Daisy Pearce

Daisy Pearce
Daisy Pearce
	Pearce post-match with Melbourne in 2022
Personal information
Full name	Daisy Pearce
Date of birth	27 May 1988 (age 36)
Place of birth	Bright, Victoria, Australia
Original team(s)	Darebin (VFLW)
Draft	2016 marquee signing
Debut	Round 1, 2017, Melbourne vs. Brisbane, at Casey Fields
Height	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder / defender
Playing career
Years	Club
2017–2022 (S7)	Melbourne
Representative team honours
Years	Team
2017	Victoria
International team honours
2006	Australia
Coaching career
Years	Club
2024–	West Coast (W)
Career highlights
	AFLW AFL Women's premiership player: S7 (c); Melbourne captain: 2017–2018, 2020–2022 (S7); 3× AFL Women's All-Australian team: 2017 (c), 2018, S6; 3× Melbourne best and fairest: 2017, 2018, S6; 4× AFLPA AFLW best captain: 2017, 2018, 2020, S6; AFL Women's State of Origin best-on-ground: 2017; VWFL/VFLW 10× VWFL/VFLW premiership player: 2006, 2007, 2008 (c), 2009 (c), 2010 (c), 2013 (c), 2014 (c), 2015 (c), 2016 (c), 2017; Darebin captain: 2008–2016; 6× Helen Lambert Medal: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015; VFL Women's best and fairest: 2016; 2× Lisa Hardeman Medal: 2005, 2014; 5× Darebin best and fairest: 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012;
	Source: AustralianFootball.com

Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagles.

Often regarded as the face of women's Australian rules football,^[2]^[3]^[4] Pearce served as Melbourne captain from the competition's inaugural season in 2017 until her retirement at the end of season 7,^[d] having previously captained the club in the women's exhibition games staged prior to the 2016 creation of the league. She captained Victoria in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match in 2017, where she was adjudged best afield.

Pearce began her state league career in 2005 with the Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL), captaining the club from 2008 to 2016 and playing roughly 200 games until her final match in 2017. She is a ten-time premiership player (seven times as captain), seven-time league best and fairest winner in the VWFL and VFL Women's (VFLW) competitions and five-time Darebin best and fairest winner. She represented Victoria at both under-19 and senior level, and was recruited by Melbourne with the first selection in the inaugural national women's draft in 2013 for the first women's exhibition game.

Pearce was a marquee signing for Melbourne's AFL Women's team leading into the competition's first season in 2017. At AFLW level, Pearce is a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian (including as captain of the 2017 team and vice-captain of the 2018 team) and captained Melbourne to its first AFL Women's premiership in season 7. She is a four-time AFLPA AFLW best captain and three-time Melbourne best and fairest winner, with the latter named in her honour in 2023. The VFL Women's best and fairest award, of which Pearce was the inaugural recipient in 2016, was also named partly in her honour in 2018.

Following her playing retirement, Pearce transitioned into coaching. She was as a development coach with the Geelong Football Club's Australian Football League (AFL) team in 2023, and will serve as AFLW senior coach of West Coast from the 2024 season.

Outside her playing and coaching career, Pearce became an established media personality in both television and radio. She is an expert commentator for the Seven Network and 1116 SEN's AFL coverage; she appeared on the Seven Network program AFL Game Day as a rotating panel member from 2016 until the show's cancellation in 2020 and hosted her own podcast on SEN, This Is Grit, in 2019.

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