{"id":121501,"date":"2022-11-28T14:55:16","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T04:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/?p=121501"},"modified":"2022-11-28T14:55:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T04:55:18","slug":"grateful-dees-pair-reflect-on-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2022\/11\/28\/grateful-dees-pair-reflect-on-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Grateful Dees pair reflect on it all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFTER Melbourne finally broke through for their inaugural flag yesterday, it was hard to wipe the smiles of the faces of it\u2019s captain Daisy Pearce<\/a> and coach Mick Stinear<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pearce said that although it had not fully sunk in yet, her overwhelming emotion was pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken a bit of time to sink in actually, but I\u2019m just so proud of our group\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery single person that\u2019s made it possible, players and non playing players, all our staff, coaches, the whole club that\u2019s kind of been behind this unit since day one, it\u2019s seven years in the making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo sit here now and know that we got the job done in trying conditions, to have to come up here to Brisbane, in the heat that was so well talked about from the mob up here and I even love that it was a grind. I sort of have an identity crisis whenever I hear about our team that they\u2019re this slick outside running, polished team and it\u2019s like that\u2019s not us, we\u2019re a hard contest team with a whole lot of spirit, so to win the game the way we did couldn\u2019t have been more perfect. Just so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever the humble champion, Pearce was quick to deflect the talk about herself and keen to praise her team mates, including the likes of Sarah Lampard<\/a>, Tayla Harris<\/a> and Blaithin Mackin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about what it meant to win for her personally, she was just as quick to start talking about others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that she was \u201cjust wrapped that we got it done for someone like this bloke [referring to Stinear], and Paxy<\/a> [Karen Paxman] and Lil<\/a> [Lily Mithen] , Lampy<\/a> [Sarah Lampard], Loz Pearce<\/a>, I shouldn\u2019t have started naming names, Kate Hore<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stinear\u2019s emotions were similar to Pearce\u2019s, and was feeling just as proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special, and I\u2019m probably not going to say anything new that Daisy hasn\u2019t already said, but it\u2019s pretty aligned with how I feel about this group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we just got the balance right with what we wanted to focus our attention on this season, and we\u2019ve always had a special group of humans and talented footballers and we\u2019ve always known that, but we\u2019ve never been able to leverage that from a performance point of view consistently, and I just feel like this season, we actually got it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were able to leverage the fact that we\u2019ve got great people that would do anything for each other, but convert that into performance and the off field behaviours that then spill on field, and just rewarding and valuing the little things that we can do for each other, and knowing that\u2019ll stack up under the greatest pressure and under the ultimate test. That was the part that off the back of last season we felt that we were missing we came up short in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo go through this whole season and invest so much in the offseason and you know you\u2019ve got players living together that become great friends and great housemates. You\u2019ve got teammates that would do anything for each other, supporting each other\u2019s partners, through exam periods and the losses and tough blows in life that everyone goes through, but you\u2019ve got this group of people that have got each other\u2019s backs and that\u2019s what we saw today and it spilled out onto the footy field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the contests, now that was a brutal, physical game, and some of those moments and contests in that last quarter, you couldn\u2019t be prouder and they just played with enormous heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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