West Coast Eagles coach Daisy Pearce allowing players to dream big ahead of first AFLW finals appearance

West Coast coach Daisy Pearce has revealed she will not stop her players from dreaming of lifting the premiership cup ahead of their first AFLW finals campaign.

Despite suffering losses in their final two games of the home-and-away season, other results breaking the Eagles’ way allowed them to secure a top-eight finish and set up an elimination final rematch with Carlton — who beat them in the final round of the home-and-away season on Friday night — in Melbourne on Saturday.

Having captained Melbourne to a premiership in the competition’s seventh season, Pearce had another chance to get up close with the cup on Wednesday morning, when the AFLW premiership cup tour stopped at a local primary school.

Pearce said it would be understandable for the attention of her players to drift towards the main prize but she expected them to quickly turn their focus to the task at hand.

“We don’t sit and actively talk about it as part of our day-to-day, but I’m not going to squash thoughts about it down or encourage people to not dream big,” she said.

“It’s not just about winning a cup. It symbolises being the most connected, most skilful, hard-working team.

“If someone walked up and said ‘do you want to have this cup’, it probably wouldn’t bring a lot of satisfaction.

“All the hard work that goes in the lead-in to it, the failures, the hard times, the people you do it with — the premiership we were lucky enough to win, that’s what I think about.”

Pearce is already the owner of one premiership tattoo, having had some matching ink applied with teammate Tayla Harris in the midst of the Demons’ 2022 celebrations.

But the legendary player-turned-coach was coy on the prospect of adding another if the Eagles claim the cup.

“I’m not going to make any promises, I’ve made that mistake one time before,” Pearce said.

“It’d be hard to say no, they’re a convincing bunch and it could be a bit of fun.

“Let’s see, we’ve got a bit of work to do to get there first.”

This year marks the first time the AFLW premiership cup tour has included a stop in WA, which Pearce said was “really special”.

“You only have to walk in here and see the kids get excited about it to realise just how inspirational something like this is. We all grew up loving footy and watching on that last day and seeing our heroes lift it up was the pinnacle,” she said.

“To have a symbol like this come to your town makes it feel tangible and achievable and something that you can aspire to do.

“I think to get it over here and to all the far-reaching corners of the country is really important, so that it keeps selling that message it’s a game for everyone.”