It's been a dizzying couple of weeks for St George Illawarra prop Trent Merrin.

First came the reports he'd been earmarked by NSW coach Ricky Stuart for State of Origin.

Then he was touted as a likely bolter for the Kangaroos squad to face New Zealand.

Reality hit for the 21-year-old premiership winner when he was eventually named on the bench for the NSW Country Origin side to tackle City.

But Merrin didn't mind one bit, preferring to pay his dues by working his way up through the rep footy ranks.

"I didn't really buy into it," he says of the hype.

"I knew it was a big call getting a Test jersey after 33 games of first grade so never at all did I buy into playing for Australia.

"I know personally that I like to work hard to get to achievements like that so I knew in myself I didn't work hard to get there.

"I'd like to do what I'm doing now, the hard way, to play for Country and then hopefully get a sky blue jersey and then prove myself to play for Australia.

"It's a wrap just even to get a mention like that."

As an integral member of the Dragons' relentless forward pack, Merrin has been getting plenty of wraps for the work his classic low centre of gravity front-rowers' body gets through.

Teammates from that pack - Dan Hunt, Matt Prior, Adam Cuthbertson, Ben Creagh and Beau Scott, will all play some part in Friday's representative games but it's the name that will be missing, Michael Weyman, that most surprised Merrin.

The former Test and incumbent Origin prop has been battling a groin injury and was overlooked for the Gold Coast and Albury fixtures.

"That was a big shock to me," Merrin said.

"He's a very good player and I look up to Horse massively so for him not to be here is a letdown.

"He's got a few problems with his groin so he'll get them sweet in the next few weeks and I'm sure he should get state selection."

Merrin and the Dragons' Country representatives are taking their club philosophy of individual accountability to Albury and they expect it to reap dividends.

"You want to be out on the field with those boys and make them proud as well as yourself," Merrin said.

"You don't want to let anyone down in the team.

"Everyone's getting on really well so I think we might turn up the heat on Friday night."

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