So what I get from the below articles is:
1. He still needs to be told he has to demand the ball
2. He didn't really take Joey's message to heart.
3. Even Sterlo recognises that a lot of faith has been invested in Pearce and he hasn't lived up to it thus far.
State of Origin 2017: Peter Sterling tells Mitchell Pearce to make his voice heard
Blues adviser Peter Sterling has implored Mitchell Pearce to make himself heard if NSW's plans threaten to fly off course again in the Origin decider, telling the halfback at training on Wednesday it fell on his shoulders to be the team's reassuring voice.
NSW lost their way in the final 20 minutes of Origin II, surrendering the lead and the momentum as Queensland pounced to level the series.
Sterling, Laurie Daley's right-hand man, joined the Blues as they began training for game three near their Kingscliff base on Wednesday and spoke to Pearce.
The Blues had asked media to leave their training venue by then and watch proceedings from behind the hessian material they have set up around the boutique Cudgen Rugby League Club ground. That was despite at least 100 members of the public remaining to watch on.
"They're looking for a reassuring voice, they want a confident voice and the number on his back says that he needs to be that. I don't know how much of that was there, but we just sort of said if things aren't going the way we need to be going, our big blokes who are tired they need to hear your voice.
"He just needs to settle the situation down and make sure we're on the same page. If we're going to learn lessons out of game two, that's one of them, and he'll take that on board. He's in a good head space now."
Pearce spoke on Wednesday about how NSW needed to "hunt the game" more and told of his post-game discussion with Andrew Johns after the Immortal had branded the Blues second-half display in Sydney
"the dumbest half of football NSW have played".
As the on-field general the natural inclination would be for Pearce to feel Johns was at least in part referring to his performance.
"I spoke to Joey after the game and he had his point of view and different things he thought," Pearce said. "Myself and other people had their points of view about where we went wrong. At the end of the day, Joey was right ... we did play a bit dumb.
"I have absolute respect – he is an Immortal of the game. I hate even talking about it because there is no beef there. He is a good mate of mine. There is no dramas at all.
"Joey is just a passionate NSW fan, he is a commentator and he saw it how he saw it. Hopefully this week he is yahooing and pumping us after a win. I didn't take it too much to heart."
So often identified as a scapegoat in losing Blues campaigns, next week's blockbuster shapes as the opportunity of a lifetime for Pearce to send a definitive message to the doubters after all he has been through.
"He's aware of all that," Sterling said. "It doesn't consume him, but I think deep down he realises what an important night for him Wednesday night could be.
"He'll get a lot of people off his back. I've never spoken to him about it, but I'd imagine it will be exactly the case ... almost some justification there for the faith that's been shown in him. I'm fair dinkum in the fact that if he plays well, and he's playing in a winning series, it will get a lot of people off his back.
"That was a concern coming into the series as to how much that might be on his mind coming into clutch moments, but we just want him to do what he does for the Roosters and in clutch moments he's been great and if it comes down to it he'll be putting his hand up to do the right thing at the right time."
