Why Pearce backs Eagles in maiden finals campaign

Coach of West Coast’s AFLW side, Daisy Pearce, believes that her side has earned their spot in the AFLW Finals despite their ‘strange’ way of getting there.

Since retiring from Melbourne following their premiership success in 2022 (Season 7), the AFLW icon has been heavily involved in the coaching space.

Before retiring, she was already involved in the AFL’s Women’s Coaching Acceleration Program, which saw her move to be a development coach with Geelong’s AFL side in 2023 before taking up the job at West Coast.

And in the two years that she has been there, she has made plenty of impact in turning their program around.

Under Pearce’s tutelage, the Eagles have more than doubled their total win count, with the 37-year-old being in charge for 10 of West Coast’s 18 wins since joining the league in 2020.

And with this year being the Eagles’ best season to date, seeing them win six games, they have managed to qualify for their first finals series despite losing their last two matches.

Now, West Coast are gearing up for a do-or-die elimination final away from home against Carlton.

This will be the second time that the two sides have played each other in as many weeks, with the Blues winning by 20 points.

And while the 37-year-old admits she would have liked to enter the finals series with a win, she believes her side has well and truly earned their shot at progressing through to the semi-finals.

“It was a bit of a strange way to get there,” Pearce said on SEN’s AFLW Arena.

“Losing in your final round but remaining in finals, I think a few teams are in that boat.

“But we’ve been really strong on our belief in that we belong there, and we’re really looking forward to getting after Carlton, having played them last week.

“We’ve been in the eight for most of the year, so we’ve tried to block out the narrative that we got lucky because we feel like we’ve earned the opportunity through the season.

“And the lessons from the Carlton game will be really valuable going into this finals series.”

West Coast will play in that elimination final on Saturday at IKON Park, with the match getting underway from 3:05pm AEDT.

Should the Eagles win, they will become the third eighth-placed side since the AFLW finals expanded to a final eight system in 2022 (Season 7) to have won a finals match.

The winner of this clash will play Hawthorn in a semi-final following their 39-point loss to North Melbourne on Friday night.