Geelong urged to give Pearce a chance by landing Daisy as assistant coach

Daisy Pearce is in hot demand in clubland if she retires as an AFLW player and Geelong skipper Joel Selwood says the Cats are “well down the trail” in landing her in a groundbreaking role.

GEELONG captain Joel Selwood has endorsed the club’s pursuit of Melbourne champion Daisy Pearce and says talks for her to join the Cats as an assistant coach are “well down the trail”.

Pearce has declined to comment publicly about Geelong’s offer to join the male team’s coaching panel once the AFLW season winds up, given her focus on winning a flag with Melbourne.

But Cats chief executive Steve Hocking has said the club ”has an interest” in her next move.

It is widely believed Pearce will retire as an AFLW player at the end of the current season.

Daisy Pearce is wanted at clubland. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Selwood has ties to Pearce through work with Channel 7 and as ambassadors with Auskick and he said the Cats should do what they could to get her to Kardinia Park.

“I think Daisy’s an exceptional person from what I have had to do with her over the journey and she is going to hopefully come into our program and make a big difference but if I know anything about Daisy right now, she is only concentrating on what the Melbourne footy club is doing (right now),” Selwood said.

“I am sure Daisy is going to dip her toes in at some stage (to coaching). I think she is a great football person and she is extremely good at broadcasting and if we were to get her it would be a bonus.

“She is an exceptional person and if you get the opportunity, you want to bring those people in to your organisation.”

Should Pearce land at the Cats, she would be the second female to hold a position on an AFL coaching panel after former St Kilda development coach Peta Searle, and Pearce could be the first to be a fully fledged assistant.

Joel Selwood wants Daisy Pearce at the Cats. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

A 334-game veteran who has played through the birth of AFLW, Selwood said he thinks a female will coach a male senior side one day at the top level.

Selwood said he had not been part of any discussions to bring the Demons AFLW skipper to the club and wasn’t sure what her potential role would include.

Adding Pearce would be the culmination of a new-look coaching panel under Chris Scott in 2022 with James Kelly, Matthew Egan and Eddie Betts among the new names at the club.

Geelong has also taken up an unusual structure and removed specific line coaches for a more even approach by the panel as part of changes that had to happen according to the Cats skipper.

“We obviously needed change off the back of last year and we got to the position where we were top-four again and we needed to do things differently,” Selwood said.

“(The new coaches) have all brought something different, it has been an enjoyable pre-season.”

Originally published as Geelong urged to give Pearce a chance by landing Daisy as assistant coach