Pearce vows to fight on
MITCHELL Pearce is adamant his latest State of Origin disappointment won’t break him but concedes ‘‘there’s obviously something wrong with the state’’ and its preparation after the Blues’ game three capitulation.
The post-mortems into the NSW camp and its culture continue despite Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan escaping sanction for a drinking session just days before the decider. The NSWRL has absolved them from wrongdoing, although the pair have conceded they would have refrained if given their time again.
However, others have pointed to that and other incidents as pointers to a poor team culture, with former Blues coach Phil Gould suggesting he wouldn’t allow his Panthers players to participate in future campaigns until it was overhauled.
The NSWRL will appoint an external consultant to conduct the first major review since the 2010 Canavan report in an attempt to get to the bottom of the latest failure. The Blues camps appears to be a good starting point after Pearce admitted the preparation at Kingscliff for the final game fell short of what was required.
‘‘As a whole team and state, our preparation going into game three, our preparation missed somewhere. As players, we take responsibility for that,’’ Pearce said. ‘‘There was something along the lines that went wrong because we turned up and didn’t do our state proud.’’
Wests Tigers prop Aaron Woods questioned the length of the camps, while Andrew Fifita wasn’t enamoured with the decision to set up home base at The Star for game two.
Pearce had no issue with the length of the build ups – the maligned playmaker said he would happily reassemble for a ‘‘game four’’ if there was one – but there were issues to address.
‘‘At the end of the day, we all want NSW to win, we all want to do our best,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s obviously something wrong with the state. The preparation and the way we’re delivering, because we haven’t won for a long time. I’m sure there are a lot smarter people than me who will work that out.’’
Pearce has taken much of the blame for the latest defeat. The 28-year-old has featured in seven series but has never been on the winning side.
‘‘As a half, I wouldn’t want it any other way,’’ he said.
‘‘When you win, you get the result and the credit as a half. That’s the joy of being a half, you ride the highs and lows. When you pull up short, you take some responsibility and you don’t shy away from that.
‘‘I was disappointed with the last game.
‘‘It’s disappointing, a kick in the guts.
‘‘You can lie over it and whinge or you can get back up and play for your club and keep pushing yourself to be a better player. That’s what I’ll be doing.’’
Peace remains in contention for the Dally M Medal but hasn’t been able to bring his club form into the interstate arena. However, he said the latest setback – he has lost 13 of his 18 appearances in the Blues jersey – won’t scar him.
‘‘It’s disappointing that I wasn’t able to win the series this The Sun-Herald GETTY IMAGES year,’’ he said.
‘‘It was a big goal and something I had my mind set on. It was a lot of build up for me, all sorts of angles, but I wanted to win just like the other 17 boys in the team.
‘‘It’s not going to break me. I’ll go again, I bounced back for the Roosters last night and I’m looking forward to the back end of the year. There’s plenty more to achieve.’’