Jay Pitts determined to make John Kear proud in final game of his career

On March 28th, 2008, Jay Pitts made his professional debut.

He remembers clearly who gave him his debut that that.

“John Kear. The legend, the man.”

Over 18 years and 454 appearances later, Jay Pitts is ready to bring his career to an end. And just like the club, Pitts will be doing it for JK.

“I’ll never forget it. It was unbelievable for him to come and give me that opportunity even though it was Wigan away.

“It was pretty daunting and it was a horrible, horrible day as well. I think it was a rubbish game as well. I think we only just lost, but rugby-wise it was terrible.

“But for John to give me that opportunity, it’s something that I’ll never forget. I think everyone around here will be thinking the same thing of doing him proud this weekend and hopefully bringing back that trophy.”

Pitts only played 22 games under Kear before moving from Wakefield to Leeds Rhinos. But the impression he left was lasting.

“He’s an amazing bloke, a great person. He really cared for his players as well. Like I said, he gave me the confidence to be able to play in those games.

“If I didn’t have his backing or the confidence to think that I could do a job for him, then I wouldn’t have been able to go out there and do it. John was an amazing person and someone that was really close to me as well.

“Even when he left, he dropped text messages and stuff like that. When we won the Million Pound Game with London, he dropped a message saying good luck and well done and all that sort of stuff. He’s just a really lovely person.

“I’m sure he’ll be helping us out this weekend looking down.”

Regardless of what happens on Saturday, Pitts is ready to bing the curtain down on his career, though even he admits he would never have expected it to end with his first Grand Final appearance.

“If you’d asked me mid-season, I’d have probably said I can play forever. But now it’s coming towards the back end of the career, obviously everything aches a bit more and everything gets a bit more difficult.

“So, yes, I don’t really know when you actually know it is, but for me at this moment in time, it’s definitely the right time to call it. For me and my family and everything like that, it’d be an amazing way to finish off my career if we get that win on Saturday.”