Matildas mania has waned. It could help them win the Asian Cup |
You used to be able to set your watch to Matildas mania. Everywhere the team went, the town would lose its mind for the duration of their stay.
We all remember the afterglow of the 2023 World Cup. How Sam Kerr and Mary Fowler were the most Googled Australians that year, and every player became phosphorescence personified.
This was no clearer than in Perth that November. It was the first time the team had returned to Australia since the tournament, and the three-match home series of Olympic qualifiers was a fitting study of the sports team as celebrity.
The Daily Mail stalked Mary Fowler and new boyfriend Nathan Cleary everywhere they went. Throngs of fans waited for hours outside the team hotel, poised to snag a selfie every time the front doors slid open. The word “blockbuster” was used far too many times by broadcasters and newspapers, who printed the rare front page-back page Matildas double whammy.
Everybody was obsessed with getting two words out of Sam Kerr. About her left calf. Then, unexpectedly, her right calf. Along with literally any other topic – related or unrelated to football. The sport’s newest facility in Perth was officially named the Sam Kerr Football Centre, and she and Caitlin Foord scored a hat-trick apiece in front of almost 60,000 at Optus Stadium.
That 8-0 win over the Philippines was one of 16 consecutive sellout Matildas matches during this heady time when Australian (women’s) football cracked, then overtook, the mainstream. Most sold out in record time. State governments fought to outbid each other for the right to host the next.
Mary Fowler makes some fans happy after the Matildas defeated Taiwan at Perth’s HBF Park in November 2023.Credit: Getty Images
Mackenzie Arnold’s penalty-shootout mastery created such high demand for goalkeeper jerseys that Nike finally released some in February 2024, timed specifically timed so spectators could wear the purple kit to the Matildas’ 10-0 rout of Uzbekistan in Melbourne that sealed their Olympics spot.
Even in Kerr’s absence, Australia had fashioned themselves into genuine medal contenders. The country at large finally learned who Michelle Heyman was. And Amy Sayer. And Kaitlyn Torpey. Book publishers started thinking about Paris 2024 gold-medal editions. That historic World Cup fourth could surely only mean one thing at an Olympic Games with a third of the teams and no Great Britain or Sweden.