AFLW Grand Final: Daisy Pearce lauds Dees’ culture following first premiership victory.
Daisy Pearce says that Melbourne don’t have the ‘glitz and glamour’ other clubs might offer, but that’s okay. Her side just won the Grand Final.
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Premiership captain Daisy Pearce has backed in Melbourne’s culture to outweigh clubs that looked to offer incentives to AFL Women’s players to switch teams.
In the moments after the Demons’ maiden AFLW flag win, Pearce lauded coach Mick Stinear’s influence and said the team didn’t “have the bells and whistles … we don’t give away cars to players who come”.
In the hours that followed the victory, Pearce said the Demons – who have trained from Beaumaris to Casey this season – weren’t interested in adding to “the package”.
“We’ve been a bit nomadic and all over the place and the club is working hard to change it (with a new facility),” the skipper said.
“But in the meantime, it’s like, who are we? What are our selling points? We don’t give out little parts of the package that might lure players across.
“We just back in our coaches and our program to attract the right people. It feels like we’ve done that and got the job done.”
She said the Demons had been labelled “the boring club around the traps, that we don’t celebrate”.
“I don’t know what it means. But I just feel like we’ve got a group that love turning up and playing for the right reasons,” she said.
“If you want the glitz and glamour, you’re probably not going to get it at Melbourne.”
Pearce said Stinear had told her environment would always prevail.
“(Mick said) … if we have the right environment and the right culture, people will self-recruit in, and they’ll self-recruit out,” she said.
“In the periods of expansion where you’re losing quality people and quality players, it can be hard facing those years when people are walking out the door. But after a while, you get that trust that the right people will stay for the right reasons.”
GRAND NEW FLAG: AFLW’S BIGGEST NAME NOW HAS HER CUP
It’s a grand new flag.
Daisy Pearce is an AFL Women’s premiership captain after the Demons pulled off the ultimate ambush.
On the Lions’ home deck — on its opening day — foundation team Melbourne secured its maiden AFLW flag.
And, after seven seasons — six of those playing — the face of the competition’s foundation has a cup.
Eager to turn attention from her — and her playing future — Pearce lauded her teammates’ ability to find a way.
“I’m just so proud of our group,” Pearce said.
“They just played their absolute hearts out. It’s not a game that looks like one of our games, but we found a way through sheer heart and our spirit. Every single one of them had a moment today. I’m just so proud.
“Every single person that’s made it possible — players, non-playing players, all our staff, coaches, the whole club that’s kind of been behind this unit since day one.
“It’s seven years in the making. To sit here now and know that we got the job done in trying conditions — to have to come up here to Brisbane, in the heat that was so well talked about by the mob up here … I even love that it was a grind.”
Pearce — whose partner Ben and twins Roy and Sylvie were in the 7412-strong crowd — dismissed questions surrounding her playing future.
That’s a decision for when the dust settles.
For now, it’s about thanks.
“The first thing I did was just thank (the kids) for the sacrifice,” she said through tears.
“They’re not even four yet, but the amount of nights … where you leave for work (at witching hour) when things are going a bit pear-shaped, and you’re closing the door and going into the other part of your life with screaming kids that are clinging onto your leg when you leave and a partner who’s looking at you with those eyes of ‘you’re not really about to leave me, are you?’.
“I just thanked them for their sacrifice in letting mum go to training and go after what I’ve wanted and what makes me happy. Similar words to Benny, for all of his support.”
For Pearce, it was about the team that she said was no “bells and whistles”, but all heart.
“Mick Stinear, he is a world-class coach, he is an amazing person, and he has just built this program from the ground up,” she said on Channel 7.
“We don’t have the best facility in the comp. We’re a bit off Broadway, we’re not ... the most popular team, we don’t have the bells and whistles, we don’t give away cars to players who come (here) but we have the best coach and he’ll make you a footballer.
“I just play for him.”
The pressure was as hot as the 32-degree Brisbane weather as the Demons turned the tables on the home-town heroes to prevail by four points at Springfield’s Brighton Homes Arena.
The Dees’ plans were put under the pump from the opening bounce, and when Brisbane’s Dakota Davidson slotted the first goal on Brighton Homes Arena eight minutes into the game and saluted the crowd on the way to the bench, the crowd of 7000 people sounded every bit triple that with Demons fans outnumbered 20-1 in the Lions’ den.
And the Lions did everything they could to show the Demons this was their turf.
Forty days ago, league boss Gillon McLachlan lifted a square of grass at Springfield right up.
As he peeled back the freshly-laid surface, Chris Dalton, the curator, raised an eyebrow and probably his heart rate, too, as he realized the task at hand.
“I think we’ll be right,” McLachlan had declared, as revealed by women’s competition boss Nicole Livingstone on Sunday.
The Lions were looming large in the AFL Women’s competition and so was the grand final.
And in town for a commission meeting on October 18, McLachlan declared his hand that he believed the ground could be ready for the premiership decider.
On Sunday at Springfield, it was just that as Brisbane secured its second AFLW premiership at home, sweet home.
McLachlan didn’t attend on Sunday due to a holiday booking, but AFL chairman Richard Goyder – with pollies aplenty, including Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, on hand for the ground’s official unveiling – declared it “an absolute thrill and honour for the AFL to schedule a grand final here”.
Go Mum 🥰 @DaisyPearce6#AFLWGFpic.twitter.com/Dbo884emV8
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) November 27, 2022
The power of work wasn’t lost.
Chris the curator and his team were promised a bottle of “black label scotch” by women’s league boss Nicole Livingstone.
They earned it.
“I don’t think Chris has recovered from the moment Gill lifted up the grass,” she laughed pre-game.
Ironically, heavy rain soaked the Gabba — where it had initially been hoped the game would be played – as a storm cell completely avoided Springfield.
A higher power, or just the power of pop queen Delta Goodrem? Depends what you believe in.
Either way, Melbourne had belief in spades — in its players, in the road trip. And in its team, which are queens of the AFLW after a jungle of a year.
RECAP HOW THE GRAND FINAL PLAYED OUT
Q4: LIONS 15 V DEMONS 19
Melbourne has won its first AFLW premiership after defeating Brisbane in a four-point thriller.
The Demons looked in serious trouble early, giving up the opening two goals of the match.
However, they then applied the clamps.
Melbourne didn’t give up another goal for the rest of the match, hitting the front in the third term.
Neither team was able to score a goal in the final quarter, which was enough for the Demons to hold on.
Q4: LIONS 15 V DEMONS 17
Three minutes remaining. At what point do the Demons start to play keepings off?
Q4: LIONS 15 V DEMONS 17
6:24 remaining and the Demons have just lost one of their most important players.
Karen Paxman has gone to the bench after a collision. It is unclear if she will be able to return.
Still no one has scored in this quarter.
Q4: LIONS 15 V DEMONS 17
Ten minutes remaining and the lead is still two points.
Who is going to break the deadlock?
3QT: LIONS 15 V DEMONS 17
It doesn’t get much closer than this.
Going into the final term, the Demons hold a two-point lead over Brisbane.
But it feels like it should be more than that. Melbourne has controlled the past two quarters, recovering from a slow start to get the match back on their terms.
For the Lions, they haven’t kicked a goal since the opening term.
They’ve been the best side all year but this is unfamiliar territory.
Q3: LIONS 12 V DEMONS 16
The Demons needed someone to stand up and who better than one of the biggest names in the sport.
Tayla Harris has clunked a big time contested mark in the goal square and kicked truly.
The Demons are in front … repeat, the Demons are in front. This is the first lead change of the match.
How will the Lions respond now?
There is some wild weather on the way so any lead is going to be a good lead heading into the fourth.
HT: LIONS 12 V DEMONS 10
Who is ready for a thriller?
There is only two points separating these sides at half-time after the Lions went cold in the second term.
Brisbane failed to score, and their 11 point lead has been sliced and diced.
Karen Paxman and Eliza West have been leading the charge for Melbourne and both have nine disposals at HT.
Shannon Campbell is the leading possession winner on the ground with 12.
Q2: LIONS 12 V DEMONS 10
The Dees are coming!
This quarter has been all Melbourne and now they finally have something to show for it.
Blaithin Mackin made sure the hard work didn’t go to waste, producing a nice finish to give the Demons their first goal of the match.
But it wasn’t just that one piece of play. This has been a full quarter onslaught.
At one point just after the halfway mark, the Demons had the ball in their half of the ground for 91 per cent of the quarter.
The Lions are under serious pressure.
QUARTER-TIME: LIONS 12 V DEMONS 1
Drama, drama, drama late in the opening term.
Melbourne’s Megan Fitzsimon appeared to be on her way to a certain goal with only seconds remaining in the quarter. However, Natalie Grider had other ideas.
She came from at least five metres back to lay an incredible tackle on Fitzsimon.
The ball was then knocked loose forward but before another Demon could pounce, the umpire paid holding the ball.
Was it the right call? Either way, the Demons really needed that. They trail by 11 points at the first break.
Q1: LIONS 6 V DEMONS 1
It is hot in Springfield but Dakota Davidson is the coolest woman on the ground. After nearly 10 minutes of play, she breaks the deadlock by kicking the opening goal of the match.
Davidson secured a mark on the lead and then showed no sign of nerves, splitting the middle with her set shot.
The Demons’ only score came from a rushed Daisy Pearce shot at goal.
This is just the start the Lions wanted. They’ve had more of the possession and now, made the most of it on the scoreboard.
HEAT POLICY ACTIVATED
With temperatures in Queensland hitting 30 degrees, the AFL has enacted its heat policy for today’s match.
That means:
- Longer breaks between quarters
- Two additional water carriers allowed on the ground
AFLW FANS HIT SPRINGFIELD
30 MINUTE COUNTDOWN
We are 30 minutes away from the opening bounce.
The players have been out for their warm-ups but for the moment, it is someone else taking centre stage.
Delta Goodrem is on the field as the pre-match entertainment.
‘I GO INTO MOST GAMES THINKING GLASS HALF-EMPTY’
AFLW grand final favouritism doesn’t sit well with Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich, despite his side’s dominance of the competition this season.
Having already won the minor premiership, the Lions can add another flag to their list of accomplishments by beating Melbourne in today’s decider at Springfield.
It will be the first match played at the Lions’ new base, and the expectation is that they will open the ground in style by winning the AFLW premiership for a second time.
However, don’t tell that to Starcevich, who is too nervous to take anything for granted.
“I go into most games thinking glass half-empty, (and) what could go wrong and what do we need to prepare for,” Starcevich said.
“I don’t know how the players pick up on that and I don’t detect any of that at the moment.
“Every opposition we play are a team we need to respect fully and work our hardest to try to unravel.
“That’s been us from the get go. The fact that we’ve been branded from the start of the competition (in 2017) as underdogs, that’s carried through to this day.
“It feels unusual to be thought about in that way (as favourites) and we don’t talk about it in that way.
“There’s enough that can happen in a game of footy, and we’ve all been involved in plenty of games of footy where stuff happens, and you’ve just got to be prepared for it.
“Just get ready for the first contest – that’s about as far ahead as you can look. It’s one contest at a time, one quarter at a time but that’s the reality of what we do.”
Melbourne captain Daisy Pearce said the hot conditions in Brisbane would not be used as an excuse if the Demons fell short.
“We expected it to be warm – it always is at this time of the year, isn’t it?” Pearce said.
“A few of our girls really love playing in the heat. It’s not unusual to us.
“I know it (the weather) is not turning it on in Melbourne at the moment, but we’ve played six seasons of footy in the middle of summer. We haven’t had a lot of (the heat) this year, but it’s not something foreign to us.
“It’s grand final day so you’re not going to find any of us complaining about the heat.”
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