It’s Grand Final week in the Ninja A-League as Melbourne Victory prepare to face Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park. Ahead of Sunday’s showpiece event, aleagues.com.au caught up with Victory captain Kayla Morrison.
The quote ‘Pressure is a Privilege’ is one widely attributed to American tennis icon Billie Jean King and the beauty of that phrase is that it can used in all aspects of life; sport, business or even personal challenges.
For Melbourne Victory skipper Kayla Morrison, it’s a quote that’s front and centre when it comes her preparations ahead of the Ninja A-League Grand Final.
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“I remember last week we were up 3-1 on aggregate going into the Adelaide game and some of the girls said to me, ‘I’m more nervous this week than I was last week,'” said Morrison told aleagues.com.au.
“To me, it just felt like a regular league match. I remember saying to them, it’s just another game. And you know what? It’s just another game with a bigger cushion so we can even be more calm than before.
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“But in saying that, I said to the girls right before, ‘you know, you’re always calm until the whistle blows and then you’re a little bit… oh, here we go let me get on the ball quickly so I can get a touch and get these nerves out’.’
“It is a privilege to feel that pressure. I think if you’ve come from a team who’s not in the position to win games, or they’re mid-table, doesn’t really matter whether they win, lose, draw, that’s not a privilege to be in.
“It’s a privilege to feel you have to win every game. It’s a privilege because you know that that’s the standard, and those are the people who are around you.
She continued: “And I said that to the girls like lean into the pressure, lean into the nerves, because it’s a privilege that you get to play this sport and to get to be on this team and I think that’s a better way of thinking about it. Kind of turning it into a positive.”
While it is a one-off game and spectacles such as this can by won and lost depending on who handles the occasion best, Melbourne Victory’s scintillating recent form has many believing they’re heavy favourites against the Mariners.
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Not only are they unbeaten in their last 15 matches but Jeff Hopkins’ side have recorded a stunning 13 victories during that period and are firing on all cylinders.
But the truth is that while their run certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed, it was somewhat eclipsed by the fact their fiercest rivals had secured the Premiership and recorded an unbeaten season until they were dramatically knocked out in the semi-finals by Central Coast Mariners.
So has that irked this Victory side at all?
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“I’m not huge on social media, so I don’t really see too much of the stuff. But, you know, talking to the girls about it, it’s interesting…
“I don’t know if this is something that I should be saying, but it’s how I feel. If we played City towards the end of the season, it would have been a great matchup, because that’s really when we came into form.
“I think playing them in that first or second game, they got us when we weren’t, you know, they’d had a longer preseason with the Asian Champions League, and they got us before we were in this form.
“I would have loved to play against them at the end again, but Central Coast took care of that for us.”
Sunday’s Ninja A-League Grand Final may just to mean more to Morrison than any other player on the pitch.
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A Championship winner with Melbourne Victory in her debut season of 2020-21, Morrison was appointed captain for the following campaign. Then disaster struck.
An ACL injury in December 2021 would ultimately rob her of the chance to lead her side out in the Grand Final and the American would watch on from the sidelines with a mixture of emotions as Victory once again triumphed over Sydney FC at Jubilee Oval.
“I can probably finally look at the moment now and not cry. So that’s a positive,” said Morrison when asked whether the memories of that day are now fuelling her.
“But I think when I look back, I was so happy for the girls, but I was so jealous. It’s such a hard position to be in because you’re so happy, but you’re so angry as well.
“Like I was so angry I couldn’t participate. I was so angry that I couldn’t be giving the speech. I think there was jealousy, there was anger. There’s a lot of such ugly emotions that come with positive emotions as well.
“And I think that’s being real. I think, you know, people would say I was just so happy for the team, but I don’t know, I’m so competitive.
“It has been a hunger. I want to be the one giving the speech, and I want to be the one lifting the trophy. And that is extra motivation for me as well, because I didn’t feel like it was taken away from me by Lia (Privitelli). I just felt it was taken away from me by the universe.
“So I want to do it this year, and it is extra motivation to be that person.”
The 2024-25 Ninja A-League season has seen Morrison once again cement her status as one of if not the dominant central defender in the competition.
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But according to the player herself, Morrison’s domineering approach to any given 90 minutes on the field comes as a result of the pressure she places on her own shoulders, something she believes helps her in her role as captain, especially in a week like this.
“I must have something wrong with me, I go into every game just thinking it’s another game because I’m so competitive. Every game feels like a grand final to me,” laughed Morrison when asked about her leadership style.
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“So now that we’re in the Grand Final, it feels like every other game, because this is always the pressure that I feel when I’m out there on the field.
“I’m good at figuring that out on my own. What will be and what has been for the past two weeks is making sure everyone’s okay going into the game mentally. Physically we’ll be great. We’ve got a great team who’s making sure we’re all good body-wise.
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“But mentally, making sure everyone’s switched on and keeping people in the game and following the game plan and making sure everyone is in it to win it. But it’s such a good group of girls that it’s minimal work for me.
“I’m kind of a leader by example. I’m not so much a chatty leader. We have other girls who kind of pick up the slack there, but it’s an easy group, (the) girls aren’t egotistical on our team. Girls don’t think they’re better than one another and people do just want to win for the team.
She continued: “So it’s really an easy team to captain and to lead, because they don’t challenge me too much in the areas of ‘I have to calm this person down’ or ‘I have to control this person, or do this.’ The girls all kind of follow the game plan, and we’re all one team in one unit, and we move that way.”
While she may not feel the need to dominate a dressing room with her words, Morrison’s actions on the pitch speak volumes. But it’s another action – a ritual, if you like – that she introduced which has now swept it’s way through the team and has become firmly embedded within the side’s culture.
“It started maybe my first or second year,” said Morrison when discussing her ritual of earthing: walking barefoot onto the field before games in a bid to connect.
“It was me, Paige (Zois), Maja Markovski, Alana Murphy and maybe Jess Nash. It started when I think it was maybe one of my first games back at AAMI (Park) after getting injured and it was just taking a moment at AAMI to like not associate negativity with being at AAMI or playing a hard game at AAMI.
“It was just taking a moment to ground myself again and just be so appreciative of the situation, of my health.
“We just go around the circle (and) we tell each other what we’re grateful for in that moment, and just kind of a real grounding moment before things get crazy again.
“There’s a lot of times, you know, girls go out there, depending on what your role is at the time, sometimes it’s hard to find things to be grateful for, but it’s a good moment to reflect on.
“You know, even when times are tough, there’s always something to be appreciative of.”
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