But the Raiders won't be putting him on a pedestal ahead of their clash against North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday.

Thurston guided the Cowboys to their only NRL premiership in 2015 and has been a linchpin of both the Maroons and Australian sides over the past decade.

This year will mark his last season of representative football, with the Rugby League World Cup at the end of the year his final campaign.

He captained the Indigenous All Stars team, of which Sezer was also a member, and will play a crucial role in the Cowboys' chances of climbing to the pinnacle of the NRL in 2017.

Sezer came off the bench in the All Stars game, where he got to fine tune his goal kicking ahead of assuming the duties in the absence of injured Raiders captain Jarrod Croker (knee).

While Sezer said he didn't specifically pick Thurston's mind about anything, he did take in how he prepared.

His focus will be on rekindling his combination with five-eighth Blake Austin after the Raiders halves enjoyed their first full pre-season together in lime green.

"In my opinion he's one of the greatest to ever play the game. It's always a tough ask coming up against him. I've got to do my job for my team and that's what I'm focused on," Sezer said.

"I guess you observe and learn. He's been very successful for a long time now and if you take a few things out of his book and implement them into your game it's only going to help."

Raiders acting captain Josh Hodgson was mindful of not treating great players from opposing teams differently.

While he respected them, he saw them as just another player.

But he felt Thurston would go down as an Immortal of the game when he hangs up his boots.

Hodgson was looking forward to the clash, but he was mindful of the Cowboys' threats - of which Thurston was an obvious one.

"I don't like to put people on a pedestal when I'm playing them and make them look like they're a different calibre of player than everybody else," Hodgson said.

"I just want to concentrate on the team and what we have to do and try and get the job done.

"Obviously he's a fantastic player and I'm sure he'll go down as one of the immortals of the game. He's done fantastic things throughout his career and he gets raps from everybody you speak to.

"Everybody knows they're a totally different team with him in the side. It'll be a good game against the Cowboys, we're really looking forward to it and we obviously know the threats that they have."

Another one of those threats is Cowboys lock Jason Taumalolo.

The powerful ball runner, who's toyed with a move to the USA's NFL in the off-season, was a joint winner of last year's Dally M Medal along with Melbourne Storm halfback Cooper Cronk.

Raiders lock Luke Bateman could start in the No.13 jersey and find himself up against Taumalolo.

"You always aim up when you come up against good players like that, especially in similar positions to you so it's always a good test," he said.

"Round one against a good team up there will be good for us."

NRL ROUND ONE

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v North Queensland Cowboys at Townsville, 7pm. Live on Fox Sports 2.