No secret sauce as Daisy gets to work at West Coast

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No secret sauce as Daisy gets to work at West Coast

New West Coast AFLW coach Daisy Pearce is embracing the pressure placed on her shoulders, but says there’ll be no “secret sauce” other than hard work and commitment that will yield results.

The Eagles are yet to win more than two games in a season during their five completed campaigns and start among the wooden spoon favourites in 2024.

But the arrival of women’s football legend Pearce has breathed new life into West Coast’s AFLW program, with players daring to dream of a change in fortunes.

Although Pearce isn’t expecting miracles in her first season in charge, she’s well aware the wheel can turn quickly.

“I mean, Sydney in the AFLW last year is an example of that. Winless in their first season and then winning a final last year,” Pearce told reporters on Wednesday.

“Collingwood in the men’s – not a lot of people gave them a chance leading into their premiership season.

“And Hawthorn this year – a really developing, exciting team that stuck to their guns through a bit of early pain when Sam Mitchell took over.”

The Eagles will start as rank underdogs for their season opener at home to Richmond at Mineral Resources Park on Friday night.

The match will mark Pearce’s debut as a senior AFLW coach and there’s plenty of pressure on her from a fanbase starved of success.

“What a great world we live in, that I’m under all this pressure to perform, because it means that there’s a competition that demands it, a role that allows me to do it, and that people have expectations of me and us to be successful,” Pearce said.

“If we didn’t have those things, well, that’d be a worse scenario.

“From the outside looking in the narrative is that I’m here to help.

“But I’m reminded every day it’s not a one-person job. It’s going to come down to really good, hard-working people in the various roles.

“There’s no secret sauce that I’m bringing. It’s just trying to impart some of my experiences I’ve had and the rest is hard work and people being passionate about what they do.”

One of Pearce’s big jobs since arriving has been instilling belief into a player group that has become accustomed to losing.

“With eight wins across their history, it’s a fair bit of losing so far,” Pearce said.

“I’m definitely seeing growth in the group, their belief is growing, their connection to each other (is growing).

“And then their fundamentals and competitiveness around the contest is something that – as we saw in the practice matches – it might not immediately translate to wins, but we’ve got to look deeper than that.”

The Eagles will unleash No.2 draft pick Jess Rentsch and former middle-distance runner Sanne Bakker against the Tigers.

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