Mitchell Pearce could still play a role for NSW in this year’s State of Origin series, despite being dumped from the Blues side for next week’s interstate opener.

Pearce wasn’t named in the side announced on Tuesday by NSW coach Laurie Daley for Origin I in Brisbane on May 28, with Canterbury playmaker Trent Hodkinson preferred at halfback.

Daley said Pearce was overlooked due to his highly publicised off field antics but wouldn’t rule out the Sydney Roosters premiership winning halfback from Blues calculations this season.

“He is a wonderful man but he has made an error, I know that he will bounce back,” Daley said.

“He needs to go back to the Roosters and play a couple of big games for them, that is probably in his best interests.

“To get himself confident again, if he does that we will see what happens.

“It is not a phone call you want got make, it is not a decision you take lightly because you know that it means a lot to pull on that blue shirt.

“He understood the reasons why, there are a number of reasons why but at the end of the day we thought that was in the best interests of the team.

“He supported that and I know we will continue to stay in touch.”

“After speaking to him I knew the right decision was to leave him out of game one.

“That’s not to say he won’t play any further part in the series.”

Hodkinson will line up in his Blues debut alongside his Canterbury halves partner Josh Reynolds with Daley revealing Blues incumbent five-eighth and Pearce’s Roosters teammate James Maloney was also a victim of that big night out and a slip in form.

“I have stated all along I would have loved to have kept guys from last year’s series but performance would dictate that,” Daley said.

“The Roosters haven’t been travelling that well, they have had their issues and their halves are not playing as well as they would like to.

“When you take a lot of things into consideration they (Hodkinson and Reynolds) are in form and they are playing in a winning team as Mitch and Jimmy Maloney were last year.”