CANBERRA Raiders back Jack Wighton has thrown his support behind the selection of Blake Ferguson in the NSW State of Origin side, adding the Wellington product has the ability to blow Queensland off the park.
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Wighton was in Orange yesterday to help promote the Peachey Shield at Brendon Sturgeon Oval, a rugby league carnival for primary schools in the Central West.
An Orange junior, Wighton got his first taste of representative football this year with the Indigenous All Stars and the Country Origin side and believes Ferguson will provide the X-factor in the Blues backs for game one.
“I think he’s going to kill it,” Wighton said looking ahead to State of Origin one next Wednesday.
“He’s a freakish talent and, as everyone’s noticed, he’s come a long way this year. I think he’s going to kill it.”
Like Wighton did this season, Ferguson has previously represented in both the Indigenous and Country sides before graduating into the Blues line-up for his State of Origin debut at ANZ Stadium next week.
Earmarked by Blues coach Laurie Daley as a Blues star in the making, Wighton was hopeful of one day joining his Raiders teammate in blue.
“I always look up to Fergie and try to follow in his footsteps in certain ways. Hopefully in the next few years I can maybe keep following and get to where he is going,” he said.
A big hit with the kids yesterday at Orange, Wighton is a former star of the Peachey Shield, having played with both Bowen and Orange Public Schools at the event.
With the Raiders enjoying the bye this weekend, the former CYMS and Bloomfield junior said the chance to give back to the wider Orange rugby league community was too good to refuse.
“When I played Brad Donald and a few of the Raiders boys came out and I loved it,” he said.
“That’s why I love coming out and playing around, mucking around with the kids and doing stuff like this. It’s good to get out and about.”
Hot one week and cold the next, the enigmatic Raiders recorded big victories over the Storm and Knights before losses to the Sharks and Manly slid the Green Machine back down to 11th on the NRL ladder.
Wighton, though, was confident Canberra can regroup after the bye and bounce back against the Broncos at Canberra Stadium on Monday, June 10.
“We’ve got a good team,” he said.
“Sandor (Earl), Eddie (Lee), Fergo, (Jarrod) Croker ... we’ve got a lot of outside backs ready to play but I think the goal is to just try and be consistent for the rest of the year.
“We’re not going to bad. I think we’ve got a good set up and we’ll have a good run.”