It runs deeper when you consider he inked the three-year deal with Canberra in the same week he was named in the Australian Schoolboys side.

He now shapes as one who got away for the Dragons, with the Figtree High alum saying personal overtures from Raiders coach Ricky Stuart were simply too good to resist.

"The opportunity with Canberra really came up out of nowhere," Morkos said.

"I went and saw Ricky Stuart and he was just a great guy and showed heaps of interest. He showed me what their club was all about and it just really lined up with my goals and what I want to do with my footy.

"It's the first NRL coach I've really had anything to do with on that level and that really persuaded me, showing how much he interacted and really cared about the younger players.

"Obviously I love Wollongong, it's home, but the [Dragons] were headed in a bit of a different direction to me. Canberra's offer outdid it a little bit and I just thought it was giving me more of an opportunity to crack the NRL in a couple of years or so."

The three-year deal, the first two years as a development player, is the same path Steelers teammates Talatau Amone and Tyrell Sloan took to NRL debuts this season.

Read more: Dragons steeled for youth retention battle as NRL rivals circle

Having kicked off the SG Ball season alongside them earlier this year, Morkos says he's taken some belief from their meteoric rise.

"It's definitely inspiring," Morkos said.

"At the start of the year in pre-season I was thinking in my head that [NRL] was still ages away. Six months later, watching those guys, it feels like it's right around the corner and really possible in the next season or two if I work hard.

"The pre-season with first grade in Canberra will really let me know where I'm at but I'm confident heading down there. It'll be my first NRL-level pre-season, so I know it's a really big step up.

"I've started training now a few months early because I know how hard it's going to be. I've heard stories from Junior and Tyrell about just how hard it really is, so I'm definitely prepared for that."

It was the Raiders who denied Morkos and the Steelers back-to-back SG Ball trophies earlier this season, knocking them off 18-14 in a grand final thriller.

It was tough ending but Morkos credits playing outside Amone with sparking his own run of form in the centres, something he was able to parlay into Australian Schoolboys honours.

"Junior's in the NRL now, so it was probably one of my best seasons playing centre having an NRL half there," he said.

"I think my form took off from there in the SG Ball season and I could take it into the schoolboy stuff. Obviously [winning] SG Ball was the main goal, but that really kept me in form for the school stuff.

"[Australian Schoolboys] was one of the goals I wanted to tick off, so it's a pretty good feeling."

Dragons star Zac Lomax (2016-17) was just the second Figtree High representative to earn the honour after Brian Hetherington, who was part of the inaugural Schoolboys side in 1972. Morkos is now the school's second rep in just four years.

To do it for a school not really known for its footy, other than Zac Lomax obviously, it's pretty incredible," Morkos said.

"I got about a hundred messages from all the teachers saying congratulations and that's pretty cool."

Morkos' defection points to the challenge the Dragons face in keeping all the guns from such a talent-rich young crop.

Thirroul Butchers junior Aaron Schoupp was part of the Steelers 2019 triumph and has made a fine fist of NRL footy since switching to the Bulldogs.

Amone and Sloan are locked down until the end of 2023, while coach Anthony Griffin said on Friday that the club will open discussions with Jayden Sullivan, who's off-contract in 2022, in the coming weeks.

Fellow Australian Schoolboy Ryan Couchman recently inked a three-year deal with the Dragons, along with twin brother Toby, while star back-rower Jackson Shereb is also on the club's books long-term.

The Illawarra Mercury news app is now officially live on both iOS and Android devices. It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play.