SYDNEY ROOSTERS halfback Mitchell Pearce has blamed a drop in attitude for the stale period that has resulted in his side's woes being heaped on his 19-year-old shoulders.

Significant heat has been placed on Pearce for the Roosters' post-Origin slide, which resulted in them losing five from seven matches to drop out of contention for the minor premiership. While Roosters players and certainly coach Brad Fittler have been close to horrified by the criticism of the young halfback in his first full season of first grade, Pearce admitted yesterday his game had dropped away.

"I was pretty ordinary the first two weeks after Origin," he said. "I felt a bit flat. But we all put our hand up and knew that we weren't playing to the best of our ability - the last two games, when we got back up, we got our heads back on.

"It was a good little challenge for me to turn my attitude around a bit - not that I was bludging or anything like that. I probably wasn't as energetic as I should have been. I got my preparation a bit better and I feel better for it now."

Asked if the period had been the toughest challenge of his short career, Pearce said: "Yeah, probably. When you're winning, you can fly under the radar a bit. Even when you're not playing that good, you can still get raps.

"But I feel pretty good, and hopefully we can go close to the grand final. Everyone was probably down a bit with their energy, and I was included in that. [But] we just spoke as a team about how we had to pick our intensity up. I think we've turned it around."

That comes despite a last-start loss against Brisbane in the opening match of the finals series. Like the old saying that you have to lose a grand final to win one, maybe the same is true of the Roosters when it comes to finals. The Roosters are one of the least-experienced teams when it comes to players who have played in finals, and Pearce represents the new wave of Roosters with big potential but not big-game experience, even though he has an Origin cap.

Pearce believes he and his teammates will be better for last week, saying: "It was as quick as any game I've ever played in. It was the same as Origin. I was puffing after 20 minutes, and I'm defending two-in, three-in, so I can't imagine how it was for the forwards - it was certainly the hardest game I've played. I'm sure us younger guys will be better for that run."

Fittler can see elements of that from his own time as a teenage whiz-kid, who learned from his first finals appearance, for Penrith against Balmain in 1989.

"He's enjoying it," Fittler said. "He loves footy. You go through that stage where you think this is easy, and then you go through that stage when you think, Jesus! He's done that this year. He'll play footy for 15 years - there's no doubt."

Craig Fitzgibbon said the fact Pearce had a drop in form but had bounced back made his progress this year even more remarkable. "Playmakers are always at the forefront of when things don't work out - they seem to bear the brunt of the criticism," Fitzgibbon said. "For a 19-year-old kid to achieve what he's achieved in a year … there's not too many kids that can go out and do that in their second year of first grade. He's had a pretty remarkable year."