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“I think the ACL is one of the most mentally fatiguing injuries that anyone can go through, whether you’re an athlete or not,” she told this masthead.
Molloy initially chose to keep the news from her teammates, in an effort not to distract them from the game. The reality of being sidelined for the rest of the year reduced her to tears.
Molloy spent 10 months recovering from a devastating ACL injury. Credit: Getty Images
“I think the acceptance for me was hard because ... it didn’t feel like I had done it,” she said. “I would say [with] any athlete, male or female, what goes through your head is the timeline – you start calculating where you when you come back.
“Jade, my partner, was in Melbourne at the same time, ironically, so she was able to be there, and I remember just sitting across from her … I think that was the first time that it probably hit me. Then I just bawled my eyes out.”
A gruelling cycle of ice packs, rehab, crutches and exercises followed, with Molloy saying she did everything in her power to be back as soon as possible.
“The way [Lions AFL co-captain] Lachie Neale went about the week for the grand final – I did that for a whole 10 months to get back my knee,” she said.
The Sydney Swans star did everything in her power to recover from an ACL injury. Credit: Getty Images
“I spent hours and hours in [the] recovery centre, just to control everything I could to get up for round one.”
Molloy met every physio milestone and exceeded her surgeon’s expectations, returning to play a warm-up match against the Brisbane Lions one month ahead of schedule. But ahead of the first match against Richmond on August 15, her stomach in knots with a mix of nervous butterflies and worries.
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“I didn’t want to embarrass the team, and I didn’t want to embarrass me,” she said. “I spoke with my psych, I spoke with Scotty [Gowans] who said ‘mate, I’m not expecting you to set the world on fire’, so that gave me reassurance.”
For Molloy, the nerves stemmed from an understandable fear of the reoccurrence rate of knee injuries, and a lingering worry she might get hurt again.
“I’ve watched athletes come back previous years from an ACL, and then they end up doing it in their first game back,” she said.
“But the moment the ball went up and the game started playing, I think everything just left me. I hit a contest hard. I think I hit the ground. I was like, ‘All right, I’m back.’ I think since then, I haven’t thought once about my knee.”
Molloy credits pre-season chats with former basketball and AFLW great Erin Phillips in helping her overcome her worries around injury and integrate back into playing footy.
Phillips suffered a second heartbreaking ACL rupture in the 2019 AFLW grand final and received a standing ovation from the 50,000-strong crowd at Adelaide Oval as she was taken off the field on a stretcher.
“I wanted to chat to her [Phillips] about coming back from an ACL and the emotions and the feelings and everything that you go through. When do you start feeling yourself again?” Molloy said.
“Erin just helps in just kind of staying present ... a problem shared is a problem halved. So just even talking to someone like her about feelings, it can kind of just bring you this bit of internal peace, knowing that there are others that have felt similar ways.”
After their emphatic win over Richmond in August, Sydney’s win streak continued with three consecutive victories and Molloy atop the league’s goal kicking table.
In an era of North Melbourne dominance, Sydney started to emerge as worthy opponents and potential spoilers for the undefeated reigning premiers. But the red-hot Swans hit an unexpected snag in round five.
Molloy (right) and Collingwood’s Ruby Schleicher ahead of the round five clash. Credit: Jason South
Collingwood – last year’s wooden spooners – kept the Swans goalless for three quarters and soured their perfect start to the season with a shock 26-point win. Sydney went on to lose their next two matches, albeit by small margins.
Molloy conceded the maturity of the Swans’ playing group was still growing and said the team did not know the best way to handle “being the hunted”.
“I guess we hadn’t been in that position before, so didn’t know how to best deal with it, but it is an incredible learning position to be in, and we kind of earned the right to be in position,” she said.
“You need to know how to win, and you need to know how to lose, and I think that’s what we’re kind of figuring out now.”
The Swans face North for the first time this season on Sunday in Launceston, an exciting prospect Molloy said the team is ready for.
The co-captain is full of praise for her team, heralding the batch of young talent that is “changing the face of W”.
“These athletes are incredible, and their talent is undeniable, but it’s because of the people that invested into women’s football in the very beginning,” she said.
Molly highlighted 19-year-old Indigenous defender Zippy Fish who – as her name suggests – has stunned the competition with her blistering pace off half-back.
“Zippy, the way she moves with the football at hand is kind of mesmerising to watch,” Molloy said.
“Funnily enough I am faster than her. I’ve hit a higher speed than her. I’ll take it while I can, because I have no doubt, in another year or so, I’ll be in her dust.”
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