SENIOR Port Adelaide defender Danyle Pearce will play his 150th AFL game this weekend against the GWS Giants and says that the achievement is something he could never have imagined.

Speaking on the eve of his personal milestone, the 2006 NAB AFL Rising Star winner revealed to PortAdelaideFC.com.au he never pictured himself playing eight years of AFL football when he first walked through the doors of Alberton.

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“To be honest it doesn’t feel real when I can still think back to the first day I showed up here in '05 with the others I was drafted with,” Pearce told PortAdelaideFC.com.au.

“I managed to play the last seven games that year off the rookie list and now coming up on the end of the eighth year it’s something I definitely think back on.

“To play one AFL game, then 50, 100 and now 150 is really great.”

Exploding onto the AFL landscape in 2005 against the Kangaroos at Manuka Oval, his journey towards becoming a staple in the Port Adelaide side is one of challenge and success.

Having earned the respect of the AFL world through his formative years - winning Port Adelaide’s best first year player award in 2005 before being awarded the NAB AFL Rising Star award, Gavin Wanganeen Medal and playing International Rules in 2006, Pearce has been driven by the desire to become 'one of the few.' 

It was at the NAB AFL Draft Camp the year before he was drafted to the Power that Pearce first heard the words that would motivate him to excel at Alberton.

“You don’t think forward at all [in AFL],” said Pearce.

“The one thing that really stuck out for me at the draft camp was when they had all 95 potential draftees - guys like Delidio, ‘Buddy’ Franklin, Roughead and the rest in this one big room.

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“None of us knew each other back then and I think it was Mike Sheahan who first said something that’s stuck with me the most through my career - ‘Of the 90 or so in this room, only 20 or 30 will go on to play 20 games.”

It is indicative of the immense difficulty any hopeful footballer faces when entering the walls of an AFL club in the modern era.

Yet Pearce has built himself into one of Port Adelaide’s most damaging players, attracting taggers every week and forcing him to push harder to produce the performances that characterised his first years in the black, white and teal.

Being a senior player is a tough role at the best of times and with daily meetings, skills and fitness training, opposition briefings and recovery work, it’s difficult to convey just how demanding life as a professional footballer can be.

Pearce however requires few words to highlight the challenges he and most other '150-gamers' face.

“It’s really demanding week in, week out,” he said.

“When you think about the life of an AFL footballer, the ability to plan ahead in football is impossible.”

“You need to perform well, everything needs to stack up right to forge a career in this industry.

“But to be able to look back and say ‘I beat the odds’, coming off the rookie list and now playing 150 is now a big honour.”

On Saturday afternoon, Pearce will join other heroes of the Port Adelaide Football Club to play 150 AFL matches, including premiership captain Warren Tredrea, the Cornes brothers Chad and Kane, Brendon Lade, fellow Rising Star winner Michael Wilson and current skipper Dom Cassisi.

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He also becomes the fourth Aboriginal player to eclipse that mark at Port Adelaide, joining inaugural AFL captain Gavin Wanganeen (173 games) and former teammates Peter (240) and Shaun Burgoyne (157).

For Pearce, it’s an immense honour to join his childhood heroes in having eclipsed the milestone.

“I first got here right at the peak of Port’s success, we were really flying and we had legends of the game playing in the team,” he said.

“To be able to play alongside them was a real honour.

“I hadn’t thought about it [matching his fellow Aboriginal players] until I was over at the Port Club having lunch with Peter Burgoyne and Byron Pickett and we were talking about when we were all playing together.

“To actually sit down and think players you literally idolise when you’re coming up, to think you’re walking in the same path that they did and heading towards where they got to is an honour.

“I was joking with Peter yesterday that he’d played 240-something games for the club.

“That’s my target.”

Port Adelaide plays against the GWS Giants at Skoda Stadium on Saturday 4 August at 2.10pm (EST). 

Danyle Pearce career achievements

Debuted Round 18, 2005 v North Melbourne

149 career games
74 career goals

PAFC Best First Year Player 2005
2006 NAB AFL Rising Star winner
NAB AFL Rising Star nominee 2006
International Rules Series 2006
Gavin Wanganeen Medal (Best U/21 Power player) 2006

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