Roosters coach Trent Robinson in awe of halfback Mitchell Pearce's post-Origin turnaround MITCHELL Pearce might be sick and tired of talking about his post-Origin resurrection but Roosters coach Trent Robinson is adamant the courage Pearce has shown to bounce back from this year's disappointment says everything about his fighting spirit. In the countdown to Sunday's Grand Final Pearce is again being hailed as NSW's best halfback option despite him publicly declaring before this year's series decider that it would be his last appearance in the sky blue jumper if NSW didn't win. But despite being shattered from that loss the way Pearce has performed in the months since has silenced even his harshest critics to the point where most now believe the NSW No.7 job is his to lose heading into 2014. Pearce fired his first shot at redemption just three days after the series decider when he came up with a man of the match performance in his comeback game against Cronulla - and he has gone from strength to strength since. Robinson was full of praise for his much maligned halfback at Thursday's Grand Final lunch. Mitchell Pearce during Thursday's NRL Grand Final lunch. Picture: Philip Hillyard "As soon as that game three finished, Pearcey hadn't changed in our eyes,"" Robinson said. We were proud of the way that he dealt with things and it shows great character. Different people go in different directions after series loses like that. We felt like we needed to support him but Pearcey came in the next day and he was ready to go. Sometimes you feel like that is a bit of a high, a bit of a rebound effect and that is going to drop off, but it didn't drop off. The guy thought about it, dealt with it, copped a lot of criticism and decided to get on the front foot and play footy. That shows great character. Not that Pearce wants to talk about it after he expressed frustration at the line of questioning twice during Thursday's lunch. Robinson was initially asked for his thoughts on Pearce's post-Origin fightback at a media conference before the event even started and as Robinson started to answer the question Pearce looked at his teammates on stage with a look on his face as if to say "not this again." Soon after it was again brought up for public analysis when Fox Sports host Warren Smith asked Robinson pretty much the same question during the live broadcast. There were about 900 guests on hand at The Star and every one of them appeared interested to hear what the coach was about to say but as soon as Robinson started to talk Pearce again said something to the players around him, clearly exasperated that the subject had even been mentioned. "I sort of get sick of people talking about it to be honest," Pearce said. Laurie Daley and Andrew McKinlay preview the Grand Final clash between Sydney Roosters and Manly Sea Eagles. You know, players are getting over losses and stuff all the time. I was obviously disappointed for about a week, as the whole squad was. But Sunday night is his chance to put the argument to bed once and for all. Pearce has played 12 games for NSW but is yet to guide the Blues to a series victory and many thought after this year's series he was unlikely to get another crack. But there is no question his game has scaled to new heights during the back end of 2013 season and much of the credit must go to the coaching staff at the Roosters and in particular Robinson. Robinson seems to have taught Pearce that what separates the good playmakers from the great ones is game management and Pearce seems to have found a new maturity in the way he works towards completing sets. Pearce was also asked Thursday what has changed for the Roosters since the 2010 grand final loss to the Dragons. "It's a completely different situation,"" he said. The team felt in 2010 was a bit of a tidal wave we got on and every semi-final in the finals series was like a little grand final. By the time we got to the big one probably part of us was just happy to be there. We obviously wanted to win but this year we obviously feel a bit more stable and we really trust our game plan and what we are about. But it all means nothing if we can't come away with it on Sunday.