McDermott was one of three Western Rugby League players in the side which played two matches overseas and also took part in a host of other activities, including sitting in on a New Zealand Warriors training session.

The 16s were coached by Dubbo product and former Australian representative Andrew Ryan and recorded a hard-fought win over the Otahuhu Leopards before going down to the Auckland Vulcans.

McDermott described the experience as "fantastic" and was now determined to continue chasing his dream.

"It made me feel like I want it even more after seeing NRL players train and I've seen what it takes," he said.

"It was fantastic, the CRL really looked after us and it was good with 'Bobcat' (Ryan) as the coach."

The opening win over Otahuhu was made even more impressive given the fact the Country side had barely trained together.

McDermott was in the side with fellow Western players Bradley Gaut (Red Bend College, Forbes) and Jai Doolan (Cowra Magpies) but he knew very little about the rest of his teammates.

But a late penalty sealed an 18-17 win in the first game but McDermott admitted it took a little while to settle into matches against the incredibly physical New Zealand sides.

"We'd only all met the day before so didn't really know each other, it was pretty unstructured," he said of the win over Otahuhu.

"They kicked a field goal then we kicked a penalty right at the end to win.

"The first game was a real shock to see how tough it was and how good they were but the second game I felt I went alright and my game started to suit the conditions.

"It was really cold and it was a different kind of footy, they just wanted to whack people and weren't rally interested in playing."

The matches were just two of the many highlights of the trip with McDermott confessing the chance see one of his favourite NRL players prepare for a match was something he learnt the most from.

"We had a lot of free time, we got to go on a jet boat ride and watch the Warriors train," he said.

"It was good to see how an NRL teams trains. I mainly just watched Shaun Johnson because he's one of my favourite players but they train a lot and they're all disciplined and don't need to be asked to do things."

The youngster said it was a privilege to be in a side trained by Ryan but did add there was still one big challenge he was hoping to overcome before the end of the season.

"Hopefully win a premiership with the South Dubbo Raiders," he said.

"We've lost the last four finals but I hope we can with this one."

The under-18s side, containing Western players Mitch Bourke (Forbes), Billy Burns (Parkes) and Daniel Jeffries (Cowra), also made the trip to New Zealand and were hugely impressive in their matches, winning both.