AFLW star Daisy Pearce has scoffed at suggestions that a precedent could be set if transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey is allowed to play in the women's premier competition.
Mouncey currently plays for VFLW side Darebin Falcons, with the potential of using that as a stepping stone towards an inclusion into the AFLW competition.
Pearce firmly disagrees with the notion that by allowing Mouncey to feature in AFLW, it could encourage more men with football backgrounds to gender transition and nominate for the women’s draft in order to play at the highest level.
“People are very accepting about welcoming someone who is transgender into a football team in my experience,” she told SEN Breakfast.
“And the one thing I’ll say is what I can’t stand when this conversation comes up is when people say: ‘you have to be careful, you don’t want to set a precedent where people like this have a sex change in order to play. You don’t want to open the flood gates for men wanting to play AFLW.’
“That is ignorant because for Hannah to go through and courageously do what she’s done by coming out and telling her story and following her passion for wanting to play football.
“To think of how unhappy and troubled she must have been to need to go through this process, nobody is going to do that for a $25,000 AFLW contract I’ll tell you that much.”
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The Melbourne skipper believes the 28-year-old’s physique doesn’t pose a “competitive advantage risk.”
“It’s so tricky,” Pearce said.
“I think there’s some concern about her size and whether that poses mainly a safety risk – I don’t think it poses a competitive advantage risk.
“I don’t say this in offence to Hannah, but she’s not the most skilful player that will come into the competition, but for mine that almost poses more of a safety risk in that if you’re coaching someone who is in the mid-range in terms of skill, what’s the first thing you tell them?
“They get picked to go out there and be physical. She’s not aggressive and doesn’t play in that way that she would intentionally go out to hurt someone.
“But if you’re getting told we’ll pick you if you go in there and throw your weight around, then that could pose a risk if it’s coached into her.”
Listen to Daisy Pearce discuss the Hannah Mouncey situation on SEN Breakfast with Garry and Tim in the player below