The Cootamundra junior is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather Fred de Belin and represent his country.

His grandfather, a premiership winner with Balmain, played eight Tests for Australia from 1948 to 1950 before relocating to Cootamundra.

Mal Meninga’s men will head to New Zealand in mid-October to take on the Kiwis and Tonga in back-to-back weeks.

De Belin firmed as a Kangaroos contender after an impressive State of Origin performance that saw him named in the Origin Merit Team after NSW’s breakthrough series victory. 

If handed the opportunity to wear the green and gold jumper, de Belin said it’s an honour he would relish. 

“For sure the ankle will be ok,” de Belin said.

“I’ve been playing on it pretty busted, but give it a couple of weeks and it should be 100 per cent.

“It would’ve helped going deeper into the finals and getting another couple of weeks to show what I’m about. I feel like I’ve had a good year, performed on the Origin arena, we got the Origin series wrapped up there. 

“I’d love to play for Australia, but that’s out of my hands.”

De Belin has struggled with an ankle complaint, barely trained over the last three weeks and used pain medication to play out the Dragons season.

His comments came after the Dragons heartbreaking one-point defeat to South Sydney on Saturday.

Three Adam Reynolds field goals sunk de Belin’s premiership hopes with the 13-12 loss ending their season in the second week of finals.

They led for most of the game and despite the heartbreaking loss, the lock said the platform has been laid for future success. 

“A lot of players got Origin experience this year, to play finals footy we had a few young boys that hadn’t played any finals footy before, to play in front of 50,000 fans was a great feeling,” he said.

“A lot of our youth will take a lot out of it and the older players will build on it and take a lot out of it.”