Danyle Pearce (born 7 April 1986) is a former professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where it is nicknamed the ...

and

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). He played for the Port Adelaide between 2005 and 2012 and Fremantle between 2013 and 2018.

Early life

Danyle is of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

descent and his ancestry can be traced to the Kokatha. Pearce began playing for the

Sturt Football Club The Sturt Football Club, nicknamed The Double Blues, is a semi-professional Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Unley, South Australia, which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Founded in 1901 by the Stur ...

in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL). He also represented

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

. Pearce attend Springbank Secondary College, then known as Pasadena High School.

AFL career

Port Adelaide career (2005–2012)

Pearce was a selected as a rookie listed player by the Port Adelaide Football Club with the 16th selection in the 2005 Rookie Draft. He made his AFL debut in Round 18, 2005 for the Port Adelaide Power. He was named Best First Year Player for the Power in 2005 and nominated in round 3, 2006 for the AFL Rising Star award. Pearce won the 2006 NAB Rising Star with 43 votes out of a possible 45. Second place for this award was Andrew Raines with 35. This made Pearce become the first former rookie-listed player to win the award. He played in the

International Rules International rules football (; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international represe ...

series against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 2006. Pearce also won the Gavin Wanganeen Medal, being the first to receive the newly created 2006 award, for best up and coming rising star at the Port Adelaide Football Club, and the AFLPA's Marn Grook Award. He received 13 votes in the

2006 Brownlow Medal The 2006 Brownlow Medal was the 79th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the best and fairest, fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season. Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans won the medal ...

. During the team's unsuccessful 2008 season Pearce suffered from a form slump and was dropped down to Sturt for a week, however, he showed a good display in round 22 with 28 possessions and a goal.

Fremantle career (2013–2018)

On 1 October 2012, the

used the newly introduced Free Agency Period to make a bid for Pearce, who was classified as a Restricted Free Agent. Port Adelaide chose to not match Fremantle's offer, resulting in Pearce signing with Fremantle for the 2013 season. Pearce led the AFL for total inside 50s and inside 50s per game in the 2014 home and away season. Pearce retired at the end of the 2018 season after 258 senior games.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Danyle 1986 births Living people Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) Fremantle Football Club players Sturt Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football 21st-century Indigenous Australian people AFL Rising Star winners Australia international rules football team players Australian rules footballers from Adelaide 21st-century Australian sportsmen