How West Coast went from AFLW basket case to finalists in two seasons under Daisy Pearce
When West Coast were a basket case, some players became fed up and left. But most stayed — feeling indebted to key figures who started the AFLW program. In particular, the late Adam Selwood.
When foundation Eagle Parris Laurie sat down at the end of an emotionally taxing 2022 AFLW season, she was faced with two choices.
She could either continue her career at another club or she could retire.
Staying at West Coast wasn’t an option.
“My last year, I was strongly considering whether to retire or move back to Fremantle,” Laurie said.
“I spoke to a couple of other interstate clubs about their interest, but in all honesty, I decided I was done with AFLW.
“When we were having a new coach every year, you had to ask yourself whether you wanted to stick it out.”
At the end of 2023, West Coast’s AFLW program was on its knees.
Another two-win season, a percentage of 50.8, an average score of 26.9 points a game, a genuine basket case.
Historically, one of the most powerful clubs in the country, there was a belief that the Eagles had treated its AFLW program with borderline contempt from the outset.
Three coaches in three years, a significant list turnover and a lack of competitiveness spoke to that.
Enter Daisy Pearce.
At the height of dysfunction, uncertainty and conjecture, the AFLW pioneer took on the hardest job in the competition and in less than two years, she’s taken the Eagles from the doldrums to finals football for the very first time.
"What would it mean to you to play finals?"
— West Coast Eagles (@WestCoastEagles) October 21, 2025
You're invited inside the four walls with Daisy Pearce and our AFLW side as they lodge a big win over Geelong 💫 pic.twitter.com/M5o8V9JOZe
And the best is still yet to come.
“We believe we’ve got the best coach in the entire competition,” West Coast head of women’s football Michelle Cowan said.
“To be one of the eight teams left standing has made me reflect on the seven seasons we have had and all of the people who have been involved.
“I’m really proud of the journey we have been through and sometimes the journey is hard. But it makes you appreciate these moments even more when it’s been hard to get here.”
GROUNDHOG DAY
It’s hard to pinpoint the lowest point for West Coast’s AFLW program, given there’s been so many in the last five years.
The Eagles were born into a global pandemic, grew up in the face of significant instability and have only come of age in the last two years, coinciding with Pearce’s arrival.
There have been several false dawns, each more underwhelming than the last.
“It was the boy who cried wolf,” Laurie said.
“We’d always have glimpses in pre-season where you’d have a good win in a practice match or you’d feel like the squad was training really well.
“Heading into the next few seasons, I remember telling my friends and my family, ‘We’re looking so good for this season.’
“And then you roll out and get smacked in round one and you only win two games the entire season. We didn’t really expect to struggle as much as we did in the first few years.
“It felt like we were going nowhere.”
West Coast made its AFLW debut as one of four expansion teams in 2020.
Eagles AFL development coach Luke Dwyer was named the club’s inaugural women’s coach.
The Eagles played their first game against Collingwood at Victoria Park in early February, losing by 27 points.
West Coast’s only win for the season came in round four against the Western Bulldogs. The historic 4.6 (30) to 3.8 (26) win at Leederville Oval was the only time that year the Eagles kicked more than two goals in a game.
“It was a special game and a special win,” Cowan, who was an assistant coach at the time, said.
In early March, COVID-19 was formally declared a pandemic and the Eagles’ last two games of the season were cancelled.
Despite the harsh initiation, the players were living the dream.
“The first year was a fairytale,” Laurie said.
“We had our first win, but really, we were having such a good time because everything was the ‘inaugural’ or ‘the first.’”
In October, West Coast announced that AFL assistant coach Daniel Pratt would be taking the reins of the AFLW program following Dwyer’s resignation.
Soft cap cuts had crippled the AFL industry, so when Dwyer left after being offered a diminished role, Pratt was tasked with coaching West Coast’s AFLW and WAFL teams.
The pandemic continued to wreak havoc in 2021, forcing the AFL to change West Coast’s fixture almost weekly.
The Eagles only won two games for the season against Gold Coast and Geelong, they had to play Fremantle twice due to border closures, and the club’s injury list quickly blew out to the point that top-up players were put on standby.
The Eagles finished 12th with a 2-7 record and on the eve of pre-season, Pratt, who couldn’t continue due to family reasons, was replaced by Michael Prior.
Prior was already working in the club’s community and game development department as the head of the Eagles’ women’s high-performance academy when he was handed the job.
Like with Dwyer and Pratt, the Eagles did not run an external process and invite the best and most qualified applicants to apply. They simply walked down the hallway.
“We thought we’d hang onto Pratty and I really loved playing for him,” Laurie said.
“But to then get a new coach again, it was emotionally taxing. Not only were we underperforming and we were all on one-year contracts, but we had to keep proving ourselves over and over again.
“It was a new head coach, new strength and conditioning staff, and new assistant coaches. There were a few consistent faces, but not in those big roles.
“It felt like Groundhog Day.”
COVID TENSIONS
Even if everything around them was constantly changing, the playing group remained united.
Led by captain Emma Swanson, the Eagles aimed their frustration at management, not each other.
“Her message was it doesn’t matter what happens, no matter who our coach is, no matter what changes this club makes, no matter what lack of support we get, this playing group sticks together,” Laurie said.
“We were always player-first. At times, it would impact our relationship with staff.
“We got really frustrated with the top-end management of the club because they weren’t supporting us with the constant change and inconsistency.”
It didn’t help that West Coast’s AFLW program was run by its community department, the only club in the competition not to have embedded its women’s team into its football department.
The only time the playing group frayed was in early 2022 when the team was forced into a COVID-19 hub in Melbourne.
Despite being part-time athletes, the only way to keep the AFLW season running was for both Perth teams to relocate east for more than a month.
Then, a COVID outbreak forced the AFL to postpone West Coast’s clash against St Kilda when the Eagles dropped below the minimum 16-player availability requirement.
“It was like the Hunger Games,” former Eagles forward Aimee Schmidt said.
“Every morning you’d come downstairs from your room and another one had been taken out with COVID.
“We weren’t sure how many were going to go down that day and if we were going to be able to field a team.”
The hub gave the players a taste of life as a professional athlete, but it also strained relationships.
“In the hub, you were in each other’s space the whole time,” Laurie said. “There was more tension than there’d ever been.”
That tension continued in the back half of the season.
In the first few years of West Coast’s AFLW existence, there was a perception that there were some players who were just happy to be on an AFLW list, unwilling to commit more than the bare minimum.
A symptom of the constant change, complacency had crept in.
“The people at the club still chose to draft those players regardless of their attitude, so the blame is somewhat with them,” Laurie said.
“But there definitely was an element of some girls just being happy to be there.
“It probably applied more to girls who weren’t getting games and didn’t have the drive to work harder to get a game.
“At times, we had injuries and your list is only so big, so we had girls playing who weren’t up to the level.
“They weren’t training hard and they weren’t hitting their fitness goals, but there was nobody else to turn to. It was frustrating as players because it felt like some girls were being gifted games and coasting through.”
THE WRONG HEADLINES
On-field, little changed in Prior’s first season at the helm.
The Eagles won just one game for the season and claimed the wooden spoon.
Off-field, Prior was creating headlines for all the wrong reasons.
When West Coast was the only club not to produce a pride jumper in season six, Prior was forced to apologise after declaring “I think we’ve done the pride stuff to death,” in response to a question about the lack of guernsey.
The following season, Prior was forced to break bread with the AFL’s umpiring department after declaring his side needed “to get a few more” free kicks following a three-point loss to Hawthorn.
A year after that, Prior issued another apology after blasting the league’s fixturing, complaining that his struggling side had to play against reigning premiers Melbourne, a bizarre outburst which ultimately saw him fall on his sword.
“There were things that happened each season where you thought, that’s not a good look for us as a club,” Schmidt said.
In Prior’s three seasons as coach, the Eagles had just five wins in 28 games.
Opposition clubs were circling the carcass of a wounded club.
“So many teams came knocking to try and get some of our players,” Cowan said.
Some, fed up by a lack of progress, left.
But most felt indebted to the people who started the program, particularly inaugural head of women’s football and 2006 premiership player, Adam Selwood, who tragically passed away earlier this year.
“Our bond was super strong and we felt a sense of loyalty to the club and the people who started the Eagles AFLW program,” Laurie said.
“Adam Selwood created something incredible. When you think back to the start of it, that’s who I think of. There’s a desire to make him proud.
Added Cowan: “I’m a big believer that he’s looking over us and he’s proud of where a number of these players whom he drafted into the program are at.”
With a steadily improving list, headlined by young stars Bella Lewis, Charlie Thomas and Ella Roberts, the players could sense the club was finally moving in the right direction.
“People wanted to stick around because I think they didn’t want to miss out when the team eventually came good,” Laurie said.
“If you’ve put in the hard yards, you want to reap the benefits.”
All the Eagles needed was an esteemed coach.
REBIRTH COMPLETE
West Coast described the appointment of Pearce as one of the “biggest recruiting coups” in club history.
It’s taken less than two seasons for that statement to ring true.
The Melbourne great led West Coast to four wins in her first season at the helm, a record return, only to exceed herself this year with six victories.
It was enough for the Eagles to sneak into finals, joining St Kilda as the only two clubs yet to feature in the post-season until now.
This year, West Coast has also posted its highest winning margin (45 points against Collingwood) and its highest score (75 points against GWS).
The improvement has been tangible and it started with a reset of the club’s values, landing on elite standards, belonging, honesty and shared ambition as the four new pillars of West Coast’s identity at the start of 2024.
“We had to be really clear on our purpose and that was to play finals football,” Cowan said. “The most impressive growth I’ve seen from our group has been in the last couple of years.
“When we’ve won games previously, the enthusiasm lingered for a number of days. This year, we saw a big shift in terms of our hunger.
“They’d win, but they wouldn’t be satisfied. They wanted to know how we could get better and how we could improve. When we’ve lost, I’ve never seen it hurt so much as it has this season.
“On their day off, they’re walking through the corridor trying to find a coach to do some extra touch or watch some extra vision.”
Never had the group’s new mindset been more evident than during a pre-season running session at Reabold Hill.
In the searing heat, 85m above sea level, the Eagles set a new ceiling.
“They weren’t just surviving it, they were attacking it,” Cowan said. “They were conquering it.”
For everyone who’s stayed the course, for everyone who’s played a part along the way, for everyone who’s still to come, Saturday’s elimination final against Carlton represents the start of a new chapter in West Coast’s AFLW history.
history. pic.twitter.com/59UgvXCB5k
— West Coast Eagles AFLW (@eaglesaflw) November 2, 2025
Now that the Eagles have finally made finals, don’t expect them to leave anytime soon.
“There’s been so many highs along the way and so many lows,” Cowan said.
“To see how far we’ve come, especially in the last couple of years under the guidance of Daisy, has been really exciting not only for our program but our entire footy club as well.
“I love that our playing group and our staff have stuck through. It takes hard work.
“They know we can build something really special and have sustained success.”
The boy who cried wolf is now an Eagle ready to soar.
“Even since I’ve retired, I’ve had the same conversations with the girls,” Laurie said.
“They’re telling me they’re training the house down. And each year, it never came to fruition.
“This year, it was the same conversation, but it’s finally rung true.”
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