The struggling Wests Tigers rang the emergency bell this week with assistant coach Benji Marshall staging a desperate call to try and bring Mitchell Pearce back from England to pull on the number seven jumper—and he said no.
Yep, you read that right. The Tigers called for Pearce to help and he wasn’t having it.
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Pearce, who has been playing for the Catalans Dragons since the Newcastle Knights booted him out the door, turns 34 next week, but that didn’t scare the Tigers away. According to Fox Sports, who first broke the news on March 29, the 17th-placed club was willing to offer him a $1.5 million parachute back into the NRL if he signed for two years.
Instead, the Sydney Roosters great picked loyalty and told the Tigers he would be seeing out his contract with his French Super League club. He currently boasts an option in his favour for 2024 and is expected to activate that clause soon.
To make matters worse, Tim Sheens shot down the Pearce rumours this week.
A day later, Benji was ringing Pearce in a bid to have him take over from Luke Brooks—a move that failed. Then it all hit the media via a Pearce text to News Corp.
“I don’t really have much to say. Benji called me and I told him I’m contracted to Catalans,” Pearce said. “We are top of the table and I want to win a comp in Super League. That’s pretty much it.”
Pearce did originally say back in February that he’d “like another year in the NRL before retiring” but that came with the stipulation he’d “see what’s available.” Obviously, his options in regard to landing spots aren’t too appealing right now.
It’s no surprise either, considering how bad a spot the Tigers are in.
There’s still a very long way to go in the 2023 NRL season but that will be small solace for a Wests squad that has failed to win any of its first four hit-outs. Even worse, the reigning spooners haven’t looked too good either despite Tim Sheens and Benji Marshall’s move to coach and assistant coach respectively supposed to be a changing of the guard.
In particular, halfback Brooks and five-eighth-come-fullback Adam Doueihi have been struggling to make any major impact out on the park. Under their reign, Wests have lost by 12, two, four, and 12 points between rounds one and four.
“To be quite honest guys I’d prefer not to say anything at all about it because I want to talk about the game this week,” Sheens told reporters when prodded about the situation on Thursday. “But it’s obvious we have been chasing now for a while a senior half of some sort, the conversation was had, he’s not interested, he’s on contract, that’s it.”
The Tigers are in action again on Saturday against league leaders the Broncos.
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