Jessica Wuetschner (, first syllable rhymes with "pooch"; born 28 April 1992) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for and in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW).

Early life

Born in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

, Wuetschner first formally played football at age 16 and quickly went on to be a standout performer in the Tasmanian Women's League for

Clarence Football Club The Clarence Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Tasmanian State League, based in Bellerive, Tasmania. Before 1947, they existed as Bellerive Football Club. The Club play their home game ...

. From 2011 to 2013, she won both the league's leading goal-kicker award and the league's best and fairest award each year, while her team achieved a rare premiership

three-peat In sports (especially in North America), a three-peat is winning three consecutive championships or tournaments. The term, a portmanteau of the words ''three'' and ''repeat'', originated with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Ass ...

. Wuetschner also proved to be a notable talent across various other sports while growing up, representing her state in

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

at underage level, and winning the best and fairest award in the Cricket Tasmania Premier League women's competition for both the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. In 2014, Wuetschner moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and began playing for

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

in the

West Australian Women's Football League The West Australian Women's Football League (WAWFL) was the governing body of women's Australian rules football in the state of Western Australia from 1987 until its dissolution in 2021. It organised the premier women's football league in We ...

(WAWFL). In May 2015, she was selected to play for the in AFL-sanctioned exhibition matches against at the

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the el ...

and

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the suburb of Docklands, Victoria, Docklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 199 ...

. In 2015, Wuetschner was part of an international exchange that saw her play Australian rules in the United States with the Boston Lady Demons in the USAFLW playing at the 2015 USAFL National Championships.

AFL Women's career

Wuetschner was recruited by with the number 34 pick in the

2016 AFL Women's draft The 2016 AFL Women's draft consisted of the various periods when the eight clubs in the AFL Women's competition recruited players prior to the competition's 2017 AFL Women's season, inaugural season in 2017. Draftees and signings over the peri ...

. She made her debut in the Lions' inaugural game against at

Casey Fields Casey Fields is a $30 million, 70 hectare multi-sports complex in the City of Casey at Cranbourne East, a southeastern suburb of Melbourne. The complex is home to Australian rules football, cricket, netball, soccer, tennis, cycle spor ...

on 5 February 2017. Wuetschner kicked two goals during Brisbane's six-point loss to in the 2017 grand final. At the end of the season, she was listed in the 40-player All-Australian squad. In 2018, Wuetschner placed second behind Brooke Lochland in the league goal-kicking award, finishing the regular season with 11 goals. Despite playing in another six-point grand final loss, this time at the hands of the , she once again kicked two goals for Brisbane on the day. Her standout year as a forward was rewarded with selection in the

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

. She re-signed with the Lions for the following season, having rejected offers from expansion club . Brisbane slumped to a 2–5 win–loss record in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, however Wuetschner still managed eight goals from seven matches—including a three-goal performance in her club's two-point round one victory against —and earned a third All-Australian nomination. Two weeks before the beginning of the 2020 season, Wuetschner was struck by lightning while working as a

stevedore A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, docker, wharfman, lumper or wharfie) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads ships. As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockwork ...

at the

Port of Brisbane Port of Brisbane is the main shipping port and a coastal suburb of the City of Brisbane, on the east coast of Queensland, Australia. In the , Port of Brisbane had "no people or a very low population". Geography Port of Brisbane is located in ...

. She avoided serious injury from the traumatic incident, but struggled with her mental health in the subsequent months and considered retiring from football. Having missed the opening month of the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, Wuetschner re-established herself as a key fixture of Brisbane's line-up as the team went on to win their first premiership. In the 18-point Grand Final victory against Adelaide at

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

, she rose to the occasion in typical fashion, kicking two goals off her "beautiful" left foot. After a five-disposal game against in round four of 2022 season 6, Wuetschner was omitted from the Brisbane line-up. Later in the season, she announced a decision to take time away from AFLW in order to focus on her mental health. In a club press release, the Brisbane Lions stated they would "continue to provide Jess with our full support". In May 2022, Wuetschner was delisted by Brisbane. The following month, she was signed by expansion club

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

as a delisted free agent. After 38 games with Brisbane and 17 with Essendon, she retired at the end of the 2023 season.

Statistics

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wuetschner, Jess 1992 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Hobart Sportswomen from Tasmania Brisbane Lions (AFLW) players All-Australians (AFL Women's) Essendon Football Club (AFLW) players