Canberra coach David Furner will give two of his young playmakers a baptism of fire against Melbourne in Friday’s NRL trial match in Geelong.

Mitch Cornish and Anthony Milford, who’ll be the Raiders first-choice halves combination in the National Youth Cup this year, will be given at least 30 minutes to prove their worth against the premiers.

Furner, who has named a 24-man squad, is expecting Craig Bellamy to field a strong side, despite the absence of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk.

Smith is involved in the NRL All Stars match in Brisbane and Slater (ankle) and Cronk (back) are injured in what will be the Storm’s only trial in Australia before flying to the UK to face Leeds in the World Club Challenge later this month.

“They’re missing their big three, but we’re led to believe they’ll be putting out a strong side,” Furner said.

Cornish and Milford have impressed Furner during pre-season and the Raiders supremo is looking forward to seeing how they cope against experienced opposition.

“They’ve been pretty impressive in the opposed games, they’ve kept Sammy Williams and Josh McCrone pretty honest,” Furner said.

“They’ve trained quite hard and they’ll have 30 minutes. Those players have trained really hard and have the opportunity because they’ve earned it.

“They’ll be playing against guys like (Gareth) Widdop, (Brett) Finch and (Ryan) Hinchcliffe and that’ll be good for their confidence.”

The Raiders have six players involved in the All Stars – the most of any club – and are still without skipper Terry Campese as he makes his way back from a knee injury.

NSW representatives Brett White (knee) and Tom Learoyd-Lahrs (hamstring) are also out along with Glen Buttriss (ankle).