field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
player, who plays as a defender and midfielder.
Personal life
Meg Pearce grew up in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
Ironman
Iron Man, Ironman or Ironmen may refer to:
*Nathaniel "Iron Man" Avery (1939–1985), American caddie for Arnold Palmer
*Travis Fulton (1977–2021), American mixed martial arts fighter
*Gunnar Graps (1951–2004), Estonian musician
*Mick Murphy ...
events, and her mother runs in marathons. Following after her father and sister, both hockey players, she started playing hockey when six years old, at the Doncaster Hockey Club, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. After finishing secondary school, she studied arts at university, and began working as a personal trainer, before completing a double degree in commerce and nutrition. She played on the Under-21 Victorian state team in 2014 and 2015, and played with the
Victorian Vipers
The Victorian Vipers are a field hockey team who participate in Australia's national field hockey league, the AHL. The team is predominantly made up of amateurs who participate in the Victorian Premier League competition. The team's home stadi ...
, before moving to Brisbane. She joined
Brisbane Blaze
Brisbane Blaze is an Australian hockey club based in Brisbane, Queensland. The club was established in 2019, and is one of 7 established to compete in Hockey Australia's new premier domestic competition, Hockey One.
The club unifies both men an ...
for the 2019 season. She later relocated to Perth, working in marketing for a financial services firm.
She is a scholarship holder at the
Victorian Institute of Sport
The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succe ...
, as well as a member of
Hockey Queensland
Hockey Queensland is the governing body for the sport of hockey in Queensland, Australia. It is responsible for the administration of intrastate competitions, state representative teams, officials and the financial position of the sport. It's loc ...
's High Performance Squad.
Career
Domestic league
From 2013 to 2018, Pearce was a member of the Victorian Vipers in the
Hockey Australia
Hockey Australia is an organisation that formed from the merger of the Australian Hockey Association and Women's Hockey Australia in 2000. It is the national body responsible for the promotion, development and administration of field hockey in A ...
Pearce made her debut for the Australia U–21 team in 2013 at the
Australian Youth Olympic Festival
The Australian Youth Olympics Festival (AYOF) is an international multi-sport event organised by the Australian Olympic Committee
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Aust ...
in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
. At the tournament, she won a gold medal.
Hockeyroos
In 2020, Pearce was named in the
Hockeyroos
The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos) are, as of January 2019, ranked third in the world. Having played their first game in 1914, and their first Olympic game in 1984, they are one of Australia's most succes ...
squad for the first time.
She made her official debut for the team in 2021, during a test series against
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
in
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...