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Ever since I began contributing to this website, I have been staggered at the number of detractors aiming their poison arrows at the Sydney Roosters and NSW halfback, Mitchell Pearce.
It seems to me that Pearce is everyone and their dog’s whipping boy, irrespective of how he is playing, how he has played, or even how he might play sometime down the track.
It might be because he is the son of a very famous Blues captain, one of the best warriors NSW has known.
Perhaps Pearce junior plays for the ‘wrong’ club, has too many tattoos – or isn’t as fast or flashy as the No 7s who have worn the Blue jumper in bygone eras.
I really don’t get it. M. Pearce is not a match-winner in the mould of Queensland’s Johnathan Thurston or Cooper Cronk but then again, how many NSW-born, match-winning halfbacks can you name over the past three or four seasons?
Pearce is as solid as they come: an ultra keen competitor with fine ball skills and a very sturdy defence.
OK, so his kicking game isn’t at the five star level and can get a little predictable, but how many players have been picked around him to perform the kicking duties and have failed dismally against the marauding Maroons? The answer is: plenty.
Plenty of five-eighths have been trotted out in Blues jumpers and somehow left their A Grade kicking games back in club football. There have also been others, wearing jumpers numbered from 9 back to 1.
As I see it, ‘Junior’s junior’ has never been chosen as NSW’s premier tactical kicker.
He has been chosen to be the ideal link man between forwards and backs and his defence has helped keep the likes of Thurston and Cronk relatively quiet as ball runners in the past two series.
I believe Pearce will again be picked as the NSW half on Sunday week. Coach Laurie Daley has already said as much, and good luck to them both.
Daley, one of the great players of the modern era, should know a thing or two about the right type of half-back needed to win big matches. He played outside many of them and if he thinks M. Pearce can do the job, who are we to argue?
Remember, Lozza’s gig as supremo will ultimately swing on his team selections.
And one more thing before I sign off.
Has anyone checked out the Roosters’ form this year? Ah, huh. Running second, just two points behind leaders South Sydney.
Someone must be doing plenty of things well at half-back for the tearaway Roosters line-up.
Pearce has formed a smart combination with ex-Warriors pivot James Maloney. This dynamic duo may well be transferred to the Origin battlefield and produce similar results. Maloney has great form on the board and must surely be at the forefront of the selectors’ thinking.
In the meantime, I can only hope Roarers (and many other critics around town) view Mitchell Pearce on his merits and applaud his selection on Sunday week.
Adam Reynolds, the Souths whiz kid, looks to be a State player of the future but a hefty investment has been made in Pearce as the Blues’ No 7.
And, as stock market watchers know, handsome dividends aren’t always paid in the first year or two.
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