Wayne Pearce says Mitchell Pearce’s best football could still be in front of him

WAYNE Pearce says Mitchell Pearce’s best footy could still be in front of him while Paul Gallen fears Pearce’s move to the Knights could end his Blues career.

League legend Wayne Pearce has backed his son Mitchell’s move to Newcastle. Picture Gregg Porteous

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RUGBY league legend Wayne Pearce has opened up about why he backed his son Mitchell’s shock decision to choose wooden spooners Newcastle over Cronulla and Manly, declaring “it was a no brainer”.

While Sharks captain Paul Gallen labelled it a “huge risk” with the former NSW captain saying he fears Pearce’s “rep career may be the casualty”, his dad had a completely different view.

Speaking for the first time publicly since the 28-year-old playmaker quit the Sydney Roosters following Cooper Cronk’s signing, Wayne told The Saturday Telegraph Mitchell was ready to prove his critics wrong during the four-year term of his contract with the Knights.

“I am very excited for Mitchell because personally I think he is coming into the best phase of his career,” Wayne said.

“Physically he is perfect health and as a halfback, you look at the great halfbacks, they play some of their best footy in the later part of their 20s, going into their 30s.

Wayne Pearce backs his son’s move to Newcastle. Picture Gregg Porteous

“I will be quite excited to take that couple of hours drive up the freeway for each home game.”

Gallen said he didn’t “hold anything against” Pearce “for choosing Newcastle over the Sharks”.

But that didn’t stop him taking a giant swipe at the Knights.

“I backed him in walking away from the Roosters when they went and signed another halfback,” the former NSW captain wrote in his column for Sportingnews.com.

“And I said I’d respect whatever decision he came up with in regards to his future.

“But while he will be well compensated financially at the Knights, I will say he has taken a huge risk footy-wise in signing on with the current wooden spooners.

“In my opinion, Newcastle are two or three years away from being a consistent top eight side.

“As for winning competitions, well, I just can’t see that happening for a long, long time.”

It’s understood Wayne was far from happy about how the Roosters treated his son but chose not to go into that.

Instead, he wanted to focus on the future.

Roosters Mitchell Pearce during the Sydney Roosters v Cowboys NRL Preliminary Final at Allianz Stadium, Sydney. Picture: Brett Costello

Wayne said he stayed in constant contact with Mitchell throughout the process and it was a meeting at Nathan Brown’s home last Friday that swung the deal.

“Ultimately, when he went up there he came back from the very first meeting with Brownie and Phil Gardner and Darren Mooney very excited,” Wayne said.

“Personally, when he talked about this being the option that he was leaning towards, I absolutely supported it.

“It was a no brainer.

“It was the one that was going to work best for him and the club.

“As I said to Mitchell, I have always had a soft spot for Newcastle.

“It has a working class history which Balmain always had.

“In fact, when I finished my career, the last game I played at Newcastle in 1990, the club actually gave me a plate engraved that said ‘thanks for your contribution to the game’.

“For me, that was a very special moment.”

Originally published as Wayne Pearce says Mitchell Pearce’s best football could still be in front of him