Personally my top 5 NRL era halfbacks would be (in no particular order)
Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Daly Cherry-Evans, Andrew Johns and Stacey Jones.
I'd even have Adam Reynolds in front of Pearce and possibly Shaun Johnson. Pearce would be even further down the list if it was halves (including 5/8's) and not just halfbacks because I'd have Foz, Carney, Marshall and Lockyer in front of him, at least.