Daisy Pearce, one of the bright shining stars of the AFLW, has been a glaring absentee from the field in season 2019 thus far. And it’s been for a very good and joyous reason.
[jwplayer dF6CwyGW]
The Melbourne Demons jet this morning announced the safe and happy arrival of twins, Sylvie and Roy (ed’s note: ROY!!!!), Pearce’s first children with partner Ben O’Neill on February 15th.
In a gushing and extremely cute Instagram post, Pearce confirmed the wee pair rolled into the world just after 11:30am last Friday, confirming “both are wonderful and are being smothered in love and smooches.”
Naturally, they’ve already been decked out in Demons blue and red.
Introducing our two new recruits, Sylvie + Roy O’Neill. 👶👶
Congratulations to @DaisyPearce6 + her partner Ben on the safe arrival of their twins over the weekend!
We can’t wait to meet the two little superstars. 💗💙 pic.twitter.com/GUSAepKGuz
— Melbourne AFLW (@MelbourneAFLW) February 17, 2019
Pearce chose to sit this season out in order to start a family with O’Neill. However she has remained a constant presence at Melbourne training throughout her pregnancy, documenting her growing belly on Instagram; a belly which, despite containing two tiny babies, still somehow appeared to have abs.
Pearce spoke to the Melbourne Football Club’s official website last December on the challenges of juggling a new family with professional football; a relatively new issue for the AFLW but by no means an uncommon one for Australia’s elite female football players.
I keep telling myself it’s been done before, and I’m pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I’m sure I won’t be the last person to get pregnant and want to get back to play footy, or any sport for that matter.
As we start to see more and more elite women’s sports, we’ll see more and more people trying to juggle it and their family commitments. I’m one of the first in footy to go through it, but let’s hope we see it more and more – it’ll be a beautiful part of sport.
Pearce plans to return to the AFLW field in season 2020.
Congratulations to the super cute new little fam!
