Kelli Underwood: Why opposites flourish for Ben Simmons and Patty Mills, Daisy Pearce and Tayla Harris

“I’ve got his back, I’ve always had his back and now I have the opportunity to be with him ... and help him in any way necessary,” Mills said last month.

The 76ers were sick of Simmons and the feeling was mutual.

All Mills saw was a troubled soul who needed guidance.

“At the end of the day I’m excited for this and I know he is as well. For us to come together, I think it’s going to be great for both of us. For me to share with him as much as I can as a professional and as an athlete.”

And so to the similar dynamic that’s unfolded throughout this year’s AFLW campaign and takes centre stage come grand final day – the Demons goal kicking duo of Tayla Harris and Daisy Pearce.

Harris is a shy, reluctant star who is yet to truly come out of her shell at her new club. Pearce is the captain, mother of twin toddlers, an inspirational leader dripping with class. They’re the Ben and Patty of women’s footy.

Like Philly in the NBA, Carlton questioned Harris’s dedication to football and whether she was a good fit for the team. She’d come off her worst year, battling through Covid-19 lockdowns and a two-year separation from her Brisbane based parents.

Controversy erupted when the most recognisable face in the game asked for a new Blues deal, reported to be $150,000.

Pearce read the media articles and reached out.

“The way it all played out frustrated me,” she says.

“A three-time All-Australian, key position forward, very marketable, asks for a pay rise. The outrage was not right. So, you can have an average underperforming male player on $300,000 a year – and that’s just accepted.

“But we all get outraged that Tayla should feel entitled to a sum of money that wasn’t even near the $150,000 that was reported. I called her to see if she was OK.”

Pearce then cheekily adds, “And maybe wave the flag to see if there was any chance!”

Harris became the game’s biggest off-season signing, joining her third club in six years.

The Pearce-Harris friendship began almost a decade ago, when they met at an All-Australian training camp at Princes Park. Harris was 15 and down from Brisbane. Pearce, the country girl from Victoria, was 24.

“I knew she was the gun kid from Queensland, she was just a baby,” Pearce remembers.

“At the time Aasta O’Connor was the big ruck to be feared in the comp and so it was Aasta in one team and Tayla was what we had in the ruck. So, we’re sending in this kid to play in the ruck and she just stood up and owned it.”

Harris recalls “I was super impressionable, I was probably lame, weird, annoying, definitely not cool and I thought I didn’t deserve to be in the same room as this icon.

“But then we got a photo together and I was like, ‘We’re friends now, we’ve got a photo and chatted twice!’”

Harris started her AFLW career with the Lions, losing a grand final in the inaugural season, before playing ending up on the wrong end of another decider for Carlton at Adelaide Oval.

Now 24 herself, Harris is the first player to play in three grand finals for three different clubs. But she hasn’t just lived and breathed footy, stepping into the boxing ring as well as she juggles dual career pursuits.

“This is the best feeling in footy ever, this week I’m loving it and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” she says.

“Boxing is more challenging. I lost 11kg in three weeks for a fight once and that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Almost a decade into their friendship and teammates at last, Pearce is still blown away by Harris’s talent.

“I went and watched her box one night because Ben (Pearce’s partner) and I had a babysitter and we said, ‘Let’s get out of the house’,” she says.

“I knew some of the footy girls were going to watch her fight. To see her walk out of the change room, through the crowd, up into a ring where someone wants to punch you, I was in awe. And Tay is just waving and owning it.”

Pearce isn’t so sure she could do the same.

“No, I don’t think it’s for me. I’m quite conservative, whereas Tayla will talk up a game and then own a moment, I’ve always admired her for it.”

Opposites haven’t just attracted off the footy field. This season the pair has roamed Melbourne’s forward 50, kicking 31 of the Demons 72 goals – 43 per cent of the team’s entire 2022 score.

Harris has kicked 18 goals, Pearce 13, while the Dees skipper has the most goal assists in the competition. On Tuesday night their dominance was recognised when they were named alongside each other in the All-Australian team.

Football is just easier for Harris when Pearce is on the paddock.

“Instructionally, my feet move before my brain registers what she says because I just take it in immediately and do what I’m told,” Harris says.

“I’m like a robot when she speaks and it’s just so easy. It’s like having a coach on the field, who obviously has the confidence and ability to instruct with conviction and that’s something I need.”

Yet for all the benefit Pearce provides, she sees Harris squirm at the prospect of the end result; being the best on ground.

“She doesn’t want that limelight. I can see when she sometimes drops her shoulders, and I’m just there encouraging her. We communicate well out there … well I’m doing all the talking!”

The Mills-Simmons partnership at the Nets is yet to be tested on an NBA court, but as Simmons stepped out to boos in Philly a few weeks ago, Mills strode out alongside him, part big brother, part security guard. He had his back.

In Pearce, Tayla has her very own big sister and security guard. She’s got her back. They bring out the best in each other.

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On Saturday their combination faces its biggest test against a formidable Adelaide defence led by captain Chelsea Randall and the best defender in the game, Sarah Allan.

All-Australian teammate Libby Birch has watched the Demons duo from the other end of the ground for the last eleven games, and sums their partnership up as well as any.

“It’s a match made in heaven really, it’s a bit of a Batman and Robin scenario. They’re different personalities but they match in such a way that it’s harmonious.”