ESSENDON
In his first season as senior coach, Jaiden van der Heijden won Essendon Royals the first major trophy in the club’s history. Asked what he was proudest of, he named a nineteen-year-old substitute.
He had every excuse to talk about the goalscorers.
Maggie Jenkins had scored twice and taken the medal for the best player on the ground. Kelli McGroarty had scored twice as well, and made the fourth. Between them, four goals in a cup final that Essendon Royals won at a canter.
Jaiden van der Heijden went a different way entirely.
“The thing that really resonates with me is again, week after week, our bench comes on and makes a massive impact,” he said. “I think we saw that again today.”
He named Cobi Wilbert, nineteen years old, who came on in the fifty-seventh minute when the captain went off, and who he thought was superb. He described his group as seventeen superstars. He made a point of praising Bronte Peel, whose run down the right created the second goal and who did not score.
“The back line, the midfield, I think everyone was phenomenal today,” he said. “They get the rewards at the end of the day for a team performance.”
Not satisfied
This is a man who has just delivered something no Essendon Royals side had ever delivered. Given a chance to enjoy it, he immediately audited it.
“Still plenty of work to do. Going into half time just one nil.”
He is not wrong. Royals were the better side for most of the first half and had only Jenkins’ nineteenth-minute strike to show for it. Ayano Koizumi had forced a save. Jenkins had been blocked twice in dangerous positions. Heidelberg’s best chance, a header from Olivia Wood, found the wrong side of the post. One nil at the break flattered the home side.
His read on why is more instructive than the complaint.
“Once we settled the nerves a little bit and got into our rhythm, we definitely started getting more and more comfortable as the game went on. That’s something that we can continue to work on for the rest of the season, starting a little bit faster.”
Four minutes into the second half it was two. Five minutes after that it was three. The game was effectively finished inside an hour, which rather proves his point about what happens once the nerves clear.
The stepping stone
Van der Heijden is in his first season in charge, having stepped up from the club’s technical director role and having served as an assistant coach under VInce Battiato. It is the sort of internal promotion that either works spectacularly or quietly does not.
There is now a trophy in the cabinet that settles the argument.
He is not treating it as a destination.
“We’re excited to keep going again. We’ll take it game by game, and we’ve got four games to go in the league followed by finals. Hopefully this momentum helps us continue over Bentleigh next week.”
His goalkeeper had, a few minutes earlier, publicly declared for a treble. His striker had said the job was not finished. There is a consistency in the messaging at this club that does not sound rehearsed so much as genuinely shared.
The thing that got to him
For all the coaching-brain analysis, one subject visibly moved him, and it was not the football.
“It’s unbelievable. Like, I’ve never seen that many supporters at a women’s football match here in Victoria, and that many supporters in red and white.”
He asked them to keep coming, and then made the argument for why it is not just a nice detail.
“People don’t realise how much momentum it gives them on the field and how much drive it gives them to keep performing. The amount of young girls that are out here as well, it’s just crazy to see.”