Former NRL bad boy Mark Geyer has called for Mitchell Pearce to be given a 12-month NRL ban after the Sydney Roosters skipper was filmed simulating a lewd act with a dog during drunken Australia Day celebrations.
An intoxicated Pearce can be seen in a video forcing an unwanted kiss on a woman before grabbing a small dog and simulating a sex act.
"He needs to be suspended for 12 months, get a real job away from football and undergo both counselling and rehab," Geyer told Triple M on Thursday.
"He needs to be taken out of the system that he joined as a kid to appreciate what he's got.
"He is obviously powerless when affected by alcohol and cannot control his behaviour.
"Pearce needs help and needs to be as far away from footy as possible."
Former Newcastle and Cronulla star Matthew Johns, who was embroiled in a 2002 group sex scandal in New Zealand, agreed with Geyer and said Pearce's on-field achievements would now be overshadowed.
"The most difficult thing for Mitchell is the fact that what it does to your loved ones, the embarrassment it causes your loved ones," Johns said.
Former Roosters forward Jimmy Smith said he believed the club was left with no choice but to sack Pearce.
"To be honest it's not the crime of the century. In saying that, as a captain of an NRL club it is completely unacceptable," he told Fox Sports News.
"As a result of that I think the Roosters are left with very little option."
Smith said Pearce's chances of being picked up by an English Super League club or a European or Japanese rugby union outfit could be limited.
"Something like what Mitchell has done would be considered by them to be quite unsavoury," Smith said.
"It really limits what he can do in the future."
Rugby League commentator Andrew Voss said the video had disgraced Pearce's family especially his father, Balmain Tigers great and ARL commissioner Wayne Pearce.
"His dad is a recognisable face, that perhaps is the biggest punishment Mitchell Pearce has to live with," Voss told New Zealand's Radio Sport.
"Mitchell Pearce won't live it down, that's the biggest punishment he could possibly have.
"Anything the Roosters do or the NRL do I'd say plays a second fiddle to what he's done to his family." Parramatta legend Peter Sterling said Pearce would pay for his transgressions.
"This will be deemed to have brought the game into disrepute," Sterling said on Wednesday.
"You have to ask yourself how many times is that going to be abided and, when you get to this stage, how heavy do the NRL and the Roosters come down on him?"
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