Ditching Pearce might have been an option if we didn’t just have 2 years of COVID wreaking havoc on NSW Cup- too many of our young players have missed developing their game and getting that experience needed to take the next step into first grade.
Hodgson has proven absolutely nothing in Australia, and shouldn’t be thrown into first grade until he does. If he came through the juniors in Australia we might have bit of a better idea how he’d handle the step up, but I’m not too keen for him playing NRL next year unless it’s to cover injury/Origin.
Ideally next year, O’Brien develops a plan that best utilises our current spine of Ponga, Clifford, Pearce and Brailey. The focus needs to be on allowing Pearce to step back and hand control over to Clifford in preparation for 2023 when hopefully Hodgson and Ponga have a few more strings in their bow.