Colley has long been one of the most talented juniors playing in the Western region - he has helped St Pat's to Group 10 premiership glory, won the Andrew Johns Cup as an under 16 Western Ram and impressed in a New South Wales Country jumper.

But Colley is aiming bigger. This year his mission is to become an SG Ball regular with the Sharks.

Last season he came close, he got into the top 25 but just missed out on the final 18-man squad which went on to compete in the NSW Rugby League competition.

This year, given the impact of COVID-19 and NSWRL's push to continue junior development, the SG Ball is an under 19s competition rather than for under 18s.

It means Colley, who signed a one-year deal with the Sharks last October, is still eligible to play SG Ball and he's hungry to do so.

Colley began his pre-season training in November and after a fortnight off to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with his family, has headed back to Cronulla.

"It is definitely very hard, that's for sure, but it's good," he said of the training regime.

"I've been training the house down at the moment, so I've been real confident and the Sharks are all real happy with me too, all the development coaches.

"I want to just go back with the same mindset as when I first went down there six weeks ago - just train hard, have fun, be confident, have a good time."

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While pleased with his progress and the efforts he has produced at training thus far, the Sharks coaching staff have identified an area the St Pat's talent does need to work on. He needs to make demands.

"Personally for me it's about being too nice being a boy from the country, I need to get down there and demand the ball. They said everything else I've been doing has been pretty much perfect," he said.

"So I've got to find a bit of mongrel, call for the ball and get involved a bit more.

"I just need to do a few things I did playing in this area, make a few good runs, and I think I should demand a spot."

Last season Colley starred at halfback for St Pat's in the Western Youth League competition and while they exited that competition in the semi-final stage, he still did enough to be named best and fairest.

That acknowledgement gave him faith that he can cut it at SG Ball level.

"It gave me heaps of confidence actually because I wasn't expecting to win that award," he said.

"But having that, with all the talent out here, we played all the Dubbo teams as well and there's a lot of talent out that way, a lot of kids out here signed with NRL clubs, to get that award, yeah, I took a fair bit of confidence out of it."

Colley is aiming for a spot as either fullback or halfback. There are other players with the same goal, but he feels as if he's "up there with the top".

He just needs to keep showing what he can do in the training sessions and in the scheduled trial against Newcastle on January 22.

"I like number one for the freedom, you get the ball and just run and you don't have to think about anything else. I like halfback too because you get more time with the ball, a bit more opportunity than at fullback, but I like both of them I don't really have a favourite," he said.

"There are about two-three other fullbacks and five halfbacks, so there's a fair bit of competition.

"I think the next couple of weeks will be pretty challenging, they'll stick it to us I'd say after Christmas. We have got a trial on the 22nd so we'll be doing a fair bit of ball work.

"That's against Newcastle so it could be pretty challenging, they are always fairly strong. But I'll just down there and play my hardest footy."

That trial will come shortly before the start of the SG Ball season, the Sharks set to open their campaign on February 6 against the Canberra Raiders in Belconnen.