She finally got her answer last year in inking an NRLW contract with the Dragons who fended off interest from a number of clubs to lock the crafty No. 7 down.

It came as no surprise to those who've followed the last 12 months of her career in which she earned Country honours and steered Helensburgh to a remarkable finals berth in the NSW Women's Premiership.

It's a tidy return on a gamble that began humbly in a pub in Hay.

"I was captain-coaching the [Hay] league tag team and I broke my foot at the end of 2017," Pearson recalls.

"It took me 12 months to get back into the swing of things so I was in a moon boot selling raffle tickets at the pub and I looked up at the TV.

"There was an Australian [Jillaroos] game on, I think Kezie [Apps] and Jess [Sergis] were playing. I just remember thinking 'I'd really like to give that a go'."

It's one thing to think it, it's another thing altogether to act on it, especially when it meant shifting to Wollongong with a bed in her brother's spare room the only thing guaranteed. It was throwing all her chips on the table.

"I was pretty comfortable in Hay," she said. "I was 24, I loved my job with people I really enjoyed working with but [rugby league] was something I wanted to do.

"I mentioned it to my league tag coach and he said he'd make some phone calls and playing with Helensburgh was the choice we made. I knew (brother) Andrew was in Wollongong so I had a place to crash.

"I didn't have a job or anything, I just moved up here at the start of 2019. All of a sudden Sammy Bremner was my coach.

"I thought 'oh shit, this is pretty big', and then I'm at training and Kezie Apps and Jess Sergis are right there. I thought 'well I'm in the right spot here'."

A year later she skippered the Tigers to the Illawarra premiership, the proud club's first title in four years. It preceded the Burgh's shift into the elite NSW competition, though the club's push at that trophy was scuppered by COVID.

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Pearson parlayed that campaign into a Country jumper, a spot in the extended NSW origin squad and interest from a number of NRLW teams.

It was the culmination of a best laid plain, but it didn't make finally inking an NRLW contract with the Dragons any less emotional.

"When the Harvey Norman opportunity [with Helensburgh] came up I thought 'this is where I can really test myself and my ability'," she said.

"Getting combinations with Jess and Kezie and then getting the call up for Country, I was obviously catching the eye of some people. I was still surprised to get the call, you're never guaranteed anything.

"I had the call from the Dragons and the Roosters so I went from having no NRL [contract] to then having to choose which was pretty crazy.

"I made the decision to go with the Dragons back home in Hay so I had my sister, brother, mum, dad, everyone with me. We had few tears and it was pretty emotional because I'd reached that goal I set for myself."

Of course it was all thrown asunder when the ARLC made the controversial decision to postpone the 2021 NRLW competition until February this year.

COVID still looms large with the arrival of the Omicron variant but, with the Dragons to officially report for duty on Monday, Pearson won't let the uncertainty dampen her enthusiasm.

"[The postponement] was disappointing," she said. "I was just scratching the surface of these NRL teams, NSW and whatever else. I'd just just got my toe in the door, the carrot was dangled there, and it got yanked away.

"You start to think it's never coming but the club's been great. Heady (Mat Head) was great and reaching out to me a lot and and, now he's moved into a different role, Sowie (coach Jamie Soward) has come in and has been really good.

"As a former half he obviously wants to build a relationship with me as a halfback. We start on the 10^th of January and I just can't wait to get in there with Sowie and the girls. It's been a long time coming."

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