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When I was a kid there was an American TV show on Channel 7 called Great Mysteries of the World. It was a quasi-documentary style, narrated by Star Trek’s Leonard Nemoy.
Each episode focussed on an unsolved mystery or phenomena – Big Foot, the Yeti, the Pyramids, that sort of thing.
It was extraordinarily nerdy and old-fashioned, but I had reason to recall the programme on the weekend when I read yet another article quoting Laurie Daley placing his complete support behind Blues halfback, Mitchell Pearce.
The article had all the sentiment we’ve come to expect from Pearce’s supporters, namely that “he’s a good kid!”
Of course, it’s not just Daley who admires Pearce’s skills as a halfback. Immortal Andrew Johns, Blues great Freddie Fittler and one of the all-time greats, Peter Sterling, are among the former rugby league greats who have heaped praise on Pearce.
It’s clear these former players see attributes in Pearce that I, and thousands of other Blues fans, don’t. This has led to me questioning my knowledge of the game.
Am I really that bad a judge? Can tens of thousands of fans be so utterly wrong about Pearce? What is it about Pearce that these former Origin and Australian rep greats see that we do not?
I have racked my brain trying to understand, but I simply cannot explain it.
Perhaps it’s just a Great Mystery of the League.
Exacerbating my confusion is one of the common themes from the last couple of articles on Pearce, which emphatically state that Mitchell is….well…”all right”.
The headline in the SMH article quoting Daley was, “Hey! The kid’s all right”. Then in a follow-up piece on Monday, Pearce was quoted as saying, “I thought when I watched [Origin II] I had some all right plays”
All right!
Not great. Not top class. Not Origin level. Just…all…right.
I know I’m asking for a lot, but I want our Origin halfback to be more than “all right”. I’m not expecting an Andrew Johns or Sterlo. Those guys were of rare and immortal quality. But something better than “all right” would be nice.
All right is average. All right is my Milk Arrowroot to your chocolate Tim Tam. All right is not Origin quality.
To be fair, when Pearce was first selected, there was a dearth of NSW halfbacks putting their hand up for a selection.
And I understand the importance of giving him a chance to develop as a player, as chopping and changing players after one or two games has been to the Blues’ detriment.
However, it does offend me a little that by the end of Origin III Pearce will have played 11 Origin games, one less than the great Peter Sterling (who would have played more but had intense competition for selection from the likes of Steve Mortimer).
I do hope that Pearce lifts his game for Origin III and I’ll be cheering him on if he does. We desperately need him to perform better than he has in the past if the Blues are to win.
If he doesn’t – well, I would hope that our selectors have the sense to look to the future and give someone else a go next year. Nine in a row would be too much to handle.
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