He's six years older and has played more than twice as many NRL games but Junior Paulo admits he is in awe of State of Origin teammate Payne Haas.
With Tevita Pangai on debut and other options out injured, Haas and Paulo are tasked with leading NSW's front-row rotation in the series opener on Wednesday - Haas from the opening whistle and Paulo when he comes on from the bench as an impact player.
At 29, Paulo is one of the oldest members of the Blues playing group and has no shortage of big-game experience nor leadership credentials.
The front-rower has played every game of the past three Origin series, co-captained Parramatta to last year's grand final and was a member of Samoa's charge to the World Cup final in 2023.
But through the Blues' week in Origin camp, Paulo has been looking to Haas for cues, rather than the other way around.
"Every time you come into camp with Payne, you're sort of in awe of how young he is, but how much of a leader he is," Paulo said.
"Especially for someone who's only been in the game for a number of years, and been at the top for that long."
Paulo's admiration for Haas has only grown this year.
The Brisbane enforcer has been pivotal in the Broncos' resurgence and sits atop the Dally M leaderboard as the season approaches its halfway point.
Since the inaugural Dally M Medal in 1979, a front-rower has never won the award - an indication of just how unique a talent Haas is proving to be.
"He's just developed his game," Paulo said.
"There's maturity and leadership. You can see he's a real leader, what he does at club footy.
"The Broncos have been playing off the back of him this whole year.
"When you're coming into a camp where there's so much talent, you sort of tend to step back and watch from experience what you can learn from the others.
"You want to be able to learn off everyone and take that back and find ways to instil it in your own game.
"Payne is definitely one of the form, if not the best front-rower, and probably will be for many more years."
The Blues breathed a collective sigh of relief when Haas shook off his ankle injury and completed training on Sunday night.
The prop was able to run as normal and participated in the same light contact drills as his teammates.
"We knew he was going to be all right, he just had to ice up," Paulo said.
"It's good to have him back. It looks like nothing was even wrong with him, the way he was running around."
