After an outstanding start to the 2019 season, 23-year-old key defender Alex Pearce is turning heads around the AFL.
In Monday’s Access All Areas, both Damien Barrett and Jimmy Bartell listed Pearce in their early calls for All Australian selection.
And media commentator Xavier Ellis also had high praise for Pearce in the latest episode of the Hard Ball Gets AFL Show podcast.
Ellis and co-host Nick Rynne rated their top five players so far in 2019, with Ellis placing Pearce at no.3.
He said that Pearce and fellow key defender Joel Hamling deserved the credit for making life hard on opposition forwards.
Fremantle have conceded just 51 marks inside 50 in 2019, the lowest number in AFL and seven fewer than the second closest team, Geelong.
“You can’t measure this person (Pearce). He has not been beaten. The easiest way to score a goal is to take a mark and kick a goal and Fremantle are the best team at eliminating marks inside 50,” Ellis said.
“Watch him play and you don’t notice him, because he doesn’t get beaten. He just punches it and punches it. Pearce and Hamling as a duo, they just wax together…they are negating the forwards.
“Fremantle are second on the ladder and the easy option would have been (to pick) Nat Fyfe (in the top five), but he missed half a game when he was concussed and missed the next week.”
Rynne agreed, saying Fremantle’s early success in 2019 has been due to the efforts of their defence.
“(Pearce) has been the best key defender in the competition this year,” Rynne said.
“In terms of negating players, he’s right up there. As much as there has been talk about Fremantle’s forwards, their success this year has been built on defence.”
