Danyle Pearce

Player Stats

Biography

Danyle Pearce (born 7 April 1986) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Danyle is of Indigenous Australian descent and his ancestry can be traced to the Kokatha.

Pearce began playing for the Sturt Football Club in the SANFL. He also represented South Australia in basketball, as a point guard. He was a rookie listed player by the Adelaide Football Club in 2004 but was not retained as the club decided to keep Matthew Smith.

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. In his speech, Pearce said "My kneecaps were shaking" and "I loved the free food" since Pearce also admitted that he came to the awarding ceremony for the food and entertainment.

Danyle played in the International Rules series against Ireland 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 despite being his team's youngest player.

During the 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. He continued to be a fine contributor of the ensuing seasons and was due to play his 150th game in late 2012.