Pearce Hanley (born 1988 in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is a former

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 Gold Coast Football Club 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 previously played with the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

from 2008 to 2016. A former

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er, he played for the Mayo county team and is from Ballaghaderreen, where he played his club football.

Early life

Hanley was born in

to an Irish father and a Welsh mother. He and his family moved to Ballaghaderreen in

County Roscommon County Roscommon () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the province of Connacht and the Northern and Western Region. It is the List of Irish counties by area, 11th largest Irish county by area and Li ...

at a young age. He is one of six siblings in his immediate family.

Gaelic football

Pearce made his senior debut in 2007 against

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

. Hanley had previously won the Ron Barassi Medal for the best player of the

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team ...

for the Irish U-17 international rules team against Australia in 2005. It was there that he was first scouted by recruiters from Australia and he was targeted for recruitment by the Brisbane Lions as being a potential AFL player.

Australian rules football

In 2007, Pearce was signed by the Brisbane Lions, and put on the rookie list with a view of converting him to Australian rules football. At the Lions, he was mentored by fellow Irishman Colm Begley who had previously played with the club for a season. Hanley made rapid progress and his adaptation to Australian football was almost as rapid as Begley's. He impressed in an early intra-club hit-out and was a solid performer for the Suncoast Lions. Called up by coach

Leigh Matthews Leigh Raymond Matthews (born 1 March 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for Hawthorn Football Club, Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (1897–1989), Victorian Football League (VFL) and coached and the ...

, he made his debut in the final Lions home match in 2008 against the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

in front of a crowd of 35,000 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, replacing Begley in the side. At the end of the 2009 season, Hanley was elevated to the Lions' senior list. Hanley went on to become an integral part of the Lions' side as a highly damaging rebound defender. In round 18,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

in QClash8 Hanley amassed a whopping 44 touches and won the Marcus Ashcroft Medal. At the conclusion of the 2016 season, Hanley was traded to the Gold Coast Football Club. In September 2020, Hanley announced his retirement from AFL, effective immediately.

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2016 season'' , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, , 42 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 17 , , 10 , , 27 , , 9 , , 6 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 8.5 , , 5 , , 13.5 , , 4.5 , , 3.0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, , 42 , , 1 , , 0 , , 0 , , 3 , , 7 , , 10 , , 1 , , 0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.0 , , 7.0 , , 10.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, , 42 , , 9 , , 3 , , 0 , , 78 , , 61 , , 139 , , 32 , , 26 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 8.7 , , 6.8 , , 15.4 , , 3.6 , , 2.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, , 11 , , 22 , , 3 , , 5 , , 299 , , 150 , , 449 , , 130 , , 54 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 13.6 , , 6.8 , , 20.4 , , 5.9 , , 2.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, , 11 , , 22 , , 7 , , 3 , , 314 , , 147 , , 461 , , 119 , , 53 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 14.3 , , 6.7 , , 21.0 , , 5.4 , , 2.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, , 11 , , 20 , , 16 , , 9 , , 296 , , 134 , , 430 , , 98 , , 50 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 14.8 , , 6.7 , , 21.5 , , 4.9 , , 2.5 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, , 11 , , 20 , , 6 , , 13 , , 310 , , 194 , , 504 , , 96 , , 81 , , 0.3 , , 0.7 , , 15.5 , , 9.7 , , 25.2 , , 4.8 , , 4.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, , 11 , , 11 , , 9 , , 9 , , 151 , , 88 , , 239 , , 58 , , 33 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 13.7 , , 8.0 , , 21.7 , , 5.3 , , 3.0 , - style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, , 11 , , 22 , , 14 , , 17 , , 269 , , 197 , , 466 , , 91 , , 83 , , 0.6 , , 0.8 , , 12.2 , , 9.0 , , 21.2 , , 4.1 , , 3.8 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 129 ! 58 ! 56 ! 1737 ! 988 ! 2725 ! 634 ! 386 ! 0.4 ! 0.4 ! 13.5 ! 7.7 ! 21.1 ! 4.9 ! 3.0

References

External links