Each week, Aflplayers.com.au will highlight a Player of the Week during the AFLW season.
After another week of leather poisoning, Melbourne skipper Daisy Pearce receives the Round 4 honour.
Pearce collected 29 disposals and six tackles as the Demons held off a late surge from Carlton on Saturday.
The 28-year-old marquee player is leading AFLW for disposals, averaging 22.5 per match, and is also the highest ranked player according to Champion Data.
Senior coach Michael Stinear told Aflplayers.com.au about Pearce’s Round 4 performance.
“She’s been super consistent over the four games but her ability to create in front of goal for us was first class. There was at least two goals that she was directly involved in with her composure and finding teammates in space.
She really settled us down and took a few critical marks throughout the quarter.
The thing that continues to impress us is her defensive pressure and her attention to detail on things like her work rate and how we want to play.
The defensive side of her game has been consistent from start to finish but the offensive side of her game is getting better every week.
Like everyone, it’s taken her some time to adjust to new teammates and a new competition. She’s well and truly up and running and thriving in this environment.
She has a really sound knowledge of the game so it’s like there’s another coach on the field. She understands what we want to achieve and knows how to engage and explain to her teammates.
The on field leadership’s priceless particularly when we have a lot of young and inexperienced players. The instinctive stuff you’d like your players to know but you can’t really help them from the coaches box, so it’s pretty handy to have a player of her calibre instructing during training and on game day.
Daisy has a significant level of investment in the program and she’ll go into detail in terms of watching the opposition and discussing the upcoming game.
She doesn’t just bark orders on game day, she’s invested with her teammates and educates them throughout the week.
She’s pretty high up in the tackle count so far, but it’s her training intensity that impresses me most.
Every time she hits the track, she does it with purpose. She leads by example in that regard and even in the warm up, she’ll be ready to go.”
After the announcement of the AFLW Players’ MVP Award to be presented at season’s end, Pearce could potentially be in the running following a stellar Round 4 performance.
AFLW Player of the Week winners
- Darcy Vescio (Carlton)
- Tayla Harris (Brisbane)
- Emma Zielke (Brisbane)
- Daisy Pearce (Melbourne)