Chelsea & MJ: The lessons we’ll teach our little boy
Six-month-old Tomi has changed the lives of Adelaide sports power couple Chelsea Randall and Marijana ‘MJ’ Rajcic.
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How will Chelsea Randall and Marijana Rajcic spend their first Mother’s Day?
Well, they’ll be at the footy, of course.
Randall, a three-time AFLW premiership captain for Adelaide, is also the first female full-time coach in the Crows AFL program.
Rajcic, better known as “MJ”, won two premierships of her own at the Crows, is the backline coach for the AFLW team at West Lakes and is the MC for their home AFL games at Adelaide Oval.
That may seem more than enough for the Adelaide sports power couple to fill up their time, but they have since added Tomi, who is now six months old, into the mix.
And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
On Sunday, the Crows take on Brisbane at Adelaide Oval and footy will, again, be a big part of the day for the whole family.
“We actually are at the footy that day,” Rajcic, 35, says. “The boys have a game so I will be working and we will then have some time as a family to enjoy that as well.”
But that won’t detract from just how special the day will be for all three.
“It is exciting, obviously we have lots of amazing female role models and mums in our lives and it is a special moment now that we have our own son and get to celebrate that as mums,” Rajcic says.
“It is going to be different but we are just excited, people say it should be Mother’s Day every day or parent’s day every day, but it is just a nice way with the first one as a family to just enjoy that time.”
It will be equally meaningful for Randall.
“We are beginning our journey but to be able to relate to so many amazing mums out there, it is a pretty special day to say thank you to those amazing mums who sacrifice so much for their kids,” she says. “I think it definitely makes you appreciate your own parents, and guardians for some families out there.
“Just to have those special people in your life who have given up so much of their world to make sure that you get the things that are so important to you and to support you along your journey.
“I think you have a greater appreciation for your own parents and for what they did for you when you were a kid now that you have your own son.”
Baby Tomi came into the world on October 27. The couple announced that Rajcic, who had finished her 50-game AFLW career in January 2023, was pregnant in April. For the two, who became a couple while still teammates and actually did reality TV show The Amazing Race together, it had been something in the works for a while; both always wanted to become mums.
They cried at the first scan. Randall cried at every scan thereafter.
“It has been amazing, I have just really enjoyed this new life as a parent,” she says.
“Honestly I wouldn’t say they are challenges, it is just a new way of life.
“It might mean you don’t get your coffee in bed, or it is a cold coffee, and so just little things like that but my gosh our life has just changed for the better.
“When you wake up and you hear him cooing in his cot and you are like ‘Oh I will get him, you are just so excited to see him.
“You are thinking ‘Will he wake up soon? I just want to see him, I just want to see him smile’. So it is just treasuring every moment … together and how he is developing each day.”
When SA Weekend speaks to the couple it is via a three-way phone hook-up.
They have an appointment and, with Tomi fast asleep, Rajcic is walking with him there while Randall will drive and meet them.
“You don’t want to wake a sleeping baby,” Rajcic jokes. “We know that. He is the best, he is such a happy boy. We are so lucky. Life is so much better with him.”
Randall and Rajcic know all about the importance of working in a team from sports.
Before she was drafted by the Crows, Rajcic captained Adelaide United in 2015. Randall is one of the most respected players in the AFLW, voted the league’s most courageous player on five occasions.
It is why the 32-year-old was made a development coach by the Crows, jointly funded by the club and the AFL through the league’s Women’s Coaching Acceleration Program. They say many of the lessons they have learnt in their respective sporting careers have been used in their new lives as parents.
“We are just having to do things slightly different to what we are used to,” Randall says.
“But as much as you try and create a routine you just have to be adaptable and flexible to what your kid might throw at you on any given day.
“But I think you just learn a bit more patience already and just being I guess OK with asking for help and a chop out.
“We work so well on a team, MJ and I, it is like ‘Do you need a chop out?, here you go’ and we help and sort each other out and just organising time for each other and time for one-on-ones with Tomi.
“I think the biggest thing for us is communicating our various roles.”
That isn’t the only lesson the two hope sport can teach them, and Tomi as he grows up.
“Footy and sport in general is such a great vehicle for just life lessons in general, all parents want to see their children happy but what I think we want as parents is for your children to be resilient,” Randall says.
“And sport has definitely taught MJ and I that patience and resilience needed, and hopefully that same value of teaching Tomi to be a resilient young boy where sometimes life will throw different things at him.”
When Randall was 11 and she lined up for her first game of footy growing up in Western Australia, she was the only girl. The other team laughed under their breath at her, while some of her teammates were embarrassed.
So she clocked who was laughing the hardest and, during the game, tackled him hard into the ground and won a free kick for holding the ball.
Before the AFLW started, Randall was working and living in the remote mining town of Newman in the Pilbara region of WA, and would regularly make a
13-hour drive in order to play for Swan Districts in the WAWFL.
So she knows a bit about overcoming challenges and wants to instil this resilience in Tomi. “Yes we want him to be happy but if he can be resilient and be able to bounce back from difficult times that is a really important thing,” she says.
For Rajcic, who is of Croatian descent, it is the lessons her parents taught her that she wants to instil in Tomi.
“I guess the biggest thing that my parents instilled in me was to treat others the way that you want to be treated so that is big on both Chels and I, that genuine care and we want to treat people with kindness and respect,” Rajcic says.
“So that is something that we want to instil in Tomi, but also for him to have fun and whatever he wants to do in life he can achieve anything.
“We are there to give him that support and be able to help him out and support him and give him the right tools for whatever comes his way.”
Unlike other new parents, Randall and Rajcic pretty much have an entire football club to support them on their journey.
“We will be there doing something with him and then an aunty or uncle will come along and give him cuddles,” Rajcic said.
“So we are very blessed to have him surrounded by so many players and workers at the club who are like family.”
Matthew Nicks, the Crows senior coach, and Matthew Clarke, the AFLW coach, have both been supportive about players and coaches bringing their families into West Lakes.
Randall and Rajcic haven’t hesitated at all.
“We are both heavily involved in our Adelaide Footy Club and we love it,” Randall says.
“You just try and find time where you can to make the most of it and things outside of footy like our own family time.
“It is awesome and the club is such a family orientated club that Tomi is basically in there every second day with us.
“We take it in turns, sometimes we are doing a gym session and MJ will be holding him doing some squats and then I will take him over and do my squats.”
While Rajcic has hung up the boots, Randall is still playing.
Pre-season is on the horizon, just another aspect she needs to combine with being a mum and coaching.
She has slightly lessened the load on her by standing down as captain of the Crows, after eight seasons as either the co-skipper or outright leader.
“I think after eight seasons it was definitely time for a new era to come through, I wanted to cherish my time as captain of the Crows but it is time for new leaders to come through,” she says.
“It has been awesome to share that load now and focus on being a parent and a player.”
Players routinely say that having children gives them a new perspective on playing and Randall is no different – in the early days of having Tomi, he helped her get over the disappointing way the Crows 2023 AFLW season ended.
“I think honestly it is just enjoying the moment more,” she says.
“You take the good and the bad with footy and when we lost the prelim last year it hurt, but (I was) able to come home to MJ and Tomi and those things outside of footy as well that are important.
“Just go with the flow and try to enjoy the moment, sometimes we can get so caught up in the things that are happening.
“So just enjoying the moment and being grateful for what you have.”
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Originally published as Chelsea & MJ: The lessons we’ll teach our little boy
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