Green and golden opportunity reigniting Young's Blues ambition

The belief instilled in him by one of Canberra – and Queensland’s – greatest legends has Hudson Young dreaming of a return to the State of Origin arena for NSW.

Arguably the NRL's form backrower, Young furthered his chances of a Blues recall with a brace of tries to help the Raiders to a comeback win over the Titans and he is focused on adding to his tally of three Origins.

“Really keen,” Young said when asked if a call-up to Laurie Daley’s NSW squad was a goal for him.

“It's where I want to play and I know that I'm good enough to be in that arena, and hopefully Laurie puts faith in me, and I'll repay that.

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“Growing up, it’s everything that you dream of doing ever since you can walk and know what footy is.

"You just want to play for the Blues and I've had the chance to do that and it's just given me that fight and want get back in there and represent the state and the people.

“I just want to go out there and just keep playing well for Raiders and hopefully that just takes care of itself.”

For Young, being selected by Mal Meninga to represent Australia – firstly in the PMs XIII in 2023 before getting a call up to the Kangaroos for last year's Pacific Championships– reignited his passion to play more representative football.

“The amount of confidence I got out of that camp and being around those players, and Mal putting so much belief into me just made me believe in myself,” Young said of the game's 13th Immortal, who enjoyed great success with the Maroons as a player and coach.

“I'm so grateful for the opportunity that Mal gave me.”

His coach Ricky Stuart was another who saw the difference his representative opportunity had made for Young.

Stuart, a former Blues halfback and also a teammate of Meninga at the Raiders and Kangaroos, also thought Young had done enough to earn a place in the NSW team for last year's series decider at Suncorp Stadium on May 28.

“I'm his biggest fan,” Stuart said. "The best thing that happened to him was he played for Australia.

"He saw people who believed in him in representative football, because there's a couple that haven't believed in him and Mal showed some great faith.

“I know Mal and [chairman of selectors] Peter [V'Landys] when they were picking the teams discussed Huddo and they were both very happy to have him in their team.

“I talked to Mal about Huddo, and I said ‘mate, this is the sort of person you will love in your team’, and we all love him."

Asked if he expected Young to be in the NSW team coached by Daley, another Raiders great, Stuart said: “I don't know, that would be something for Loz, but Loz will be pretty happy with his form, I know that”.

Young’s form this year has been undeniable, with his latest try scoring double being his third in a row, making him the first forward since Steve Menzies to achieve the feat.

“I’ve met him a few times, Beaver was a great of the game … someone told me that stat before and it was pretty cool, but hopefully the tries keep coming,” Hudson said.

“He was a great of the game, but I would never compare myself to someone like that.

“He's one of the best ever do it, so he's done everything in the game, so it's pretty cool to score back-to-back tries like him.”

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