
Wayne Pearce

Wayne Pearce
NSW Blues State of Origin Legend
Wayne Pearce affectionately known as “Junior” played 193 NRL games for the Balmain Tigers between 1980 to 1990. He was the Captain of the Tigers in the 1989 Grand Final arguably the most famous GF of all time. Wayne played 16 games for the NSW Blues in State of Origin and 19 Tests for Australia. Wayne was the first person to Captain the NSW Blues to a State of Origin clean sweep (in 1986) and then returned as Coach (in 2000) to guide the NSW Blues to a 3-nil Series win against Queensland.
Born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, he was only ever going to play for the Tigers. Wayne entered the spotlight after being chosen player of the tour on the record-breaking invincible Kangaroo tour of 1982. In 1984 he was again voted representative player of the year and in 1985 was awarded the prestigious Rothman’s Medal as the game’s best and fairest player.
Wayne captained his Club for seven seasons which included four successive Panasonic Cup finals (1985-1988) and two grand finals (1988-1989). At Representative level, Wayne played fifteen State of Origins for New South Wales. He captained the Blues from 1985-1988 including the first ever State of Origin clean sweep in 1986. Wayne also played 18 test matches for Australia from 1982 before retiring from International Rugby League after a victorious World Cup final victory over New Zealand in 1988. During his evolving football career, Wayne completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of New South Wales where he focused his studies on the psychology of peak performance.
This knowledge was particularly useful when he commenced a professional coaching career with the Balmain Tigers whom he guided into a merger with Western Suburbs to form the Wests Tigers. His success as the Tigers coach led to his appointment as New South Wales State of Origin coach in 1999. Wayne coached the Blues to 3-0 whitewash over Queensland in the year 2000 to become the only person to both captain (which he did in 1986) and then coach (in 2000) a 3-0 series whitewash.
In 1988, Wayne was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "for service to rugby league". Wayne was also the inaugural winner of the Ken Stephan Medal for Community Service by a professional rugby league footballer.
Wayne continues to be heavily involved in Rugby League in his leadership role as an Australian Rugby League Commissioner overseeing whole of game governance for the code of Rugby League in Australia. Wayne was the leader of the crisis management team and mission “Project Apollo” responsible for guiding the NRL competition succesfully through COVID-19.