Melbourne premiership captain Daisy Pearce says an uncommon feeling of contentment prompted the tip of her trailblazing AFLW profession.
Pearce says she retires with a “very full heart” after main the Demons to the premiership final November.
“There was an assumption that it was ‘win it and I am done, or lose it and I might have to consider going again’,” Pearce instructed reporters on Wednesday.
“But in fact the satisfaction of last season and the enjoyment and the closeness of the bond that we have now formed, it actually made it a bit more confusing and harder to step away.
“It principally got here all the way down to the truth that I simply had this sense of contentment inside me – that may be a new feeling for me as a soccer participant.
“No matter what has happened over the journey, content has never been something that I have felt.
“So because the weeks ticked by post-season, while there was undoubtedly little spurs of eager about going back-to-back … there was additionally a component of an total satisfaction and feeling like that chapter of my life is a full one.”
The 34-year-old, along with Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s Erin Phillips, was the highest-profile player in the AFLW since its 2017 inception.
Pearce took a season off to give birth to twins but returned to action in 2020 and retires after captaining Melbourne for six seasons and winning three club champion awards and three All-Australian selections.
Also a respected commentator on the AFL, Pearce will now join the coaching ranks of AFL premiers Geelong.
“I’ve completed with the feelings of shedding a giant a part of me and one thing I’ve liked a lot,” Pearce mentioned.
“But grateful that I’ve labored actually onerous to take care of stability in the remainder of my life so I’m not in a interval of nice uncertainty and questioning who I’m now.
“I have got wonderful opportunities ahead of me.”
Pearce mentioned spending extra time along with her younger household was additionally an element.
“I am still going to be an ambitious person but I want to redirect some of that … give a bit back to the family,” she mentioned.
“I am not pinning it (retirement) on the need to go and be a good mum because I feel like I have hopefully been able to do that anyway.
“It was simply that total contentedness.
“I am someone that has always given 110 per cent and I didn’t want to be floating around the footy club content with where I am at … I don’t think I could have quite met my own personal standards.”
