Roosters stars Mitchell Pearce and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves admit taking club’s form personally

MITCHELL Pearce and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves have taken the Roosters losing start to the year so personally, they’ve regularly broken down in tears after games.

SIDELINED stars Mitchell Pearce and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves have taken the Roosters losing start to the year so personally, they’ve regularly broken down in tears after games.

Emotions are set to be running high at Allianz Stadium on Saturday as the tricolours’ key men make their anticipated returns for the first time this season in the must-win clash against Newcastle.

Waerea-Hargreaves had to be warned by coach Trent Robinson to tone it down at training last week after ripping in so hard he knocked out teammate Omar Slaimankhel.

Meanwhile, Aidan Guerra says he hopes Pearce isn’t blaming himself for the 1-7 start that’s coincided with his eight week suspension for drunken behaviour, although the dressing room tears would suggest the halfback has taken it very much to heart.

Prop Kane Evans has revealed Pearce, Waerea-Hargreaves and Boyd Cordner, who only returned from his own long-term injury last week, have struggled to deal with the helplessness of their situations.

“Mitchell, Boyd and Jared they’re all very passionate blokes and they’re the pillars of our club and for them watching us how bad we’ve gone … I’ve seen after the game that they’ve been crying and stuff like that,” said Evans.

“After the game you’ll see them and they’ll be shattered, they’ll be tearing up. Boyd he’s very emotional so I think after most of the games Boyd was a wreck. After we lose you see him there in tears — watery eyes and that.

“But most of them are pretty wrecked after the game because they’re just so passionate about the team.

“I know they’ve been feeling it, they’re very passionate blokes, so to have them all back it’s going to be massive. They’ll leave it all out there on the field.”

Pearce was left gutted after his suspension, but the emotion of feeling like he’d let down his teammates would have only been compounded 10 fold by the fact the Roosters have barely landed a blow without him.

Guerra said no one in the team was holding Pearce responsible and the Roosters are still adamant they can turn things around immediately and still make the top eight.

“He’s a passionate guy, he’s an emotional guy and I hope he’s not taking it personally,” he said.

“Because from this whole drama that happened on Australia Day, after that he’s grown into a better person. It’s helped him develop as a person.

Mitchell Pearce back at training with the Roosters at Moore Park.

“Although we were hurting on the field we don’t want him to shoulder any of that blame, but he probably will because that’s the kind of guy he is.

“But the players on the field are the only ones responsible for our performances and we’re happy that away from the game he’s become a better person and learnt a bit about himself because that’s the main thing. We wanted him to be alright rather than us as a team how we were going to go.”

Evans and Moa are both looking forward to the fireworks set to explode around Waerea-Hargreaves’ return from a knee-reconstruction. Moa says the Kiwi enforcer has never been fitter or more motivated.

“Jared got warned a couple of weeks ago how keen he was at training,” he said. “He was just bashing everyone and you can see the excitement in his face.

“That’s just who he is. He doesn’t take a backwards step. Robbo (coach, Trent Robinson) might say 50 per cent physical contact, and with Jared there’s no 50 per cent — it’s straight to 100.”

Originally published as Roosters stars Mitchell Pearce and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves admit taking club’s form personally