‘Never satisfied’: The secret to Adelaide Crows captain Chelsea Randall’s success

The location leaves plenty of space for more additions to sprawl downwards, which was never the humble Randall’s expectation, even if the Adelaide Crows captain jokes it was lucky she didn’t start the list somewhere without room to grow.

More serious is the explanation of what the 31-year-old feels when looking at the permanent reminders of what she has already achieved. Which is pride, above all.

“It’s not to show off, whatsoever,’’ Randall says. “It’s something that reminds me of all the sacrifices that I’ve made to move from Western Australia, leaving my family and friends behind for the last six years, all the funerals and weddings and birthdays that I’ve missed.

“It just reminds me of what I am doing and how proud I am. I guess we don’t stop and actually just celebrate ourselves, and we’re normally quick to criticise ourselves, so for me it’s important to acknowledge those things that we have done right and be proud of them.’’

As Randall and the Crows prepare to start AFLW’s season seven — as it’s been dubbed, given that 2022 has already been taken, and which may complicate future body art — in Friday night’s grand final rematch against Melbourne at Norwood Oval, there was time to reflect on all three flags so far.

And ask whether, like children, you can’t admit to favourites, but it can be hard not to secretly feel fonder of one than another.

“They’re all very different, the premierships,’’ Randall says, diplomatically. “The first one was a really big one, because no-one probably thought that we could achieve something like that having half our team living and training in Darwin and the other half living and training in Adelaide.

“Like, it was a recipe for disaster, and we were able against all odds to achieve the ultimate goal. So that was a very special moment.’’

Then there was 2019, AFLW’s collective defining moment so far. A 45-point belting of Carlton in front of a record crowd at Adelaide Oval.

“That will forever be etched in my memory — of 53,000 people and women’s footy I guess feeling finally like it was respected and worthy enough, in my mind.

“I was very, ah [cue emotional mini-pause] overjoyed on that day.’’

Then 2022 (part one), a 13-point defeat that denied Melbourne’s sentimental storyline around Daisy Pearce, in what was the farewell game for superstar Crow and Randall’s close friend and former co-captain Erin Phillips.

“Honestly, I can’t quite still put it into words and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to nail it, but it I guess this one for me was reassuring that just the culture we’ve created and the sustained success that we’re trying to achieve at the club was something really special.”

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The short off-season suited Randall. After six years of training through winter alone, trying to get up in the morning to push herself through a solo session, the veteran appreciated the unity and motivation that comes with the team environment.

A keen camper, Randall also enjoyed a trip to the Top End with teammate Danielle Ponter, to “head out bush”, and meet some of Ponter’s family.

In the past month or two, she has also had a new role: As one of nine players accepted into the AFLW’s Women Coach Acceleration program. Over at least a two-year period through to 2025, it involves a formal mentorship with a senior men’s AFL coach — in this case the Crows’ Matthew Nix — and a minimum level three coaching accreditation.

“I’m loving it. It’s been awesome, and it’s been great for my own footy as well, because I’m touching the footy 200 extra times a day,’’ says Randall.

“I’m a development coach in the men’s program and currently just in an observation kind of space, but knowing me and my personality I’m not very observational! I can’t help myself, so still jumped in and taken a drill or two here or there and doing some craft work, and learning lots along the way.’’

That includes touch with the footy and other skills, Randall says, to help her be a cleaner player, better ball-user and quicker decision-maker.

“The amount of vision that they watch has probably helped my game knowledge as well and, in turn, bringing that into my own trainings with my teammates.’’

That will not include Port Adelaide marquee recruit Phillips, who she described as the “yin to her yang” on grand final day in April.

“It is a little bit strange seeing her in these different colours, but at the end of the day I’m super happy for her as a mate,’’ says Randall. “I’m always really proud of her in whatever she does.’’

*****

Sitting in the front row of Marvel Stadium for this interview, her mother Lynda is only metres away on what Randall jokes is “bring your mum to work day”.

It’s chilly and Lynda, who was visiting from the family home in Western Australia for the launch of the new Disney+ AFLW series Fearless: The Inside Story of AFLW, offers not just a jacket to help with her daughter’s goosebumps but some insights to CODE Sports into the development of both women’s footy and Chelsea.

“I love watching AFL and I love how far it’s come,’’ says Lynda, noting the activity and big media presence and starting to understand why Chelsea is often too busy to immediately return her calls.

“She’ll often talk about when she was an 11-year-old and I was probably the one on the side saying, ‘No, I think it’s too rough to play with the boys, I’m not sure that’s a good idea’, and her dad said, ‘Well let her have a go, she’s pretty tough’.

“And I actually felt sorry for the boys in the end because they didn’t know what to do with her. She would just get the ball and run and they would come up behind her and think, ‘Do I tackle this girl or not?’ It’s been great to watch.’’

Hard to watch, occasionally, too, given a compound fracture of her leg in her first game as acting WA captain in 2009 that meant she spent her 18th birthday in a wheelchair, the ACL tear that cost the AFLW’s three-time Most Courageous Player the 2020 season, and the preliminary final concussion that forced her to miss the 2021 Grand Final loss to Brisbane.

“When we watch a game back home and she goes down, I’m usually with her brother or family, and I sort of just put my head in my hands and go, ‘Did she get up?’. Not yet, Mum. ‘OK, tell me when she gets up’.

“But I know how tough she is and I know she’ll just get back up and she’ll just keep trying and she’ll just keep playing, so I love watching her play. I’ve watched the rematch of the past grand final five times back at home to make sure I’ve got every bit. It was really special.’’

That 11-year-old Chelsea is often mentioned. The girl from Rockingham’s Safety Bay Stingers playing her first game as the opposition laughed. Her response, famously, was to simply pick the kid who laughed the hardest, tackle him when the moment came, and win a free for holding the ball. A footy love affair had begun.

So what would her young self make of a full 18-team roster completed by newest additions Essendon, Hawthorn, Sydney and Port Adelaide and a blossoming competition that AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone declared on launch day was now “whole’’.

“Oh, she’d be … it’s just surreal. It really is,’’ says Randall. “There were eight of us, eight captains in the first year. Now we can barely fit into the change room to get into our playing kit, so it’s just incredible how far it’s come. I’m really proud to have played a small role in that.’’

It has been the dream, of course. And how good it’d be if it ever happened, Randall thought. While never quite believing it would.

Given how substantially the landscape has changed since her first exhibition game for the Demons back in 2013 as a temporary draftee from Swan Districts, does the Crows’ foundation player wish she was starting out now?

“Yes and no,’’ she says with a laugh. “Yes it would be awesome, because I’d go, ‘Wow, I’ve got so many more years of football left’. Or think, ‘How good could you have been if you had all those resources around you from that age?’

“But at the same time I never regret the path that I’ve taken because it’s made me into who I am. I’m a very grateful player.”

“Even just every time our water carrier comes out I’m like, ‘This is amazing, thank you so much’. I still remember the days when if I didn’t bring a water bottle at training, that’s it, bad luck.

“Just very grateful for all the opportunities that footy has given me. So many life lessons from just a sport that I’ll forever treasure.’’

Yet Randall is also a teacher and a giver herself; regarded as not just one of the league’s bravest players but among its most selflessly team-first. She is also comfortable now to be open about her sexuality, aware of the difference high-profile role models can make.

“It’s taken some time to get there, if I’m being honest. It’s been an incredible journey.

“I guess I held my cards very close to me in the first couple of years, was very unsure of how people would respond to women’s footy, how they would respond to myself being a part of the rainbow community, all these things we overthink a lot, as we do!

“And just I guess being more confident in myself and going, ‘You know what, you need to share your story, because we’ve got an ability to help make change in a positive way, and help others as well on their journey’. You just don’t know the impact you might have on others.’’

*****

If the 2022 tattoo is already inked on the Randall forearm, there is plenty of skin room left for a ‘Season 7’ addition, and more opportunities still ahead to snake the premiership glory roll further downwards towards her left wrist.

The triple All-Australian defender, and seemingly natural coach-in-waiting expects her body will tell her when the time comes, and plans to enjoy each moment in the meantime. Motivation is no issue, Randall insists, despite three flags in AFLW’s six-year life and her own 38 games.

“You can never be satisfied, and often people might be like, ‘Oh, well, you’ve had your taste and you’ve had your time’, but once you taste that little bit of success it’s really contagious, and I don’t know if I’m gonna say this the right way, but it is like a drug and you want more of it all the time.”

“It’s this incredible feeling that you’re able to get each and every single individual in your team on the same page across the whole year and you’re all going for the same outcome.

“The most rewarding thing I find as a captain and as a leader is the problem-solving: every single day, every single thing that happens, every situation that you have to work through, all the sacrifices and the conversations and the hard conversations that you have to have with individuals for the benefit of the team to get them all there.

“And then to see them all reap the rewards at the end … Yeah, that’s the ultimate dream.’’

On the other side of Randall’s left arm are the words “Make it happen”. She has. And plans to continue.