Fremantle skipper Alex Pearce has always been highly rated at Fremantle and inside Western Australia, but now the key defender has been recognised as the game’s best current defender by a former foe.

Pearce has put together a strong start to his 2026 campaign, including his match-winning smother against Adelaide, and is on pace to be in the mix to earn his first, and long-awaited, All-Australian blazer.

But the Fremantle star is already considered the best defender in the league by former Port Adelaide and Gold Coast power forward Charlie Dixon, who claims Pearce was the toughest defender still playing the game he matched up with.

“Towards the end, it was definitely Alex Pearce and Harris Andrews, obviously,” he told SEN.

“(Pearce) has gone forward and kicked goals and won games - for a key back to be versatile like that is quite rare.

“I felt like he would play in front of me, and anyone who played in front of me, I would have a really good time, but he came back with such strength and force that he would always just get a fingertip in. It would drive me insane!

“He’s bigger than me, and his arms seem like they’re longer. They hang past his knees! The ball would hit the ground, and I used to think I was actually quite good below my knees, so that’s where I had another advantage.

“The ball would hit the ground, and he’d pick it up, and he’d be gone. I’d be standing there like, ‘Ugh, here comes the runner! I know, mate, I know.”

It was another West Australian, Dixon, who kicked 357 goals across 221 AFL games, said was his toughest all-time.

“Alex Rance, I felt like I was sort of at my peak, and I was playing good footy. He was always really hard, and I always loved playing on the best, and wanted to play on the best. If you had a good game on someone like Alex Rance, it means you had a really good game,” he said.

“The big guys like Andrews - the same as Pearce - who can move really well and wants the footy (were always the most difficult match-ups).

“I’m all about the key defender who wants the footy as well. Not the bloke who sits in your back pocket and doesn’t want the footy, just runs around.

“(Daniel) Talia was probably more on the side where he’d sit in your back pocket and would not let you get anywhere near it. That’s always hard.”

Pearce is averaging 4.5 spoils per game so far in 2026, his highest since 2021, and is ranked sixth in the competition for intercept marks with more than two a game.

And Dockers coach Justin Longmuir is adamant his skipper should be in the All-Australian discussion.

“I would think he deserves to be there. I haven’t watched every team as closely as the selectors, but he’d be in my team,” he said.

“It comes down to continuity but also, I think he’s preparing as well as he’s ever prepared.

“He’s had a fantastic start and off the back of that, he’s reading the game really well.

“When the momentum is against us, he’s always our loudest player and connecting his teammates and keeping us on track.”