"You walk around here there's smiles and laughter. There's everything that's positive that excites everyone. It's the same way we felt when we won it in 2010. We're not getting ahead of ourselves but it is a good environment at the moment so hopefully we can keep that going forward." With Wayne Bennett at the helm, the Dragons were always going to be in the title hunt considering the roster they had at their disposal. Mark Gasnier, Matt Cooper, Dean Young, Ben Hornby, Darius Boyd, Brett Morris, Ben Creagh – the list goes on. But among that list of seasoned campaigners and representative stars was a rookie on the bench who watched in awe as those around him orchestrated the joint venture's maiden premiership triumph. "I was a 20-year-old with legends ahead of me," Merrin said. "They controlled the ship and I just played footy. That's why it's important we have people in important positions who can steer the ship, and we do have that here. You've got to do everything you can away from training to make sure you're in the best physical and mental space for game day to play the best 80 minutes we can. It was just real relaxed. The self-belief Wayne instilled in every player was the biggest thing.

"Everyone knew their role, everyone knew their job and everyone prepared and sacrificed for each other. That was the key to that – everyone wanting to play for each other. No one wanted to let anyone down. It's getting to it [at Penrith]. Obviously, there's still a lot of things we need to work on and improve. There's still a bit of time between here and there. Anyone who looks too far ahead forgets where they are." Merrin, who left the Dragons at the end of 2015 on a slightly bitter note, admitted he would love to end his old club's top eight hopes with a win against them at Pepper Stadium on Sunday. "It would be great. It would be really good," Merrin said. "You hold on to a loss like that [in round one]. It always hangs around. It's a s--- feeling. The best thing is we get to play them in our backyard and keep building that momentum we've been building. "That game was up to the footy gods. You never go into the game wanting to lose. But we deserved the beating that we got. We were probably too cocky on the day or whatever it was. I can't put a finger on it. Our focus is us now ... making sure we're doing the little things right."

Despite the Panthers winning just two of their first nine games, the Australian international insists he never gave up hope of reaching the finals as they look to move as high as fourth by the end of the penultimate round. "I've never lost faith. I know what this squad is capable of doing," Merrin said. "There's talent everywhere in this team. It's about us realising what we're capable of doing. Everyone can keep saying we're a young team and it'll happen, it'll happen but it's happening. It's right in front of us. It's up to us to see that and grab it and keep rolling with it."