ESSENDON
Mikaela Jurcic was in the squad the last time Essendon Royals won something. She flew back from overseas the day before and did not play. Three years on, she lifted the cup as captain.
Every club has a player who has been there for the whole climb. At Essendon Royals it is the captain, and the story starts with a trophy she wasn’t able to play in the final for.
Mikaela Jurcic’s first season at the club was 2023. That was the year Royals won the Steph Catley Plate and earned promotion, the season that set everything since in motion. She was part of the squad. She was not part of the final.
“I came back from overseas the day before,” she said, “but I was a part of the build up to it.”
That is a footnote in a good season, and it would have stayed a footnote if the club had stayed where it was. Instead Royals went up in 2023, became an NPL club in 2024, marked thirty years of their women’s program last year, and on Saturday night played in the first major final in the club’s history.
This time she led them out. This time she lifted it.
“We just knew it was in the air”
Ask most captains about the hours before a final and you get platitudes. Jurcic’s answer was oddly specific and, in hindsight, accurate.
“From the moment we rocked up today, the moment we warmed up, we just knew it was in the air. We knew we were going to do well today.”
Royals had earned the right to feel like that, though they had not made it easy on themselves. Extra time to get past Bundoora United. A penalty shootout against Alamein. The semi-final against Bulleen. By the time they reached the Home of the Matildas they had played the best part of two extra matches to be there.
Saturday, by comparison, was almost comfortable, and Jurcic was not going to apologise for that.
“We’ve done it the hard way, a lot of the cup run, but it was nice to get it done and a commanding win there. Nice to be able to get it done in ninety and not have to go to penalties or extra time.”
Fifty-seven minutes
Her own night was not flawless. She was booked inside the first twenty minutes, a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge that the referee saw differently to her, and it hung over her for the rest of her time on the pitch. On a yellow card in a final, at three nil, with Heidelberg throwing numbers forward, the sensible thing was to take her off.
So she came off in the fifty-seventh minute, watched the last half hour from the bench, and handed the armband on. Grace Maher took it, and later gave it to Emma Langley.
Jurcic lifted the trophy and reflected on the journey that this team has been on.
“It’s just nice to see how far this team’s come in the last four years. My first year here we won the Steph Catley Plate, which was amazing. So yeah, we’ve just continued to build every year. We’ve gotten stronger and stronger. So super proud to be able to be standing here and lift that trophy today.”
The people who turned up
Like every one of her teammates, she ended up talking about the crowd. Unlike some of them, she went out of her way to name the unglamorous end of it.
“Just having people supporting us so much, from the committee to our fans, to everyone who’s come out every week and especially today as well.”
The committee is not a group that usually gets a mention on a night like this. That she reached for it says something about where she thinks the last four years came from.
Custody
There was one piece of unfinished business. Somebody had to take the trophy home, and the question was put to her directly.
“I think there’s going to be a few arguments over that one,” she said. “Hopefully me. I might try and sneak that one, but we’ll see.”
Captain’s privilege, she was told.
“I think so.”