Pearce Hanley
Pearce Hanley at a Brisbane Lions public training session in 2007.
Personal information
Full name	Pearce Hanley
Birth	15 November 1988 (1988-11-15) (age 21)
Place of birth	Ireland
Recruited from	County Mayo (Gaelic Football)
Draft	38th overall, 2007 AFL Rookie Draft Brisbane Lions
Height	184cm
Weight	83kg
Playing Career
Position(s)	Forward
Club	Brisbane Lions
Number	42
Club
Years	Team	Pld	G
2008–	Brisbane Lions	3	0

Pearce Hanley (born 1989 in Ireland) is an Australian rules footballer playing with the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League. He is a former Gaelic footballer who played for Mayo GAA and Ballaghaderreen Gaelic Athletic Association clubs.

[edit] Gaelic football

Pearce made his senior debut in 2007 against Cavan.^[1] Hanley had previously won the Ron Barassi medal for the best player of the international rules for the Irish U-17 International Rules team against Australia in 2005.^[2] 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.

[edit] 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.^[3] 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 he replaced Begley in the side. ^[4] At the end of the 2009 season, Hanley was elevated to the lions senior list.

[edit] See also

• Irish experiment

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Pearce Hanley's statistics from AFL Tables