Pearce Hanley

Pearce Hanley
Pearce Hanley at a Brisbane Lions public training session in 2007
Personal information
Full name	Pearce Hanley
Date of birth	(1988-11-15) 15 November 1988
Place of birth	Ireland
Original team(s)	Mayo (Gaelic football)
Draft	No. 38, 2008 Rookie Draft, Brisbane Lions No. 95 (RP), 2009 National Draft, Brisbane Lions
Height/Weight	185cm / 85kg
Position(s)	Midfielder / Defender
Club information
Current club	Brisbane Lions
Number	11
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2008–	Brisbane Lions	107 (44)
International team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2011, 2014	Ireland	2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2015 season. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 2014.
Career highlights
Marcus Ashcroft Medal Rd 18, 2014

Pearce Hanley (born 1988 in Ireland) is an Australian rules footballer playing with the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). A former Gaelic footballer, he played for Mayo and is from Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon, where he played his GAA club football.

Gaelic football

Pearce made his senior debut in 2007 against Cavan. Hanley had previously won the Ron Barassi Medal for the best player of the International Rules Series for the Irish U-17 international rules team against Australia in 2005. It was there that he was first scouted by recruiters from Australia and he was targeted for recruitment by the Brisbane Lions as being a potential AFL player.

Australian rules football

In 2007, Pearce was signed by the Brisbane Lions, and put on the rookie list with a view of converting him to Australian rules football. At the Lions, he was mentored by fellow Irishman Colm Begley who had previously played with the club for a season. Hanley made rapid progress and his adaptation to Australian football was almost as rapid as Begley's. He impressed in an early intra-club hit-out and was a solid performer for the Suncoast Lions.

Called up by coach Leigh Matthews, he made his debut in the final Lions home match in 2008 against the Carlton Football Club in front of a crowd of 35,000 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, ironically replacing Begley in the side. At the end of the 2009 season, Hanley was elevated to the lions senior list.

Hanley has since gone on to become an integral part of the Lions' side as a highly damaging rebound defender. In Round 18, 2014 in QClash8 Hanley amassed a whopping 44 touches and won the Marcus Ashcroft Medal.

See also

• Irish experiment
• List of players who have converted from one football code to another

External links

• Pearce Hanley's profile on the official website of the Brisbane Lions
• Pearce Hanley's statistics from AFL Tables