New Canberra forward Ryan Sutton knows he has a lot of hype to live up to as an Englishman joining the NRL, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

The 23-year-old has already built an impressive resume despite playing at the highest level for a short time.

He has already tasted premiership success with the Wigan Warriors in 2016 and has played in the 2017 World Club Challenge and Challenge Cup final.

However, the biggest challenge he says will come in the form of proving his doubters wrong as he attempts to be the latest Englishman to crack the Telstra Premiership.

"At 23 I have been told that it is young for a middle and really, they don't really peak for another four or five years," Sutton said.

"So, I think that it's a good thing that I have just started to scratch the surface of what I might be capable of.

"I have played for a while and I have got a pretty good feel for that the game is about, but that's why I came over here to take my career to the next level and see if I can play in the NRL."

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It could be jokingly argued the Raiders are slowly turning into the English side under the cover of darkness, with now four international-standard players from the Old Dart calling the nation's capital home.

Sutton admitted following in the footsteps of Josh Hodgson and Elliott Whitehead was daunting when he walked into the Raiders headquarters before this pre-season.

However, on the back of training time with the NRL squad and playing time with the Mounties in the Intrust Super Premiership, Sutton knows he has what it takes.

"You probably do get pressure and there probably will be people who will say 'an English bloke going out to the NRL he won't make it' but I want to try and prove people wrong," he said.

"You know in yourself if you can do it, I know it's a tough competition, but I'm a competitive person and I wanted to come over here and make a name for myself.

"I'm stubborn and sometimes I do read some stuff on Twitter or Instagram and I probably look into it too much, but it drives me because I know I am under the radar a little bit, so why not come over here and try and do something a bit special."

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker said he'd been impressed with the work of Sutton from the momentum he stepped onto the training paddock in lime green.

"From day one you knew Sutto was a professional, to be honest I thought he was bigger than what he was, he's not a big body," Croker said.

"But he's very fit, very strong and very mobile as well so he's really fit in really well."

Allowing other teams to get a roll-on through poor line-speed was one of the Raiders' achilles heels in 2017.

That could be an issue of the past with their slimmed-down pack with Sutton and fellow Englishman John Bateman joining the squad in place of man mountains Shannon Boyd and Junior Paulo.

"It changes the dynamics of your team, we've lost two guys who are 130kg with two much smaller blokes," Croker said.

"Skill-wise I think we've gained a lot and the mobility we've got now in our forward pack, defensively we want to as good as we can in that area, having some more mobile blokes in the middle can help our line-speed and we all know that makes the difference."