BY STAFF WRITERS

Mitchell Pearce only has himself to blame. Forget every tiny detail of his texting “scandal” and whether or not this whole thing should have been played out behind closed doors – how the Newcastle Knights wanted it to go.

The fact is, Pearce has stumbled from one drama to another in a career that started many years ago.

Groping girls in King’s Cross, being recorded abusing a little dog while blind drunk or the latest stuff up – Pearce has made it really difficult to get behind him on or off the field.

The 31-year-old got out of Sydney when the Roosters in 2018 when Trent Robinson brought Melbourne’s Cooper Cronk to the club. Out of sight, out of mind. Pearce could restart his career and his life in Newcastle. A rugby league city that spent more than a decade turning a blind eye to Andrew Johns’ antics at local establishments around the town. Not every incident is news worthy. Pearce could get away with a bit more up in the Hunter.

That’s not to say Pearce hasn’t changed many aspects of his life.

Ask those close to him and they’ll tell you Pearce is a far more mature man and leader.

But nobody is perfect.

Pearce is the poster boy.

Last year, Fox League’s Bryan Fletcher and Nathan Hindmarsh interviewed three Knights players for a segment on the Matty Johns Show. One of them was Pearce. The captain and halfback. A veteran of almost 300 NRL games.

He didn’t look or act like the guy desperate to lead Newcastle to their first premiership since 2001. Pearce carried on like an 18-year-old rookie and led the sexual innuendos.

Pearce is off contract this year and the Knights would be crazy to re-sign him.

He’s also been linked to a shift to Wests Tigers.

His dad and teetotaller, Wayne Pearce, is a legend of Balmain.

But that’s as far as that romance should go.