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In 1986, Wayne Pearce captained the Blues to their first State of Origin clean sweep.
His son has never tasted such glory and it can be tough for a father to watch.
Mitchell Pearce is the only player in the current Blues squad to have endured six series defeats for no wins.
Over that time, the half-back has received much criticism, which he admits was hard to take at times.
But Wayne Pearce said he hopes his son's perseverance finally pays off on Wednesday night.
"Anyone that knows rugby league knows how well he's playing," he said.
"I just hope it's a dry track and we get the sort of spectacle that both these teams can put on and I think New South Wales has the ability to win the match."
He admits the nerves have set in.
"For me, Origin as a Dad, you definitely are more nervous, because when you're playing, you're out there, doing stuff and you get the energy out," he said.
"But as a parent your heart starts racing and it doesn't stop until the end of the match."
Even in one of Mitchell's rare victories, in Game I of this year's series, a concussion conspired to wipe the match from his memory.
The younger Pearce was involved in a nasty collision with Will Chambers in the second half and did not return to the match.
When Wayne embraced his son in the sheds after he was "pretty heavily concussed" in Game I, he did not expect the questions that would follow.
"I went down there and he couldn't remember much about the game, he was a bit incoherent at first," Wayne said.
"He said 'Dad how'd I go?'.
"I said 'you're going well. You scored a try'.
"He said 'how good was it?'.
"I said 'it was pretty good'."
Wayne said his son only really started remembering the game once he had watched the replay.
It was a cruel twist for him to be unable recall one of the five victories in which he has played.
After being dropped for the Blues' drought-breaking series win in 2014, Mitchell did not play in last year's Origin series after he was ruled ineligible for selection.
He spent the beginning of the year serving an eight-game suspension for an incident on Australia Day.
"I'm very proud of him, he had his setbacks, particularly at the start of last year, but he's worked tirelessly to get himself at the point where he's playing so well now," Wayne said.
"Even in his own words the journey isn't over, he believes he can get better."
Topics: state-of-origin, rugby-league, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
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