‘Stinks of desperation’: Wests Tigers chase Mitchell Pearce

The Wests Tigers are set to chase former premiership winner and Origin halfback Mitchell Pearce to turn its season around.

Mitchell Pearce playing for Catalans Dragons. Supplied

The Wests Tigers are reportedly preparing to offer former Roosters and NSW Origin halfback Mitchell Pearce an NRL lifeline.

The 2013 premiership winner and 19-game NSW Blues star played 309 NRL first grade games before leaving the country to play for Catalans in the English Super League.

Watch every game of every round of the 2023 NRL Telstra Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Pearce was released from the final year of his Newcastle Knights deal at the end of the 2021 NRL season to join Catalans.

But almost as soon as he left, Pearce was linked to a return and the 33-year-old refused to close the door.

Last year, Pearce told SEN: “Look, I haven’t shut the door on anything. If you had of asked me six months ago whether I’d be in the south of France I wouldn’t have even imagined that.

“At the moment I’m 100 per cent committed to the Dragons, I’ve got a two-year contract with a third-year option.

“I’m really hungry to win a trophy here with the boys, that’s where my focus is.

“But who knows? I’m not going to shut anything off completely.”

And the Tigers are the team to take a shot at the star, with NRL 360 reporting the club is preparing a $1.5m two-year deal to lure Pearce back.

Having lost its opening four games of the season and seemingly having little spark in attack behind Luke Brooks and Adam Doueihi in the No. 6 and 7 jerseys, the Tigers were taking another shot at Pearce, after Fox League reported James Hooper revealed the club had tried before Christmas, only for the deal to fall over.

Pearce won one of the eight Origin series’ he was involved in. Picture. Phil Hillyard

But host Paul Kent wasn’t too sold on it solving all the Tigers’ problems.

“It stinks of desperation,” Kent said.

“What it does is it delays this whole five-year plan they’ve got. Every Tigers fan got sold on the five-year plan with Sheensy there for two years then Benji to take over for three more years and the best solution they come up with to fix their problems is to go to a halfback that hasn’t played in the competition for several years who is about to turn 34 years old, and chuck the two halves they’ve got out, one of which is on $1 million a year.”

Hooper asked however: “What’s the better solution?”

But Braith Anasta was a fan of the move and said Pearce could transform the club overnight.

“No disrespect to the halves they’ve got there at the moment but he’d do a better job than both of them,” Anasta said.

“He is getting a bit (old). But he’s a leader, he’s very dominant which is what they need, he’s a traditional half and I think he’d bring a lot of direction to the side which they don’t have, he’d play off the back of Koroisau. If they can get him at the right price, I think he's definitely way better than the two they’ve got there at the moment.

“I still think it’s a Bandaid, I still think the problem with the Tigers is that they go around and around and around in circles the last 10-15 years.”

Kent interjected: “You know what the problem with the Tigers is? It makes sense.

“The best option they’ve got for their problem is that they need to go get a halfback that’s played two years in France, who left the NRL. Where is their succession planning as far as their roster goes?”

Mitchell Pearce last played for the Knights. Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis said the Tigers had chased the likes of Cameron Munster and Mitchell Moses, as well as denying Luke Brooks the opportunity to leave the club.

“Their biggest mistake was not letting Luke Brooks go to Newcastle, and David Nofoaluma stay in Melbourne,” he said. “It would have saved them a $1m.”

Tigers legend Steve Roach added while Pearce could do well in the Tigers’ No. 7, it showed why the halfback market was so lucrative.

“They need someone, they need an organiser because they’re not going great at the moment,” Roach said.

“He’s been a great player and a premiership winner but it goes to show how desperate people are for a No. 7.”