A bigger, stronger Dale Copley believes he is a far different NRL player than the nervous 17-year-old kid who debuted for Brisbane against Cronulla in 2009.

A product of the Aspley Devils rugby league club which also developed teammate Josh McGuire and former Bronco David Stagg, Copley has beaten another exciting youngster Dane Gagai to secure injured winger Jharal Yow Yeh’s starting spot.

Brisbane thought highly enough of Gagai’s potential to re-sign him last month until 2014.

But Copley has the NRL runs on the board and has been given first crack at the job against the Wests Tigers in Sydney on Friday night.

With Gerard Beale confirming this week he’s heading to the Dragons, Copley can take a big step towards securing his NRL future this season.

“I played 17 games last year and I had to learn pretty quickly,” said Copley, still three months shy of his 21st birthday.

“I was 12 kilos lighter when I debuted (2009) and I’d probably only played 10 under-20s games at that stage.

“I was straight out of high school.

“I’m a lot more confident in my body and what it can do now and I’ve been under Hook (coach Anthony Griffin) for a couple of years as well.”

“It’s a massive difference.”

Brisbane have always had a big opinion of Copley and wisely restricted his exposure to a handful of games in 2009-10 as he developed.

With some extra muscle on his 184cm frame, Griffin showed his faith in the youngster, giving him 17 games, including playing him in the club’s finals campaign last year, which ended one game short of a grand final appearance.

Copley was a prime target for rivals in his early NRL games and admits he felt the pressure.

But this time around, pushing 100kgs, he’s not the wide-eyed school kid.

He knows Yow Yeh’s unfortunate injury, which will keep him sidelined for 2012, presents him with another opportunity to establish himself as a NRL regular.

His tryscoring strike rate of 10 from 23 games is comparable to teammate Jack Reed (12 from 27) who played for England last year.

He said playing so many games last year in front of big crowds had helped him learn how to handle the pressure.

“Obviously with Locky’s (Darren Lockyer) farewell tour, there was a lot of hype and big crowds week in and week out,” he said.

“That gave us (young players) a lot of experience in dealing with that because a lot of us hadn’t played finals footy or anything like that.”

Despite having played 23 NRL games, Copley still expects to be targeted by the Tigers on Friday night.

“That’s always going to happen when you play on the wing anyway,” he said.