Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is an Australian rules football coach, media personality and former player. Pearce played for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) from 2017 to season 7 and is the current AFLW senior coach of the West Coast Eagles. Often regarded as a pioneer of women's Australian rules football and the face of the AFLW, she was the first player to return to playing at AFLW level after giving birth, eventually playing for four more seasons in a variety of positions, and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2025.
Pearce began her playing career with the Darebin Falcons in the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) and VFL Women's (VFLW), playing from 2005 to 2017 and captaining the club from 2008 to 2016. She is a ten-time premiership player (seven as captain), two-time Lisa Hardeman Medallist as best afield in the grand final, seven-time league best and fairest winner and five-time Darebin best and fairest winner; 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. Pearce was recruited by Melbourne with the first selection in the inaugural national women's draft in 2013 and captained the club in the women's exhibition games staged prior to the 2016 creation of the AFL Women's.
Pearce was a marquee signing for Melbourne's AFLW team leading into the competition's first season in 2017, and captained the club in all six seasons that she played. At AFLW level, Pearce is a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian (including as captain in 2017 and vice-captain in 2018) and led Melbourne to its first AFL Women's premiership in season 7. She captained Victoria in a one-off AFLW State of Origin match in 2017, where she was adjudged best afield, and 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.
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 has served as West Coast's AFLW senior coach since 2024, coaching the club to its first AFLW finals appearance in 2025.
Outside of her playing and coaching careers, Pearce became an established media personality in both television and radio. Pearce has been an expert commentator for the Seven Network and 1116 SEN's AFL coverages, including Seven's coverage of four AFL grand finals; she was the boundary rider for the 2018 and 2019 grand finals and provided special comments for the 2021 and 2022 grand finals, becoming the first woman to provide special comments for an AFL grand final for Seven and earning an Australian Football Media Association (AFMA) award for her performance in 2021. Pearce appeared as a panel member on the Seven program AFL Game Day from 2016 until its cancellation in 2020 and hosted her own podcast on SEN, This is Grit, in 2019.
Early life
Daisy Pearce was born on 27 May 1988 in Bright, Victoria, to parents Daryl and Dee. She has two brothers, along with an older half-brother through her father and two younger half-siblings through her mother. Pearce's parents separated in 1995; Daisy remained with her father in Wandiligong, near Bright, where she attended Bright P-12 College, while her mother and the rest of the family relocated to Eltham, in Melbourne's north-east. When Pearce was a teenager, she moved to live with her mother in Eltham and attended Eltham High School.
As a child, Pearce supported the Carlton Football Club, and one of her favourite players was Carlton premiership player and former captain Brett Ratten. She was enrolled in the Vickick program, which later became Auskick, and played junior football alongside boys as a child. Her father was a coach at the Bright Football Club, which allowed Pearce to begin training with the under-13 boys team from the age of eight; she played alongside her brother Harry and future premiership defender Ben Reid. Pearce needed dispensation from the local league to continue playing alongside boys as a teenager, but was disallowed, which played a part in her decision to move to Eltham. At high school, she took up netball, tennis and volleyball, making a national youth squad for the latter, before eventually picking up football again.
Early playing career
State league and representative football
Pearce began playing with in the premier division of the Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) in 2005 at the age of 16, winning the Lisa Hardeman Medal in her first season and going on to play an estimated 200 matches for the women-only football club. In 2007, Darebin went through the VWFL season undefeated, defeating in the grand final, and Pearce was named among the best players in the grand final. Darebin would go on to win five VWFL premierships in a row, before losing to St Albans in the grand final in 2011; Pearce, who had by then become captain, was named Darebin's best player in the loss. In 2013 and 2014, Darebin went through both seasons undefeated, defeating by 49 points in the 2013 grand final and 30 points in the 2014 grand final; Pearce was best afield in the latter. She featured in Darebin's third consecutive grand final win over Diamond Creek in 2015. During her career in the VWFL, Pearce won the Darebin best and fairest award five times and the Helen Lambert Medal as the VWFL's best and fairest player six times.
Pearce was a member of the Australian team that played against Ireland in the 2006 Ladies' International Rules Series which, as of 2016, remains the only women's series to have taken place. Pearce was selected after performing well at the 2006 AFL Women's National Championships and, at the age of 18, was the youngest player in the squad; the trip to Ireland was largely self-funded, with Pearce raising funds by selling boxes of Freddo Frogs. In June 2007, at the age of 19, she was one of two VWFL representatives, alongside Shannon McFerran, named to play in the E. J. Whitten Legends Game; Pearce was named in the Victorian team while McFerran was named for the All Stars, marking the first time female players were included in the annual charity match. Pearce captained the Victoria under-19 team at the 2007 AFL Women's National Championships; she was named in the championships' All-Australian team and won the award for joint-player of the tournament. Pearce was named in the leadership group for the Victorian senior team at the 2009 championships and was again named in the championships' All-Australian team. She was named deputy vice-captain for Victoria at the 2011 championships.
In March 2016, the VFL Women's (VFLW) was launched and Darebin was named among ten teams from the VWFL to participate in Victoria's new state league competition. Pearce won the inaugural VFL Women's best and fairest award and played in the first VFLW premiership in 2016 as Darebin defeated Melbourne University. She played in Darebin's grand final win over Diamond Creek in 2017, kicking a goal and receiving praise from coach Jane Lange for her leadership and commitment as Darebin won its fifth consecutive state league premiership and tenth in twelve seasons.
Women's exhibition games In May 2013, the Australian Football League (AFL) announced that a women's exhibition game would be held for the first time during its annual Women's Round, involving AFL clubs and the . Fifty of the top female footballers in Australia were selected in the inaugural national women's draft later that month to play for the two clubs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in a curtain raiser to the AFL match between the clubs in June; Pearce was recruited by Melbourne with the first selection in the draft, and was later named as Melbourne's captain. She was adjudged best afield with 28 disposals in the first exhibition game, which Melbourne won by 32 points in front of a crowd of almost 8,000. A second exhibition game between the two clubs, again played as a curtain raiser to the men's match and this time at Etihad Stadium, was announced in June 2014; Pearce was named among Melbourne's best players in its 46-point win.
In February 2015, the AFL announced that two women's exhibition games would be played that year between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, the first to be played at the MCG in May and the second to be played at Etihad Stadium in August. Pearce was named among Melbourne's best players with 23 disposals in the first match, which Melbourne won by eight points, and was best afield with 30 disposals in the second match, which Melbourne won by four points. Later that year, she was named as the inaugural winner of the club's best female player award, polling five out of a possible six votes from the two matches. In February 2016, the AFL announced a ten-match national exhibition series to be played throughout the year, in which Melbourne played two games against the Western Bulldogs in March and September, as well as a match against a women's team at the MCG in May. Pearce was best afield with 33 disposals and eleven marks in the first match, which Melbourne lost by 20 points, and was named among Melbourne's best players in its 71-point win over Brisbane. She was Melbourne's best player in its 39-point loss to the Bulldogs in September; the match was watched by an average audience of 387,000 people in Melbourne, which was greater than the average viewing audience for every Saturday night game during the 2016 AFL home-and-away season, as well as a national audience peak of over one million people.
AFL Women's playing career
2017–2019: Midfield seasons and pregnancy
In July 2016, Pearce and Melissa Hickey were announced as 's two marquee players for the inaugural AFL Women's season in 2017. Pearce was announced as the club's first AFLW captain in January 2017. She made her AFL Women's debut in Melbourne's inaugural match in round 1 against at the club's home ground, Casey Fields, and was listed among her team's best players in the loss, recording 19 disposals and nine tackles. Pearce was among Melbourne's best players in every game for the season; she was named by the AFL Players Association (AFLPA) as "Player of the Week" for round 4 after recording 29 disposals and six tackles in Melbourne's win against and was awarded the maximum three votes for the AFL Women's best and fairest award in Melbourne's round 6 match against . Following the home-and-away season, she revealed that she played the first two rounds with an injury after sustaining bone bruising and a corked calf in the opening round, and had sat out training for the entire week leading into round 2. At the end of the season, Pearce was named captain of the 2017 AFL Women's All-Australian team. She won the inaugural Melbourne best and fairest award and AFLPA AFLW best captain award, and was one of three Melbourne players nominated by her teammates for the AFLPA AFLW most valuable player award. She averaged 21.9 disposals, the most of any player in the inaugural season. Melbourne re-signed Pearce for the 2018 season during the trade and signing period in May. She then captained Victoria in the inaugural AFL Women's State of Origin match on 2 September in front of a crowd of 9,400, where she was adjudged best afield with 37 disposals in the 97-point win.