Pearce content to retire from playing
AN UNPRECEDENTED sense of contentment sealed Daisy Pearce’s retirement decision, the AFL Women’s pioneer and premiership captain said as she announced her emotional call on Wednesday.
It was with “a full heart” and her family and teammates in tow at the MCG that Pearce, 34, confirmed the Demons’ recent flag-winning season would be her last after 55 games and three All-Australian nods, calling time on a career as one of the key faces of the women’s game.
It wasn’t easy.
“I think there was a bit of an assumption that it was win (the premiership) and I’m done or lose it and I might have to consider going again,” Pearce said. “But in fact, the satisfaction of last season – the enjoyment and the closeness of the bonds that we’ve now formed – it actually made it a bit more confusing and harder to step away.
“It’s probably been one of the harder decisions that I’ve ever had to make.
“I feel like it’s the right decision. It mostly came down to the fact that I just had this feeling of contentness inside me, which is a new feeling to me as a football player.
“Content has never been something that I’ve felt.
“No matter what’s happened over the journey, content has never been something that I have felt, so as the weeks ticked by postseason, whilst there were definitely spurs of thinking about going back-to-back … there was also an element of overall satisfaction.”
The four-time AFLPA best captain winner said there was a recognition of whether she would be able to give as much as she would like as Melbourne endeavours to defend its premiership later this year.
Her journey also encompassed a twin pregnancy and the birth of Roy and Sylvie, in 2019, with the twins at the MCG for their mum’s announcement and tears.
Pearce’s VFLW/VWFL career at Darebin that preceded the creation of the AFLW competition included 10 premierships and six league best and fairest medals.
The star Demon set herself a deadline on a recent family trip to Port Douglas to make a decision on whether to close her playing chapter – one she laughed she missed before making the final call around a fortnight ago. She is set to join the men’s coaching panel at Geelong as an assistant coach to Chris Scott, a role that will begin on a date to be set shortly.
More pressing is Roy and Sylvie starting kindergarten on February 2.
“I have finished with the emotions of losing a big part of me and something I have loved so much,” Pearce said.
“But grateful that I have worked really hard to maintain balance in the rest of my life so I am not in a period of great uncertainty and wondering who I am now. I have got wonderful opportunities.”