She's not losing any sleep over it, but the fact she can't escape the chat illustrates just how dramatically her stocks have risen in a mere six months.

In February she was untested NRLW debutant, one of a couple in a St George Illawarra spine that saw a question mark hovering over their title claims.

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It proved a breakout campaign for team and player that earned the Hay product a maiden NSW jumper in the Blues Origin victory over Queensland in June.

It will be near impossible to leave her off the plane should she produce with an NRLW season on par with her first, but the 28-year-old says she doesn't need any extra motivation ahead of Sunday's season-opener in Wollongong.

"Obviously if I got the call I'd be on that plane to England in a heartbeat," Pearson said.

"It is nice to know my name's been thrown around in contention for that spot but there's a lot of footy between now and then. I'm just focusing all my thoughts and energy on wearing the No. 7 for the Dragons and we'll just see what happens.

"I'm always a one job, one step at a time type person, so that mentality comes pretty natural to me. It was the same last NRLW [season] when my name was getting thrown around for the NSW side.

"I just shut that down and didn't look too far into it until the time came. It's pretty much the same for [the World Cup talk] as well."

She might be leaving Jillaroos speculation on the shelf, but there's no doubt she'll head into a fresh season high on confidence after guiding her side to last year's decider and subsequently steering the Blues to victory.

It will place a lot more scrutiny on her performances, and no doubt see her targeted by rivals, but the Dragons continuity in the spine shapes as a head start from the jump.

"Halfbacks probably always have a target on them in some sense but to know I've got five or six games under my belt in NRLW, and an Origin, you've got to take confidence from that," she said.

"Knowing people have confidence in you to do the job, you start to really believe you can do the job.

"I was a debutant last season and, being a halfback, that comes with a bit of pressure as well so it's kind of nice not to have that tag and pick up where we left off.

"Obviously where we left off hurt, losing that grand final, but we've kept that spine together and we'll continue to build on those combinations.

"It's handy that we've retained 17 of that squad and 13 of those are in the starting side this weekend. That makes it a bit easier to string together those combinations we have already."

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While Jamie Soward's squad have put that painful grand final defeat aside, Pearson feels it's not something that needs to be banished altogether.

"I think it's a bit of both. You can't dwell on the past too much but you know it's there in the back of your mind," she said.

"You don't want to feel that pain again but it motivates you to make that grand final again. You want to get back in that ring and be holding the trophy at the end of it all.

"Everyone talks about going one step further but there's a lot of steps in between now and then, a lot of games and a lot of minutes to get us there.

"We obviously know some areas where we went wrong in that grand final and we'll be working hard to improve on that and get back there."

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