On this week’s episode of BTR, as we celebrate Wests Tigers 25th season in the NRL, we chat to the team’s very first coach and Balmain Tigers legend, Wayne Pearce.

Junior’ covers plenty of ground as our NRL and NRLW teams prepare for big games at Leichhardt Oval over the next few days. We chat about his days as a 14-year-old selling hotdogs on the very same hill that would eventually be named in his honour. He talks about his time as the inaugural coach of the joint-venture club, revealing how a call from his 7-year-old daughter was the catalyst for his decision to call it quits after that first season. He also reflects on the early days, outlining some of the struggles and the benefits of the joint-venture club, and of course that very first game against a star-studded Broncos team. A fitness fanatic, Pearce tells us how and why he was a pioneer in that space. It was a handful of events, including the death of his father, and contracting Hepatitis B from the ‘magic sponge’, that prompted Junior to complete a science degree and search for a healthier way of life. He recounts the ‘secret meeting’ he had with the late, great Jack Gibson in the early 80s, when Jack was trying to lure Pearce from Leichhardt to Parramatta. We chat about club legends including Benny Elias, the late Keith Barnes, and Benji Marshall, and about the disappointment of losing the ’89 Grand Final. Pearce also talks about the resilience and loyalty of Tigers’ fans; confident the club has put the building blocks in place to ‘turn the Titanic around’. All that and more on this week’s episode of Behind the Roar.