Joe Pearce

Joe Pearce

Pearce in 1932
Personal information
Full name	Sidney Henry William Pearce
Nickname	Joe
Born	1910 Woollahra, New South Wales
Died	16 October 1995 Double Bay, New South Wales
Playing information
Weight	15 st (95 kg)
Position	Second-row
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1929–42 Eastern Suburbs 147 34 14 0 130 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1930–41 New South Wales 32 6 10 0 38 1932–37 Australia 13 1 1 0 5
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1944 Eastern Suburbs 14 4 0 10 29

Sid 'Joe' Pearce (1910–1995) was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1930s and 1940s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative second-row forward, he played his club football for Eastern Suburbs with whom he won the NSWRFL Premiership in 1935, '36, 37 'and '40. Son of fellow Australian Rugby League Hall of Famer, Sandy Pearce, he is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

He was a junior Australian Rules footballer in Sydney's eastern suburbs district but switched to rugby league and first appeared as a full-back for the Tricolours in 1929 before moving into the forwards.

Joe was an outstanding ball-playing second-rower in the champion Easts' side that saw premiership success in seasons 1935, 1936 and 1937. He had captained the club in 1933 and saw further premiership success with them in 1940.

He first represented for New South Wales in 1930 and for the next twelve seasons without fail he played in the interstate series. He debuted for Australia against the touring Great Britain side in 1932. He played in all three Tests of that tour and whilst not a kicker at Easts, booted a conversion in the second Test filling in for Eric Weissel.