Pearce is phuking useless

[Rooster_6]

I thought Maloney was more creative and organisational last night than Pearce....?
And what I DID notice......was a definite decline in Pearce putting up the bomb on the 5th tackle, with Maloney putting grubbers into the in-goal on two or three occasions forcing two or three goal-line drop-outs....
Where has this skill been hiding......?
I sure hope it's a sign for the future....?

Executing set plays isn't creativity. And yes Pearce isn't a creator either, it's the biggest issue with our halves which is why RTS playing fullback & having someone like SBW creating points for us is so important. Both have that natural ability to create points off the cuff.

[davos]

Mitchell Pearce is a good halfback. He is no Thurston or Cronk etc, but he's good enough for the job. Mortimer will never reach the level that Pearce will or even already has. Mitchell's real threat is his running game. His kicking game is not what will win us premierships, which is why I am praying that maloney finds his feet and 2013 form. But to say that Pearce has not held his own is just not true.

[davos]

The problem with Pearce is he was thrust into the position young, he showed us some potential and now 8 years has past and we are still waiting for it.

I think the problem mainly is that people perceive him as a Andrew Johns/ Freddy Fittler replacement, particularly when it has come to origin. Its the same problem that Mullen has. Both are decent players, but Superstars? Probably not. They can get the job done though with the appropriate structures around them.

[Guest]

The thing people don't notice is when he runs centre-field that close to the line he's stepping past two or three players on most occasions. That condenses the defensive line by making the wider defenders squeeze in to make the tackle, you'll notice after every Pearce run we play two passes wide of the ruck nearly every time. The same goes for FPN & Guerra when they're running centre field. They take 3-4 defenders to take them down and it condenses the defensive line which allows us to run our set plays on the back of that & their quick play the balls.

Not every run is about scoring or looking to score. Pearce's running game will always be hindered by his organisational requirements though and that was prevalent last night more than ever without Friendy. Like Robbo said Maloney is a support player through and through, you're not going to get much organisational play or creative play out of him but he does what he does really well. Both cop unfair criticism IMO, but that's not surprising given the expectation that comes with wearing their numbers.

Good post.

I don't want this to start a referee debate and I don't know if it's just me being one eyed or not, but I think a big part of Pearce and Jimmy's form 'slump' (if that's what people want to call it) comes down to the referee's letting the oppositions outside men stand blatantly offside for long periods and the defence rushing up giving them very little time to think or get those balls away clean. It's killing any sort of rythm we look like having.

First 10 minutes against the Sharks they looked slick as ****.....then the leniancy with the 10 metres kicked in and we didn't look like doing much again for the rest of the night. We seen last year that they're capable of brushing it off and gritting the teeth, and so they should, but I can see why the blokes get frustrated.

Again, let's not start the referee thing, it's been done to death. That's just a little thing that I've noticed personally and it's choking us a bit in my opinion.

[Arties Pie]

His inability to do anything other than a bomb or kick it dead on the last is enough for me, we need to build pressure from repeat sets as we lack the ability to basically score at will from 20 metres out like we were doing last year.

[Guest]

His inability to do anything other than a bomb or kick it dead on the last is enough for me, we need to build pressure from repeat sets as we lack the ability to basically score at will from 20 metres out like we were doing last year.

I think I'll pass on the opinion of a bloke who would rather Sandow in the side over Pearce...

[Guest]

Especially when statistically we are the most lethal team in the comp when we start a set of six in the opponents 20m zone, Pearce does have a role to play when we are in that zone

[Johnny.]

There were four or five repeat sets from us last night. Maloney kicked for the majority of the game.

Pearce has a beautiful pass in him that 9 times out of ten results in a try close to the line.