Last Saturday at Macquarie University, in Sydney, the 18-year-old Tamworth export shone brightly on the biggest stage of his career as his North Sydney Bears were edged 24-22 by Parramatta in a second-round clash.

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Having started in the second-row, Bone's cometh-the-hour, cometh-the-man performance included a beautifully worked set piece that resulted him breaking the line and crossing from close range in the 29th minute.

He will start again when the Bears travel to Cronulla on Saturday. But this time he will wear the No 11 - and not the No 18 he wore against the Eels, a development that he is "pretty pumped about".

"I've taken a lot of confidence out of the performance I gave on the weekend," he said.

"It took a lot of pressure off my shoulders ... now I've just gotta play good, consistent football and make that jersey my own."

Along with the big-match moments he delivered - "I held the front-rower up over the tryline about four times, so I was pretty pumped about that" - Bone said he also executed the game plan well.

The Eels, he said, were contenders to win the competition.

"With the way we performed [against them], we definitely now know that we can really rock this competition," he added.