Jess Wuetschner opens up on freak lightning incident and her pride at reaching 50 AFL Women’s games

Jess Wuetschner’s path to 50 AFL Women’s games has been longer than most. She opens up on how being struck by lightning then being hit with long Covid changed her life.

Jess Wuetschner in action for the Bombers. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

It wasn’t the first time Jess Wuetschner had considered giving the game away.

An AFL Women’s premiership player, a foundation player at Brisbane and an All-Australian, the 31-year-old has given serious weight to retirement more than once after being dealt a hand far more testing than faced by most.

Her latest? Long Covid, sustained after a third bout of the respiratory disease in 2022, that leaves the Bomber with regular heart palpitations and chest pain, just short of three years after she was struck by lightning while working at a Brisbane dock.

But, if anything, Wuetschner maintains it simply made her 50th AFLW game all the more sweeter last weekend.

“I do (wonder what else could happen),” she laughed this week.

“But I also feel like that I can almost do anything now. I’ve had all this stuff continually thrown at me, so to get to 50 games was super special.

“I always wanted to be a one-club player, but in hindsight, I’m really blessed that I’m at Essendon and doing it here, because it’s a special club.”

The third time Wuetschner contracted Covid in 2022, she didn’t even know.

Jess Wuetschner at Windy Hill, where the Bombers will play on Sunday. Picture: Wayne Taylor

It was the eve of the pre-season, and while she has not only had to overcome the physical effects that now primarily affect her heart and chest, there has been the mental side, too.

Cleared by cardiologists, the unfamiliar and “uncomfortable” feeling remains – particularly when struck at training or in games.

It was enough to think about walking away.

“Once I got the all-clear from the cardiologist saying it’s not harmful and that maybe it will go away, maybe it will stay, I just sort of had to get on with it,” Wuetschner explained.

“It’s not a comfortable place to be in. At the end of the day, I have to think to myself, ‘You get these every day, it’s just another one of those episodes and just get on with it’.

“Up until the start of pre-season, I was still considering not playing and pulling the plug, but the people around me said, ‘Just give it a couple of weeks, see how you go’.

“And I’m glad I did, because besides this, it was one of the more enjoyable pre-seasons that I’ve had.”

Flying home from Adelaide last weekend after her 50th game, the forward found herself in a moment of reflection tens of thousands of feet in the air. It seemed only natural. Football, let alone a half-century of games, had at many times felt a world away.

“This is probably going to be my last milestone, let’s be honest,” she said.

“After the game, on the flight I had some time and I was pretty exhausted and was thinking about everything that I’ve had to go through to get here.

“I think it makes it even more special, considering everything.”

Jess Wuetschner reached 50 AFLW games last weekend.

It was a wet, windy night in January 2020 when Wuetschner – working as a stevedore, loading and unloading ships – voiced her concerns to her superiors at the Port of Brisbane.

“I thought that we should probably be packing up,” she said, speaking at length about the incident for the first time.

“The wind was howling, and I was bottom tier (in the pecking order). Now, I wish I had the ability to stand up for what I thought would be right.”

In a crane, Wuetschner was gripping an aluminium pole as she unlocked shipping containers from their holds.

“I just heard this massive bang,” she recalled.

“It was the loudest clap you’ve ever heard of thunder and lightning. You could see it in the distance, but it was so loud that it felt like it was out of nowhere.

“I just saw the bolt hit the pole and up my arms, it was like a blue-white light. And from that point on I was just in pure shock. I was very lucky that I was wearing all the right protective gear (including rubber gloves and shoes).

“That saved my life, I can guarantee that.”

It changed everything.

Wuetschner – who was just weeks out from an AFLW season – suffered no physical injuries, but the mental toll was significant.

She revealed in January this year that a breakdown followed the accident, before a reaction to anxiety medication ended in hospital.

She struggled to leave the house. Her anger towards her employer was palpable, too.

But with professional help over a significant period of time, Wuetschner has “done a lot of work to work through the PTSD and the trauma and stuff like that”.

“I was mourning my old self,” she said.

“I really struggled accepting that. Because before all of that happened, I was fun, happy, outgoing, sociable. I didn’t mind a party, loved football. It was really tough. And I’ll never be the same person, but I’m definitely in a place where I’m happy. And that’s the most important thing.”

She’s met one other person who has endured a similar event.

Jess Wuetschner has endured more than most. Picture: Wayne Taylor

It’s as unique as winning Powerball, though she would have preferred that option much more were she given the choice.

Her delisting by Brisbane came as a shock last May, and left her thinking “I’m never going to play football again”.

Enter Essendon, which had its inclusion to AFLW accelerated to late last year.

Adamant the accident would never define her, Wuetschner was upfront in her first video chat with coach Natalie Wood – she wanted the Bombers to have the full picture of where she was at, and go from there.

Signed as a delisted free agent, she’s missed just one game since.

“In my first season down here, I was still struggling quite a bit,” Wuetschner admitted.

“But I think the change is what I needed – it just took time to adapt to that. My partner moved down to be with me as well, which helped that.

“I couldn’t say that I’d be where I am now if I was still in Brisbane, but I definitely know that having this change has been something that has been really good for me.”

There’s pride.

“A lot of life’s battles make you stronger,” she said.

“When everything happened to me, it could have gone one way or the other after the accident. I could have been like ‘oh, I’ve got to live my life to the best’, or it could have gone the way that I went where I was struggling really badly.

“But in the end, you put in a lot of time and effort with the right people and professional help … it took me three years to get back to where I am now. It’s a long time, but at least I did it.

“I kept persistent, as much as it felt like I was never going to get there. I am (proud). And I’m grateful for the people that are close around me.”