Morris did not even start the season in first grade for the Dragons. He played the first match of the season for St George Illawarra's feeder team, Shellharbour, before starting round two from the interchange bench.

Yet he finished the season with a new three-year deal, was the leading try-scorer in the National Rugby League, and had a debut Test jersey beckoning.

"It was a good kick up the butt from Wayne,'' Morris said, before the Australian squad flew out to England on the weekend.

"I fell into a comfort zone and I had to get out of it. If you said at the start of the year that I'd be playing for Australia I'd have laughed at you and said you're an idiot.''

Gallen's year has been one he would rather forget. Replaced as Sharks skipper by Trent Barrett midway through the season, Gallen also had to battle with a serious shoulder injury which ruled him out of all but one State of Origin game.

Now his shoulder has healed, he can complete every training session, and is no longer having to modify his schedule to protect his injured limb.

Gallen, 28, said the Four-Nations tournament was a chance to salvage something from an horrendous year.

"This is probably the most important thing to me now because of the way the year went,'' Gallen said. "I wanted to do well for the Sharks but that didn't pan out well.

"I was keen to win the Origin series for NSW, but that went bad too. This is all that is left and, hopefully, we can do well.''

Alhough Gallen is yet to represent Australia on foreign soil, he is a seven-Test veteran and the only surviving member of Australia's starting back row, which lost the World Cup final to the Kiwis last year.

He, Nathan Hindmarsh, Ryan Hoffman, Sam Thaiday, Trent Waterhouse and Anthony Watmough are vying for spots in the Australian team playing their first game this Sunday against New Zealand.