Daisy won’t be defined by her flag dream
DAISY Pearce is adamant she won’t be defined by whether she wins an AFL Women’s premiership as she prepares to celebrate a milestone she admits has even surprised herself.
The Melbourne captain will notch 50 AFL Women’s games on Saturday night after sixand-a-half years at the top level that has also included pregnancy and the birth of twins Roy and Sylvie, three All-australian nods, three Melbourne best and fairest awards, a grand final berth and all of her 50 games being as skipper.
The Demons currently sit third on the ladder and are firmly in the flag mix.
And while she’d “love” an AFLW premiership, she maintains she will still walk away fulfilled when the day comes – but that won’t be just yet.
“I’d love one,” she said on Thursday. “It didn’t come into
my thinking (about playing on this year). It’s more this ongoing hunger and desire to be involved.
“It’s less about ticking that box and having a premiership as it is about just love for the game. If I extrapolate that out to the scenario where I do hang up the boots and I haven’t got one, I think I’ll walk away still really fulfilled and feeling like the game has given me so much.”
Pearce, 34, played “about 150” games for Darebin in the VWFL/VFLW, where she won 10 premierships – seven of those as captain.
She said she was “normally one to kind of brush it off” when it came to personal milestones, but the looming honour had felt a little different.
“Fifty doesn’t sound like many,” Pearce said. “But for AFLW … I couldn’t play a single game until I was nearly 29. It might not sound like many on paper, but it feels like a lot.”