I think it’s admirable that you are sticking up for Pearce. He has been so maligned that it’s almost bullying. But surely you can see where the criticism has come from.
Maloney had a shit game last night, and it wasn’t the first time. The key difference between Pearce and Maloney is that Pearce has also had plenty of shockers, but he has never had a game where he stood up like Maloney did in Perth.
And Pearce was poor again last night. His kicking game was ineffective, he needed to play tighter and more direct around the ruck, and he needed to play deeper and more direct on backline spreads. He had a backline at his disposal last night that was brimming with talent and needed early ball, and very rarely got it.
Happy for him to win a series, and happy for him to throw the long ball to get it to the edge for the winning try. That should get some monkeys off his back. But I think he is very lucky that the Hail Mary play worked, because it glossed over his poor game.