West Coast Eagles AFLW coach Daisy Pearce was a guest speaker on Friday morning at SportWest’s International Women’s Day Forum held at Mineral Resources Park.

The event was opened with an inspiring and captivating Welcome to Country by Colleen Hayward, before the room heard from SportWest acting CEO Ashliegh Apps and keynote speaker Cassandra Winza.

Pearce was then joined on stage by Christina Matthews AM (CEO at WA Cricket), Sally Carbon OAM (Founder and Director at G11 Team) and Liam Twigger (Chair at SportWest and Deputy Chair/Executive Director at Argonaut).

Growing up with a passion for football but no pathway to compete, Pearce shared her first experiences of entering the world of football.

“My journey is not a unique one to a lot of women playing football, or other more traditional male sports,” Pearce said.

“I grew up in a little country town, fell in love with the game, I was a very sporty kid who loved all sports, but football being the heartbeat of our community, that was the sport I was always drawn to.

“My entire life’s ambition was to be better than my older brother, so it was natural for me, although there weren’t any other girls following him down to footy training.

“My dad was the coach and initially I would just kick off to the side back and forwards to myself and the training got going, and eventually weaselled my way into actual training.

“Not long after that I made my debut by running on as an extra in the last five minutes of a game on a freezing cold day up near Victoria’s snow fields, and it sort of just grew from there.”

The event was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the progression of women’s sport, and network amongst likeminded individuals from sporting organisations around Perth.