Jerrika Hockley arrived at Accor Stadium for the NRL grand final with her husband and two older daughters, while her seven-year-old was left at home after the family fell one ticket short.
The family had secured four tickets the previous day at what Hockley described as a reasonable price from someone who had won them in a pub raffle. That meant Mylee, the youngest of the three children, could not join her sisters Chloee, 13, and Bailee, 11, at the stadium.
“I’m feeling guilty, my little seven-year-old. But, she knew it was too big of a day. She was like ‘I’m not sitting there all day, mum’,” Hockley said.
Chloee and Bailee were at Accor Stadium to support the Sydney Roosters in both the women’s and men’s grand finals. Hockley said Mylee’s matching name had been chosen partly so she would not feel excluded.
“I had to keep it going, she’d feel left out,” she said.
The family’s Roosters allegiance was also shaped by Hockley’s decision that her children would not follow their father Pat’s Penrith Panthers support. The family live in Penrith, making his change of club an especially notable one.
“Once I was pregnant with her, I said ‘she’s never wearing that jersey’ so you’ve got to make up your mind, mate,” Hockley said. “They were born Roosters.”
