And that's all Raiders coach Ricky Stuart needed to hear, with the former champion halfback instantly showing faith in his new No.7.

After a three month delay, Fogarty will finally experience his first Viking clap as a player when he runs out against the Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

And it's shaping to be a massive Viking clap too, with a crowd in excess of 18,000 expected - the Green Machine's biggest home crowd since they hosted the Eels in round six last year and 20,089 flowed through the gates.

In a nice piece of synchronicity, Fogarty, a proud Mununjali man, will return for the NRL Indigenous round, which comes a week earlier than the 28-year-old thought he'd be back from a meniscus injury.

It wasn't until he was talking to the Raiders physios on the way to Dubbo for Canberra's win over South Sydney that he found out he was ready to go.

Now he'll finally make his Raiders debut after arriving at the club from the Gold Coast over the off-season.

"I probably thought next week would be the round that I'd be back and it just came off a conversation I had with the physios," Fogarty said.

"I was just asking them last week on the way to Dubbo what kind of hoops do I have to jump through to be available for selection.

"And they said, 'We haven't been talking to you because we don't want you to have anything in your head. You're pretty much ready to go. It's just when you're ready mentally'.

"I was a bit shocked about that and had a chat with 'Sticky' [about] what do you want to do.

"He just said we'll put you straight in. Probably a week earlier than I expected, but chomping at the bit to get a game."

He was expecting there to be some rust at the start - especially with young gun Xavier Savage slotting in at fullback in the absence of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (hamstring).

It'll see him form part of an all-Indigenous halves pairing alongside Jack Wighton.

They're two of five Indigenous players in the Raiders' 17, along with Savage, Adam Elliott and Sebastian Kris.

Fogarty was proud of that fact, with the former Titans captain adding there were 30 Indigenous players across the whole club if you include the juniors.

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

"Obviously the first hit-out's going to be a little bit rusty, especially for myself, my first game of football," he said.

"Our combination, especially with Xavier out the back, it's going to be new and it's going to be a work in progress.

"But if we put in a good performance on Sunday that'll be a good platform to build on."

The Raiders have won their past three games to sit on the fringe of the top eight, but come up against an Eels side sitting sixth on the NRL ladder.

Fogarty said this would give them a good indication of whether they were truly back in the finals mix.

"For the last couple of years they've been one of the top four teams, really pushing for the premiership," he said.

"It's a good indicator for us to see where we're at.

"We had a bit of a rough trot there for a little bit, [but] the boys have found three wins in a row.

"It'll be a good indicator - are we really on track to be where we want to be or a reality check."

NRL ROUND 12

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium, 4.05pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Adam Elliott. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Sebastian Kris, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Brad Schneider, 19. Harry Rushton, 20. James Schiller, 21. Corey Harawira-Naera 22. Trey Mooney, 23. Emre Guler, 24. Matt Frawley.

Eels squad: 1. Clinton Gutherson (c), 2. Waqa Blake, 3. Viliami Penisini, 4. Tom Opacic, 5. Bailey Simonsson, 6. Dylan Brown, 7. Mitchell Moses, 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 9. Reed Mahoney, 10. Junior Paulo, 11. Shaun Lane, 12. Marata Niukore, 13. Isaiah Papali'i. Interchange: 14. Makahesi Makatoa, 15. Ryan Matterson, 16. Oregon Kaufusi, 17. Nathan Brown. Interchange: 18. Bryce Cartwright, 19. Jakob Arthur, 20. Mitch Rein, 21. Hayze Perham, 22. Sean Russell, 23. Ky Rodwell, 24. Maika Sivo.

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