It was the ultimate moment of mixed emotion. A drop of agony mixed into a cauldron of euphoria: Melbourne Victory captain Kayla Morrison, in her club tracksuit, watching her team clinch the Liberty A-League championship.
As the final whistle blew, the pouring rain mixed with the tears rolling freely down the cheeks of the injured skipper after Victory’s Sky Blue boiler in Kogarah.
A brave face can only hide so much.
Morrison is the star of this week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access: As You Are. It’s episode eight of the ground-breaking docuseries, and the second in succession telling the story of Liberty A-League stars after Episode 07, which followed Western United and Matildas midfielder Chloe Logarzo on her return from an ACL injury.
WATCH: A-LEAGUES ALL ACCESS, EPISODE 08: AS YOU ARE
Last season, Morrison was going through the emotional and physical turmoil of recovering from the very same injury.
Morrison succumbed to an ACL tear in the very first game of the 2021-22 Liberty A-League season. It was an injury which kept her sidelined all the way through to the end of Victory’s campaign – which just so happened to be at the final whistle grand final triumph over Sydney FC.
“Victory winning the championship, and winning the grand final was a good feeling – but there was a lot of mixed emotions there as well,” Morrison told A-Leagues All Access.
You’re kind of bottling (the thought of): how could they possibly get here without me? Do they really need me?
“It was a bit of a hard day, but at the same time going on stage and being with the girls, lifting the trophy, that part takes the cake.”
VISIT THE A-LEAGUES ALL ACCESS HUB
The episode gives you an inside glimpse into the turmoil caused in Morrison’s life by an ACL tear and the subsequent recovery, following her every step of the way on the road back.
Morrison is back captaining Victory in the 2022-23 Liberty A-League season, and played all 90 minutes in Round 2’s loss to Sydney FC (the central point of this week’s All Access episode).
In the aftermath of Big Blue defeat, Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins admitted Morrison is “still getting back to where her best actually is… but she’ll be abetter player from the injury she’s had, she’ll have a stronger, fitter body and mentally she’ll be so much stronger.
“I can’t wait to see what Kayla Morrison looks like in four, five or six games.”
But it is of upmost importance not just to look ahead to where the Morrison can take her game in the future, but back to where the Victory leader has come from.
A-Leagues All Access Episode 08 begins by showing you exactly that, with an emotional Morrison elevating her bandaged left leg on her couch, just six days on from the initial surgery in December, 2021.
“How’s the recovery going?” Morrison is asked.
“Slow,” she replies. “I know it’s only day six, but it feels like you want to keep making progress, and keep taking massive steps. I thought I’d be taking like, 5 per cent steps every time, and really
“I’m only taking like, half a percent or less than half a percent every day. So that’s probably the hardest part.”
Morrison begins her answer with a laugh and a smile, and ends it in tears.
If only she could have seen the progress she has made today at that moment in time.
Produced by KEEPUP Studios and JAMTV, each new episode of the docuseries will debut on Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT on 10 Play, KEEPUP.COM.AU, the KEEPUP app and KEEPUP on YouTube. It will be available on Australia’s fastest growing streaming service, Paramount+, and will then be broadcast on 10 Bold at 2:00pm AEDT on Saturday afternoons as an appetiser for the evening’s Isuzu UTE A-League Men game on the same channel.
