Mitchell Pearce is clutching to the philosophies that revitalised his career at the Knights insisting he's "not even trying to be a cliché, but I'm only focused about winning the day."
The Knights are eager to bounce back under the hand of new coach Adam O'Brien after a rocks and diamonds year eventually collapsed in a missed finals berth amid the farcical exit of Nathan Brown.
Mitchell was a consistent positive force in the Knights' control room pulling the strings behind a six-game undefeated mid-season run that pushed him back into a NSW jersey for the decider, resulting in a first Origin series victory.
Playing a starring role for the Blues, Pearce began to re-write his legacy in the interstate arena.
With the 2020 season a little over a week away, Pearce said he would love another crack at representative football but stressed he wasn't focused on anything else but "winning each day".
"I'm not even trying to be a cliché I'm literally just worried about winning the day and the process," Pearce told Wide World of Sports.
"I really enjoyed last year. We had the Origin camp a couple of months back and there's a really good environment there at the moment. Freddy has created a really trusting environment. I'd love to be back there next year, it was a really great feeling.
"I've got plenty of goals this year, but it's one week at a time."
It's a mantra that is born out of a scarring finish to the season as the team appeared to turn against coach Brown, leading to his departure with four weeks remaining in the season and finals still on the line.
It led to huge criticism of the club, from the top down, with Newcastle icon Andrew Johns saying Knights management had "sabotaged" their season. But months away from the firestorm O'Brien has seemingly won over his troops.
Having spent years at the Storm under coach Craig Bellamy and a year under Trent Robinson's Roosters, Pearce said the squad was taken aback by the philosophies O'Brien was bringing to the Hunter franchise.
"I couldn't speak highly enough of Adam," Pearce said. "He's bought some great ideas and the work ethic and training systems have really gone to a new level.
"It's a lot of smart training, new for a lot of the boys so we really enjoyed it.
"He's been in obviously two great systems, he's highly respected and I couldn't speak highly enough of him.
"There's a bit of that (Roosters philosophy). Obviously those two clubs over the last decade have probably been the most professional, and I think he's got a taste of both.
"Obviously he's got his own ideas, he's a strong character, he's hard working and he's got a lot of intelligence to him – so we've got a beauty."
Pearce also poured cold water over the mounting speculation surrounding Kalyn Ponga's potential new $4.5 million dollar contract extension, with a deal currently sitting on the table.
The lucrative contract which reportedly has a release clause to allow the NRL prodigy to make a highly touted code switch to join the All Blacks for their 2023 World Cup campaign.
"Kalyn has been great, I think a lot of people forget how young he is, Pearce said.
"There's obviously a lot of media talk. We don't read it as a club and I know Kalyn doesn't read into it too much. Whatever people are hearing out there, all I can see from KP is that he's training every day, trying to improve his game ad doing his best for the team.
"He's evolving every day. He's talking a lot better, he's only 21 but he's ahead of his years in as far as talent, and he's intelligent so he's going to have a big year.
"None of the boys really talk about it (speculation on Ponga's future). K is a pretty free-spirited, creative kid and doesn't sort of get caught up in that too much. Like I said, he's been working his backside off and been great."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/mitchell-pearce-focussed-on-winning-at-newcastle-knights/8d226fb1-fcbd-4730-9c30-0de72ff56b45
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