MELBOURNE champion Daisy Pearce would "love" to secure a premiership in what could be her final season, but won't let the flag pursuit define her career.
One of the most decorated players in women's football, Pearce will reach 50 games when Melbourne takes on Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old has been the face of the national competition throughout a career littered with individual accolades.
But premiership success at the top level has so far eluded her.
"I'd love one but to be honest, no (I don't need one)," Pearce said.
"It's more just this hunger and desire to want to be involved, and my passion and love for getting down to training three nights a week and being around this group.
"It's less about ticking that box and having a premiership than it is about love for the game.
"If I extrapolate that out to the scenario when I do hang up the boots and I haven't got one, I think I'll walk away still really fulfilled and feeling like the game has given me so much."
Melbourne has hardly put a foot wrong in a 6-1 start to its current campaign and is every chance to go one better than last season, when they lost the grand final to Adelaide.
The round-seven thumping of the Western Bulldogs was the Demons' third successive win by five goals or more.
"We sort of needed that win, not for the sense that we got the reward on the scoreboard, but more for the feeling when we walked off," Pearce said.
"The belief and morale in the group was right there and we've been searching for that for a little while."
Pearce joins Demons teammates Libby Birch, Karen Paxman, Tayla Harris, Lily Mithen, Lauren Pearce and Kate Hore in reaching 50 games.
It comes after she played an estimated 150 state league games before AFLW began in 2017, and after she gave birth to twins in 2019.
"I couldn't play a single (AFLW) game until I was nearly 29, it just wasn't possible, and we were going six or seven games (a season) to begin with, so they're hard to come by," Pearce said.
"Then you throw in twins and a pregnancy and all that in between.
"(Fifty) might not sound like many on paper but it feels like a lot."
