Daisy Pearce

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 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.