ESSENDON
Maggie Jenkins scored on her Essendon Royals debut. It was a Nike F.C. Cup tie. Two months later she scored twice in the final of the same competition and walked off with two medals and a trophy.
Most players spend years earning the right to matter at a football club. Maggie Jenkins has been at Essendon Royals for a matter of months and has already bookended one of the most important things that has ever happened to it.
Her first game in red and white was a Nike F.C. Cup tie against Melbourne Victory. She scored. On Saturday night, at the Home of the Matildas, she scored twice more in the final and collected the Theresa Dorsey medal as the best player on the ground.
Start of the run, end of the run, and her name on both.
“It was my first game for the Royals when we played Melbourne Victory a couple of months ago,” she said afterwards. “So yeah, it was really, really special being part of the club and part of that cup journey from start to finish.”
The first one
Twenty minutes in, the game was even. Heidelberg were comfortable enough on the ball and Royals were waiting for a moment.
Grace Maher raced the ball out of defence following a well-defended corner. Having penetrated into the Heidelberg’s half, Maher played a wonderful ball with her right foot to find Jenkins unmarked outside the box.
She did not rush it. She took a touch to set herself, then hit the half volley into the top corner with the outside of the goal frame flashing past it. Mia Bailey, who had a very good night otherwise, had no chance whatsoever.
It was, in the commentary’s phrase at the time, a hell of a goal to open the scoring in a cup final.
The second one
The fourth goal, in the seventy-ninth minute, was a different sort of finish and arguably a better one.
Heidelberg were throwing bodies forward by then, chasing a way back into a game that had got away from them, and Royals kept punishing them for it. Kelli McGroarty ran the channel and pulled the last defender across with her. Jenkins timed her own run late, took the ball in behind, and slid it past Bailey as the keeper came out.
No celebration to speak of, at least not from her. She was engulfed before she got very far.
Two goals in a major final, in a competition she has played in from her first day at the club.
“I feel honoured”
Given the chance to talk about herself, she mostly did not.
“I feel so honoured to share this experience with such an amazing team,” she said. “I thought the team played really well tonight, and yeah, we’re all really, really happy.”
Asked directly about the medal and the two goals, she allowed herself one line of satisfaction, then moved straight back to the group.
“I was really happy with my goals tonight. It was really cool to be part of this cup.”
What she did want to talk about was the reception she has had. Jenkins came to Royals from Wellington United, where she was leading the golden boot race before she moved across the Tasman mid-season. That is a disruptive thing to do to your own year, and it can go badly.
“Everyone’s really welcoming,” she said. “I really feel like this club is a big family, and a lot of the family showed up tonight. That was really awesome to see.”
Once in a lifetime
The most striking thing she said was also the most understated, and it came when she was asked what she would take from the night years down the line.
“Being in a final is really special. It’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it was just awesome that we got to make history for the club.”