Daisy Pearce says she knows she needs to take her game to a new level for AFLW season

ALREADY the best, Daisy Pearce will spend her first pre-season as an AFLW player taking her game to another level after being crowned Football Woman of the Year.

Daisy Pearce in action for Darebin Falcons in the Women’s VFL Grand Final. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

ALREADY the best, Daisy Pearce will spend her first pre-season as an AFLW player taking her game to another level.

Fittingly, the face of women’s football was crowned Football Woman of the Year on Thursday and said she was aware of the expectations and pressure on her to perform come February, when the inaugural AFLW season starts.

“I’m very aware that I need to train bloody hard over this pre-season,” Pearce said.

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“There’s so many parts of my game that I need to and will be working on, like every other player.

“I think that’s one of the really exciting things about this year is that, to date, a lot of our own improvements have come from motivating yourself and going out and finding your own resources and knowledge and ways to get better.

“In a funny way it will make it easier to get better and to challenge yourself more because you’re going to have more resources and facilities around you.”

Daisy Pearce, the Football Woman of the Year. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Daisy Pearce in action for Melbourne in the women’s All-Star match. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Pearce captivated a packed Crown Palladium room at the Grand Final Comedy Debate with stories of her father letting her, at age 12, drive a bus down the Princess Hwy on a trip to Adelaide and of shoeless supermarket shopping, which she’s now stopped.

And she told how a seven-goal performance for Darebin at a match in Bendigo helped her attract her boyfriend Angus, who was watching from the back of a ute.

So natural and likeable, Pearce said she wanted to be an attainable role model.

“I want little girls to look at me and not think that you’re a superstar, but to look at you and think, ‘Yeah, I could be her, I could do what she’s doing’,” Pearce told the crowd.

“I hope that that’s the impact I've had.”

Daisy Pearce arrives at the Brownlow Medal with partner Angus Parry.

She said she was honoured with the award.

“It feels weird to be acknowledged for your contribution to a game and a sport that you love so much and feel like I’ll be forever indebted to for what it’s given me,” she said.

She said she would maybe come to fully appreciate her role in the women’s football revolution down the track.

“When I’m sitting back on the couch with my feet up watching women’s footy on the TV, hopefully that’s the time I can look back and reflect on the part that I’ve played in it,” she said.

“But right now I’m so fixed on looking forward.”

Pearce will spend today with her Melbourne FC colleagues nutting out a recruiting strategy after the order for the October 12 draft was decided yesterday.

Originally published as Daisy Pearce says she knows she needs to take her game to a new level for AFLW season