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AFLW Star Daisy Pearce Seeks Balance With Return to Midwifery

As the ambassador for the growing AFL women's league, footy star Daisy Pearce has learned that saying "yes" to all opportunities comes at a cost.

In the inaugural AFLW season in 2017 Pearce was a star on and off the field, with brand and media commitments on top of usual training and promotional requirements.

On Pickstar's Off-Field podcast, she admitted that the game began to take over both her life and her identity.

"Football became all-consuming, and it was probably just heading into the football season that I suddenly started realising that all I’m doing is football, and because of that by the time I turn up to actually train I’m not feeling the love for it," Pearce said.

“Until that point I hadn’t thought it possible, I was getting too much football ... and then as the season wore on I realised how important that balance was."

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ON ITUNES

The 'uncomfortable' Rise Of Daisy Pearce To AFLW Footy Star, Media Presenter And Midwif‪e‬

Daisy Pearce Interview

Pearce said her thinking about "balance" has evolved.

“I’ve kind of gone on a funny little circle journey with that, and I think when the opportunity for AFLW came up my thinking was I need to do everything I can and every waking hour needs to be spent giving myself the best chance to be a good footballer.

“Off the back of more opportunities popping up for women, I got an opportunity to work at the AFL and then at Melbourne footy club full-time, and with those opportunities coming up (I was thinking) the time is now for those and if I don’t take them now I’ll never get them again.”

She put her midwifery career on hold and started working at Melbourne, while also training as hard as she could.

With a new perspective, Pearce has returned to midwifery part-time.

“It was important for me to go back and keep doing that, so that I felt like football’s not the only thing to me, I’ve got other things that I love and can do as well so I’ve started doing some midwifery shifts again and it gives you great perspective,” she said.

Pearce said being a midwife is, “one the most rewarding things that you could ever be a part of.”

“I know I’m in a (football) industry that can chew you up and spit you out pretty quickly (so) it’s nice as a bit of a safety plan to have that to go back to, but also in a day to day sense to be able to get out of the world of football and back into a very real-life job in midwifery where it’s high stakes, high pressure, a real cross-section of life,” she said.

Daisy says her perfect balance is to play AFLW for a couple more years, maintain her midwifery registration and keep taking media and brand opportunities as they arise.

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