games for granted really, making sure I take every chance I can and keep improving game on game," Sutton said.

"I don't want to dwell on last year because you learn from your mistakes, especially myself.

"I look at what I did last year - I wasn't good towards the back end and I work hard to do the best I can. I didn't have any days off in the off-season.

"Hopefully it's going well at the minute and I can keep focusing on the good games and looking forward to hopefully getting into the finals this year."

NRL ROUND 18

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v St George Illawarra Dragons at Wollongong, 3pm.