Mitchell Pearce ready to embrace leading young Knights to glory
As his 30th birthday approaches, Mitchell Pearce is turning his attention to being the best leader he can after being named to captain Newcastle again in the 2019 season.
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Newcastle Knights captain Mitchell Pearce may have the big 3-0 looming in a little of over a month, but it’s not going to send him into any kind of career crisis.
He’s in a good place. The move to Newcastle has changed his perspective, he’s more relaxed — “I just roll with things now” — but there are still has things on his to-do list.
He was confirmed on Wednesday night to again lead the Knights in 2019 and doing that job the best he can is what he’s out to achieve as he enters in this later phase of his playing career.
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“I suppose I’m happy (at this stage). I’ve got through a fair bit but there are still plenty of things I want to do,” Pearce said.
“For me, being a leader here and evolving that role is a big thing for me. When you get a bit older it’s not just about yourself, it’s about your influence on the other boys and doing the right thing and it’s something I want to focus on.
“As a footy player I want to be getting better and playing my best footy, but as a leader as well, it’s a big responsibility for me to keep evolving in that for the group and the club.”
Pearce knows that if he is playing his best footy then things like having another shot at Origin will take care of themselves.
He feels in good shape ahead of this season.
After enduring one of the longer pre-seasons of his career — “a big pre-season for my age” — because of an early return after the Knights missed last year’s finals, he’s ready to hit the field and start one of the club’s most anticipated campaigns in recent memory.
For the first time in a long time Newcastle is being talked about as a genuine finals contender.
Though many at HQ are quick to talk that down — probably more in self preservation than outright denial — there’s no question this roster presents the club’s best chance in a while to push into September.
It’s slowly, slowly for now, but do they believe they could win a premiership in the near future?
“Yeah, for sure, I do. You’ve got to see it. You’ve got to see it to believe it,” Pearce said. “I’d love to. We’re wasting our time if we don’t.
“I definitely see us with an opportunity to fight for a premiership. I wouldn’t say anything else because I believe there’s an opportunity there to create the next few years.
“But for us, we have a long way to go to nail our game that’s going to give us an opportunity of doing those things.”
The Knights’ trial matches against St George Illawarra and Cronulla showed what work there is still to do.
Pearce will start this season pairing Kalyn Ponga in the halves and the combinations between them and fullback Connor Watson did not click like fans would have hoped during the warm-up games.
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Last week’s 30-6 loss to the Sharks at Maitland exposed the defensive lapses that hurt them last year when they had the worst defensive record in the competition.
Despite all the talk around the team’s positional switches, it’s that area that concerns them more ahead of their season opener at home against Cronulla Friday next week.
“We want to defend well, that’s a big priority,” Pearce said.
“You’ve got be a good defensive team to be consistent week in, week out.
“Me and Kalyn (Ponga) keep trialling the game plan, we’ve got no doubt we have the ability in our side, it’s a matter of putting that into play.
“We’re coached well, we’re all talking the right stuff. We’ve worked really hard on what we want our style to look like and now it’s about performing.”
Originally published as Mitchell Pearce ready to embrace leading young Knights to glory
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