It's a positive sign that Joseph Suaalii is still a bit overwhelmed by all this.

So much has happened to him already, so the fact he still can't believe he's in the Origin camp with the Blues, the guys he's been watching play almost his entire life, that it still feels closer to fantasy than reality, and it can still fill him with wonder, can only be a good thing.

It would be easy for him, even at 18, to be jaded, or at least wary. But it's not like that for Suaalii. He plays like a man, and after a big off-season where it sounds like he did nothing but lift weights, he's built like one too. But he's still bright-eyed.

The expectations around him, even just as an extended member of the Blues squad who won't play on Wednesday night, are incredible, unlike anything else in recent memory, and they could so easily be suffocating, but he doesn't let them weigh him down.

"I woke up pretty late on Sunday and when Freddy (Brad Fittler) called me, I was pinching myself," he said.

"I couldn't believe I was really coming into camp.

"I drove straight home to tell Mum and Dad. It was a special moment. Dad loves his footy — he's not an emotional dude and he didn't show me any tears — but it was a really special moment.

"I take things day by day, week by week. I just wanted to take each Roosters game as it comes. I wasn't thinking about Origin at all. This is a blessing.

"Pulling this jersey on, even just for photos … it's crazy, I can't believe it, I don't have words for it.

"Training with the Blues, seeing photos of myself on my phone or whatever, I'm like, 'Crap. I'm actually training in Blues gear!' 

"It's crazy. It's so crazy."

Suaalii's genuine enthusiasm is infectious. It's made him a popular figure in camp, where the Blues are treating him like an eager younger brother along for the ride. Suaalii is odds on to play Origin one day, and that day may come soon, but it's a good thing he has this time when it's all still in front of him and his dreams are still dreams.

Because it can't always be easy to be Joseph Suaalii of Glenmore Park. It can't be easy to have had people talking about you playing for Australia since you were 14 years old. It can't be easy to have your face splashed on the front page of newspapers when you play in a reserve grade trial and have the league change the rules so you can play.

It can't be easy to be talked about like the second coming of Greg Inglis and Israel Folau rolled into one. It can't be easy to endure all the speculation and rumour and innuendo about what's going to happen next when you're still just a kid. It can't be easy for everybody to know your name when you're still trying to work out who you are.

It can't be easy to be the prince, whose ascension to the throne of NRL super stardom is so presumed it sometimes feels like the script has already been written. It can't be easy to be the chosen one.

Suaalii, for his part, refuses to complain about his station or the scrutiny or anything else. This is all a blessing, he says, and he really believes that. You get the feeling he wouldn't complain if his hair was on fire.

"You can say [it's been] hard, but I've always tried to see it as a period of growth and learning," Suaalii said. 

"It's different in the spotlight, but I have to take it as a positive.

"People want to watch me play. How can that be a bad thing? I wouldn't say it's been hard. It's just learning how to deal with different things because it is different.

"I just try to focus on footy. I do my best to do that."

That's worked pretty well for Suaalii this year. He has already taken great strides from his rookie year when he held his own but was perhaps a little physically overwhelmed at times. And fair enough, given he was just 17.

Now he's the one doing the overwhelming. Since coming into the Tricolours' top 17 in round six on the wing, he's made over 100 metres in each game and developed a good habit of accelerating into contact, impressing with his ability to bend the defensive line and keep fighting for metres.

Plenty of schoolboy sensations can't hack it when they start playing men's game and they find out they're not the biggest, strongest or fastest anymore. Not Suaalii. Until he started playing seniors, he'd been the best player on just about every team in every sport he ever tried, but he doesn't play like a bully.

"My dad, when I was younger, he used to get the tackle pad out and smash me and I'd always cry," Suaalii said.

"From those days growing up, you have that chip on your shoulder to get someone back, to go as hard as you can. Whenever I step on the field I just try to go as hard as I can.

"Pre-season was a huge thing for me, to train hard and put weight on and learn the game more. That was my big thing coming into this year."

This season we've started to see Suaalii do some special things, the things that have invited all those comparisons to the stars he grew up watching: a big shot here, a sidestep there.

There was also what he did at Magic Round, when he flew over Parramatta winger Haze Dunster to claim a bomb and score. And you hate to say it, you hate to invite more comparisons, but by God, didn't he look just like Folau when he was doing it?

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If the good Lord's willing and the creek doesn't rise, Suaalii will do those things for the Blues one day.

It might even happen sooner than you think. Fittler isn't afraid to throw in a rookie if he thinks they're good enough. It was only a few years ago he picked Payne Haas after just 10 NRL matches. Suaalii is already a little older than Fittler was when the coach first played Origin back in 1990.

But there's no need to rush. Suaalii still has so much time. Time to learn and grow, time to get close to finding out what this New South Wales business is all about, time to remember what it was like back home at Glenmore Park on those State of Origin nights, with the place so overflowing with family there was barely room for them all.

"I get to be around Nathan Cleary, see how he thinks on the field, to see what he does, and take that back to the Roosters," Suaalii said.

"I want to see what Origin is all about. Ever since you're a kid you dream about these moments. Being around players of this calibre, it's an opportunity to learn.

"It's a big night, watching Origin. The whole family comes over, we have a big KFC or Maccas feed. All the kids sit on the floor, and once you're older you get a seat, but you have to earn a spot on the couch. If I watched it at home I'm probably still sitting on the floor."

This might be the last time he's closer to sitting on the floor than he is to being the one all the kids at home are watching.

Suaalii is not far away from being thrown into the fire. And once he passes that point, there's no going back.

But for now, he's still got time to be young. He still has time to dream.