Trent Merrin (born 7 October 1989) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played as a and forward for most of his playing career in the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. He played for the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

, with whom he won the

2010 NRL Grand Final The 2010 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2010 NRL season. Played on Sunday, 3 October at Sydney's ANZ Stadium, the match was contested by the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Sydney Roosters. It was ...

, and the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. He also spent a season with the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. Merrin has also played at representative level for NSW Country,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, NRL All Stars and the

Prime Minister's XIII Prime Minister's XIII, or sometimes informally referred to as the PM's XIII, a representative rugby league team, comprising Australian players from National Rugby League clubs that did not qualify for the NRL Finals, or whose teams were knocked ...

sides.

Background

Merrin was born in

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Merrin originally played junior rugby league with

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local government ...

RSL while living in

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

. Merrin then moved with his family in his early teens from Sydney to the

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal Regions of New South Wales, region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region. It encompas ...

. He then played rugby league with the

Port Kembla Blacks The Port Kembla Blacks (or Port Kembla Rugby League Football Club) were a Rugby League team from Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia that competed in the Illawarra Rugby League competition from 1914 to 2008 before moving to the Group 7 Rugb ...

and the

Shellharbour Sharks The Shellharbour City Sharks are a Country Rugby League club founded in 1920 located on the South Coast of NSW that compete in the South Coast Group 7 competition. Club Info History Shellharbour City RLFC has a 113-year history, originally exist ...

. Merrin claims another Shellharbour legend,

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

representative Luke Bailey, was "one of isidols growing up".

Playing career

In 2008, Merrin played for St. George Illawarra under-20s team in the Toyota Cup, scoring two tries for the season. He was selected as St. George Illawarra's Toyota Cup Player of the Year in 2008. In 2009, he was selected to play first grade for St. George Illawarra, being chosen on the interchange bench. He made his first grade debut for the club in round 12 of the

2009 NRL season The 2009 NRL season was the 102nd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the twelfth run by the National Rugby League. For the third consecutive year, sixteen teams competed for the 2009 Telstra Premiersh ...

against Penrith at

WIN Stadium Wollongong Showground, known as WIN Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Wollongong, Australia. The stadium was officially opened in 1911. From 1982 until 1998 it played host to every home match for the Illawa ...

. He made three appearances in his debut season for St. George Illawarra as the club won the

Minor Premiership A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymolo ...

but lost both matches in the finals series. He was a prominent squad member of the 2010 premiership-winning St. George Illawarra team, and came from the bench to play in the

. In May 2011, he was selected on the bench for

for game 1 of the

2011 State of Origin series The 2011 State of Origin series was the 30th annual best-of-three series of interstate rugby league football matches between the Queensland and New South Wales representative teams contested under " State of Origin" selection rules. For the third ...

. He was selected for the second match but was then dropped for the third. On 2 March 2015, Merrin signed a five-year contract with the

, starting in 2016. On 15 September 2015, it was announced that Merrin would captain a representative team for the first time. On 26 September 2015, he led the

in their 2015 clash with

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Merrin was a part of the Penrith sides which made the finals series in 2016, 2017 and 2018 bowing out at the second week on each occasion. After departing Penrith, Merrin signed a contract to join English

team

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. After just one season with Leeds, it was announced that Merrin was returning to Australia on compassionate grounds. On 29 November 2019 it was revealed that Merrin had signed a two-year deal with St. George Illawarra. On 21 April 2021, Merrin announced his retirement from rugby league effective immediately.

Personal life

Merrin was engaged to world-class surfer

Sally Fitzgibbons Sally Fitzgibbons (born 19 December 1990) is an Australian professional surfer on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour (2009–2013). In June 2019, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for women's surfing after winning the Rio Pro. ...

. Merrin was in a long-term relationship with Jessica Watson and the couple had their first son in March 2020 and their second son in November 2021.

References

External links

Leeds Rhinos profilePenrith Panthers profileTrent Merrin at ''St. George Illawarra Dragons''Trent Merrin ''The World of Rugby League'' profileOfficial Trent Merrin WebsiteSL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrin, Trent 1989 births Living people Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Leeds Rhinos players Australian expatriate rugby league players in England New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players NRL All Stars players Penrith Panthers players Penrith Panthers captains Prime Minister's XIII captains Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league props Shellharbour City Dragons players St. George Illawarra Dragons players 21st-century Australian sportsmen