In a roller coaster year for the nib Newcastle Knights, one constant has been the impressive form of halfback and captain Mitchell Pearce.
Pearce hit the ground running in 2019, warming to the task of leading the Knights to the top four in the middle of the season.
The man known to team mates as ‘Junior’ hit career-best form mid-season, leading the Knights on a stunning run of six straight wins, with the halfback man of the match in every single one of those games.
Pearce’s form was ultimately rewarded with a fairy-tale return to the Origin arena, where he led New South Wales to Origin glory in game three of the series alongside Knights team-mates Daniel Saifiti and David Klemmer.
In Pearce’s 23 appearances for the red and blue, he managed to claim eight tries having a major hand in 13 others. To go with this, he notched 17 line-break assists, 13 offloads and forced 15 line drop-outs.
Pearce’s running game proved to be dangerous all year, with the veteran No.7 running for 1695 metres at an average of 74 per game.
With a new coach inbound and 2020 shaping as an important year for the Club, there’s no doubt Mitchell Pearce will be looking to go to another level again next year.
