Crows defender Marijana Rajcic on finding a new-found love of sport inside the Adelaide Football Club

Crows defender — and former elite soccer player — Marijana Rajcic discusses finding her happy place inside the Adelaide Football Club and why she is dreading the end of the season.

• Crows pin hopes on prelim double header at Oval
• Good afternoon for AFL grand final
• Why Crows AFLW side won’t play percentages

Casey Fields is one tough ground for away teams, but playing at the Melbourne fortress won’t be bothering the tight-knit Crows, says defender Marijana Rajcic.

“Away games are probably our favourite … because then we are together for two full days and there’s no other external factors and we’re all hanging around in the rooms and we’ll play Jenga or cards,” she says.

Rajcic says the team’s spirit is something truly special.

”Footy’s brought me back to life,” says Adelaide Crows defender Marijana Rajcic. Picture SARAH REED.

“We all understand each other, we know what we’re going through and when we are hanging out together, we don’t really talk about footy,” she says.

“It’s not like: ‘Hey, what do you think of the conference system? How do you think the season’s going?’

“When we hang out, it’s just us. We know we’re in our inner sanctum and we can just joke around … and that helps onfield.”

In fact, she’s starting to feel a sense of sadness as the season draws to a close.

And there are many things Rajcic will miss once the season ends, including listening to the singing of trio Jess Foley, Courtney Cramey and Chelsea Randall as they belt out a song from Sister Act. Or Anne Hatchard, who’s singing of Kesha’s Praying is exceptional.

“Already, I know people that as soon as the season ends will go into withdrawals, because we won’t get to see each other every day,” she says.

“Hatchy (Hatchard) messaged me yesterday: ‘It’s nearly over’.”

But for now, there is still so much on the line.

Crows defender Marijana Rajcic brings down GWS’s Jacinda Barclay during Adelaide’s 32-point win over the Giants at Unley Oval. Picture SARAH REED.

On Saturday, the Crows take on the Demons at Casey Fields in a must-win game if they are to secure a home preliminary final on March 23; lose by more than 26 points and their season is over.

An elite soccer player who’d spent six years in the W-League and another season with Gustafs GOIF in Sweden, she’s barely kicked a footy until 2016 when her best friend Nadia told her she’d be good at Aussie Rules.

After being a train-on for the Crows inaugural season, the club officially drafted her in 2017 and she played five games last year and hasn’t missed a game so far this season, finding a real home for herself in the backlines.

Rajcic has found a renewed love of sport inside the Adelaide Football Club.

“Coming to football, it brought me back to life, it really did,” she says.

“I just left soccer at a dull period and then (footy) just reinvigorated me and gave me that passion that this is what I’m meant to be doing, this is where I’m meant to be and these are the people I’m meant to be playing with and learning from.”

One of the remarkable things about Rajcic — who turns 30 today — is that she entered a sport that is criticised for its high incidents of ACL injuries, having come back from three ruptured ACLs herself.

Rajcic last did an ACL — in her “good knee” — in November 2015, playing for the Reds at Hindmarsh Stadium against the Newcastle Jets: her tally then stood at three knee reconstructions in seven years.

They fly as one: Jessica Foley, Ebony Marinoff and Marijana Rajcic ahead of the AFLW season in January, 2019. Picture: MATT LOXTON

To be playing injury-free elite level AFLW now is something not many athletes in any sport can claim.

“Some people say I’m crazy,” the high school PE and maths teacher says with a laugh.

“You should have seen my physio when I told her I was going to AFL, she was like: ‘Um, MJ, are you sure?’.

“I know that getting up and training and playing, the stats are against me and I am at a higher risk.”

But she’s following new AFLW injury-prevention prehab guidelines and doesn’t miss a gym session to always make sure her body’s right.

“As time’s gone on, I’ve learned to listen to my body more.

“There are times that I have deja vu and I can feel something and I’m on high alert and I make sure I get a rub and a massage, but normally when I’m out on the field and I’m feeling good, I don’t second guess it. If it goes, it goes.”

Head coach Matthew Clarke said Rajcic’s season had been outstanding: “We trained her in pre-season as a forward and (defence coach) Peter Caven kept looking at me funny every time I sent her to the forward line, he’d say: ‘She’s a pretty good defender, you know’.

“As it turned out, we had the injuries and we needed her back and she’s … an integral part of that back five or six who roll through there.”

* Adelaide v Melbourne, Saturday, Casey Fields, Melbourne, 4.15pm.