The West Coast Eagles take on Geelong on Friday night in the second week of Pride Round, and senior coach Daisy Pearce highlights the importance of the round and how well it’s celebrated across the League.

“It’s really exciting, in the AFLW we’ve led the way in this space,” Pearce said.

“How inclusive and diverse our playing and staffing group is, and the fanbase that is welcome at our games is something that I think a lot of people in AFLW are really proud of, and proud to belong to.

“Any opportunity we have to celebrate it even more than we normally do, it has a real impact on the broader community and creating that awareness that people belong here no matter what their background or identity.

“We want to keep celebrating and acknowledging that AFLW is a safe space for everyone, and it’s something that we’re excited to be a part of.”

The Eagles currently sit in eighth spot on the ladder with three games to play in the regular season, with the possibility of a historic finals berth on the horizon.

“We’re really excited at the opportunity in front of us,” Pearce said.

“In terms of making finals and where we end up in the season, we feel like it’s within our control, which is a great start, and it allows us to just focus on what we’re trying to do.

“We just want to improve every week, and the Adelaide game last week gave us some feedback again of things we need to get after, some of our contest work and our offensive decisions.

“We’ll be focusing in on those over the next couple of weeks so we feel like if we get that right, and keep improving, the players are quick learners, the results and where we land will take care of itself.

“We’ll either get in because we’re good enough, or we won’t because we’ve got some more work to do, it’s pretty simple.”

Second-year Eagle Jess Rentsch was rewarded for her outstanding form with a Rising Star nomination this round, and Pearce said the team is blessed to have the 19-year-old in blue and gold.

“I’m really proud of her, it’s awesome to see ‘Rentschy’ go out there for 80 minutes on the weekend, but to see her behind the scenes and what she puts in, we just feel blessed to have her,” Pearce said.

“A second-year player that turns up every day with passion and energy, she wants to improve, she sets the standards with how she competes and gets after things, this recognition is just reward for what she does.

“I see her being a pretty unique midfielder in the long run, with the way that she attacks the game, her appetite to defend, I think she could be a really balanced midfielder.

“But the work that she’s doing down back, and the job she’s doing down there for us, are big team roles and it’s helping her overall development.

“The awesome thing is, you give her a big job, and it doesn’t stifle her ability to help us when we’ve got the ball in our hands, she’s a pretty good weapon to have up our sleeve.”

Geelong come into Friday night’s game following a 27-point win over GWS last weekend, and will no doubt be looking to secure back-to-back victories.

“They’re impressive, they’ve had a really tough draw and played some quality sides,” Pearce said.

“The way their midfield is set up, they’ve got a pretty powerful midfield who run really hard, and an exciting forward line that can really challenge you as well.

“They were challenged by the Giants for a period of time last week which shows some opportunity for us, but we know we’re going to have to play four quarters because they will just keep coming.

“We think they’re pretty strong around the ball and creative in the way that they use it, and that gives their forwards a real opportunity to be dangerous, so we will need to be mindful of that.”