Mitchell Pearce

[Tommy Smith]

I genuinely feel sorry for him.

The hysteria over Pearce in Origin is quite frankly a modern day sporting version of the Salem Witch Trials.

I've never seen anything like it.

Maloney too is now 0 for 3 in Origin but has copped ZERO heat despite Pearce outplaying him this series.

Pearce seems like he's in a great head space these days so I hope he can bounce back just like he did in 2013.

It'll also probably do him (and us) a lot of good if he's never picked for Origin again.

[Tommy Smith]

Just as an example of the witchhunt, I've seen him copping shit for last years series loss after last night.

How he led us in 2016 at halback to a 2 nil defeat before winning a meaningless decider.

Of course the problem with that is that he didn't even ****ing play last year!

The venom and vitriol is so strong that it's convincing people of things that never happened. That's literally a classic sign of a witch hunt.

[Tom Verlaine's Ghost]

People just don't get it. It doesn't MATTER who plays halfback. Who was half in 2014 when we won? Trent Hodgkinson. What does that tell you? We won that year because we had the desire and the heart. No other reason. Not because of the halfback. People just don't get it.

[roosterproud]

correct me if im wrong but isnt there 17 players in a team.........just asking........thank fcuk that sh1t is over for another year and we can all get back to winning a grand final

[PeeGee]

correct me if im wrong but isnt there 17 players in a team.........just asking........thank fcuk that sh1t is over for another year and we can all get back to winning a grand final

Yeah, Cronk hasn't been a superman, especially last night, but winners get good reviews

[Maxy Walker]

He'll be right I'm sure he knows by now not to listen to the idiots.

i think he actually thrives coming back to the comfortable environment of the roosters after the no win situation he gets put into in origin.

[Guest]

i don't feel sorry for the guy on 700k banging porn stars

[Bigchook]

Agree boogie. Misplaced sympathy in this thread. I feel like Pearce has been hard done by in series gone past, but last night him and maloney were terrible. Pop gun attack didn't fire a shot. I couldnt believe when we got some momentum in the second half on their line.. Tackle one on the 10m line we had three settlers.. Why? Where are they going? The halves need to step and run the attack. Just didn't happen last night. To be fair the whole side was average.

Don't get me started on fergos opposite getting a hattrick. Hopefully we view that footage when negotiating his next contract.

[The Brain]

Roosters ready for their next halfback in a years time .

[Jacks Fur Coat]

It was at the ruck where we were beaten. Our forwards lost the battle.

Peats works hard at hooker but we needed some more oomph and daring there.

I cant blame the halves.

[ism22]

Yeah, Cronk hasn't been a superman, especially last night, but winners get good reviews

Like any war, the winners take everything and write the history.

Pearce... I dunno! We just looked so rushed and back-footed last night. I can't pinpoint why, but like... our passes were either way too deep, crooked, misplaced...etc or they were hospital passes to big guys on their inside (rather than our quicker players backing themselves to take on the line). We worked hard but just couldn't gain momentum. For the few opportunities we got, we messed up.

Controversial, but I suggest that we shoulda taken the 2 points from in front when we were down 6-12 with about 20 to go. Did we REALLY want the game to end with a drop kicking battle v QLD? To me we needed to calm down and simplify our needs. 1 Try and 1 penalty woulda won it. Instead of taking the bikkies + resulting possession we got greedy and tried to take the whole cake. IMO this sums up our game... impatient, back-footed and not very 'wise' about stuff.

Back to Pearce, was his kicking good enough? I dunno what he was trying to do but ALL his kicks got fielded nicely. IMO he's a much better half that Munster, but Munster got to look much better by constantly doing grubbers into farking touch!!! Now if Munster played for NSW like that, he'd probably never play Origin again!!! I think Pearce did what he could. However, his passes were rushed (due to our whole team's failure to build pressure) and all his kicks largely went straight to Slater/Holmes (I sweak none caused 1 bit of confusion/frustration for the backs). They were nice and long, and to give him credit... a few of them turned Slater around. Part of the issue was chasers!!! Pearce would turn Slater/Holmes around a LITTLE (not much - but this is Origin so you take what you can!!!!) Problem? Nobody was farking there!!!! Instead we played all conservative, scattered our attack and eventually wrapped them up for a 1st tackle on the 30 or 40. What we needed was a few of Fergo, Morris, Hayne, Dugan, Teddy and a some forwards to be RIGHT IN SLATER'S FACE as he's catching the ball!!! That's how you rush him and force handling errors. I did not see that all night!

IMO it wasn't necessarily Pearce, but we just looked lifeless. Maybe that's just what happens to you when you lose so many games? You find it really hard to back yourself and be a little less defensive about your play.

If it were politics, it was a Kim Beazley-esque effort!!! We still lost to bloody Howard (as usual) but we lost by a smaller margin than we coulda had some nutcase (e.g. Latham) tried a heap of risky tactics. I dunno... maybe we did out best and it simply wasn't good enough? I think I'm starting to be of that opinion.

[Johnny Tobin]

Pearce was poor but he doesn't deserve the headlines in both papers asking or saying it's his last Origin.

I hope that he doesn't fall to pieces over it all.

I am 50/50 about whether I even want him to play Origin again - totally from a roosters point of view.

[Bigchook]

We were out played because our whole attack was one out hit ups which were easily read by qld. Our spine went missing last night.

[Thirteen]

That little hooker is out of his depth. Did he run once last night?

[ROC181]

The problem is that the media, including Johns & Gould, have been saying it that Pearce has to grab this series by the scruff... This in turn makes the sheep follow the premise that it's one mans responsibility to win it. If they win it's Fifita, Tedesco, Maloney, whoever's great skill, but if they lose it, It's totally Peaces fault. For the objective and rational fan out there, they will know that it wasn't just Pearce that played out there poorly, but it's easier for those who hate Pearce to blame it on him... It requires too much energy to think about blaming it on someone else.