Ryan Sutton laughs Canberra is a little like Wigan.
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Everyone knows everyone, so there are a lot of stories about his new Canberra Raiders teammate he might keep to himself.
Then there are those he can, like all the times he and George Williams fell off their BMX bikes at a mud hill-filled place called Whitley Park as kids.
Or all the junior football competitions they won alongside each other on the road to becoming Super League champions with the Wigan Warriors.
Or all the times he and Hudson Young have had to cook Williams dinner since he arrived in Canberra in pursuit of the same dream, only this time as NRL players.
"I just sit back and relax, so it's been pretty good," Williams said.
"That's what I was most nervous about, I've only ever played for Wigan so that was my little bubble. To come out of that, I was nervous about meeting the boys.
"Some of the boys don't understand me, they have to say 'what? Can you say that again'? It's mad when you both speak the same language but you don't understand each other.
"I've known Ryan Sutton since I was 11 years old and he is a good mate of mine. We were playing for Wigan Northwest rep team when we were 11 or 12.
"We just seemed to go all the way through together, debuted in the same year at Wigan, went full-time the same year at Wigan. You couldn't really write it mate, it's fantastic.
"I played with John Bateman for five years at Wigan and we became close friends.
"It definitely does help. A bit of normality doesn't go amiss, when you are missing an English voice and your family.
"I have been OK so far, but I will probably have a moment when I miss home. They'll know how it feels and they'll just get around me."
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This is Canberra's new halfback. The man the Green Machine faithful hope can help their team go one better and win a drought-breaking premiership.
Williams is the fifth Englishman on the books at the Raiders, joining the aforementioned Sutton, Bateman, and his international teammates Josh Hodgson and Elliott Whitehead.
Already the Australian capital is beginning to feel a little more like home. He has four familiar voices on the training track, his girlfriend arrived in town last week and his father is a flight to Perth away.
Now he is counting down the days until his mother, sister and grandparents can make their way out here in a month or two.
Williams fills the No.7 jersey left by Aidan Sezer for a team ready to start all over again after they fell agonisingly short in last year's grand final.
He does so with 11 Tests, four Super League grand final appearances and two titles under his belt.
Not that any part of the 25-year-old's glistening resume surprises Sutton.
"He's only gone and taken it to the best, he's taken to international level," Sutton said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do at the Raiders. He showed a glimpse at the trial, but that's just a trial game.
"We've just got to get them combinations with Jacko [Wighton] and the rest of the side. I think it'll be a great asset to the team.
"He's one of those people who will do anything for you. That's the way he's been brought up. I've known his mum and dad a long time, his dad's coached at Wigan.
"He's just one of those people that will do anything for you. He's a great bloke. It's good that I'm his mate and I will be for a long time."
Now he has a chance to work under one of the game's finest halves in Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.
The Canberra coach who bleeds green, the man perhaps more desperate than any other to see co-captains Jarrod Croker and Hodgson lift the Provan-Summons Trophy at season's end.
Is it daunting having a rugby league Hall of Fame member watching over every move? Not in the slightest.
"He absolutely loves it," Williams said.
"When we're doing plays as halfbacks he is right behind me telling me what he wants and what I should do next. I think he wishes he could still play.
"I've not seen much, but I know he took Canberra to grand final wins and was man of the match in one. He has played for NSW and won. I know he has done it all before, so it's good to learn from him.
"It helps, 100 per cent. He can only make me better and I'm all ears, ready to get better."
When we're doing plays as halfbacks he is right behind me telling me what he wants and what I should do next. I think he wishes he could still play.
- Raiders halfback George Williams on his coach Ricky Stuart
Williams is straight to the point when he says "we're not going to be 100 per cent in round one, that's not how it works".
But Bateman says a quick glance at the incoming playmaker's highlight reel will tell you just how talented he is.
From there it could only be a matter of time before Williams' combination with Canberra five-eighth Wighton is sending opposition defensive lines into a spin.
"People are saying the only way we're going to do better is if we go one better, and you have to laugh at comments like that," Bateman said.
"It's a whole different year. We're going from the team that hunted teams last year to the hunted this year, a few teams are going to come for us which we're well aware of.
"Having George in the team is massive. He's a world-class player.
"People saying he is under pressure, that's the reason he is a world-class player, he thrives under that pressure."
The Raiders' road back to the grand final begins again when they face the Gold Coast at Canberra Stadium on Friday.
Leading them is this halfback determined to make his mark. The world-class player ready to create a legacy in the capital.