It’s game day of the semi final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and NSWIS High Performance Manager Vicki Linton, who was the Assistant Coach for the Matildas at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, provides an exclusive insight into the team’s final preparations.

“Game day is typically players prep time,” the former Matildas Assistant Coach said. “They coaches are making sure the players are relaxed and ready.”

Game day tradition within the Matildas camp is a walk, mobility exercises and time for players to prepare for themselves.

“The players would be eating a meal at least three and a half hours before kickoff. They chef would be making sure the players are happy and include some protein and some carbs in a way that the athletes like.”

While the squad includes a range of personalities, there’s a great acceptance of the athlete as a person for who they are.

“You have quiet, more introverted people. You have very loud, gregarious sort of characters, funny, whatever it is. There’s a range of personalities, but there’s also a great acceptance of people.

“And so I think what helps with this group is that they’ve played so much together. So there’s a comfort in whatever that looks like on game day.

“Everyone’s able to get into their zone, whatever that is, jumping around to the loud music and dancing or whether it’s sitting in a corner quietly.”

Acknowledging the growth of football in Australia and the success of the Matildas – this is the best an Australian team has ever done at any international tournament – Linton believes the women can inspire the Socceroos to go one better.

“The women won the Asian Cup before the men did. And I remember Ange Postecoglou, who was the coach of the men at the time, spoke to us, the Matilda squad, before we went to Rio, and he pointed that out.

“He said, ‘we’re chasing you!’ And I think with this performance, this can inspire the men. The men obviously had a great run at the last World Cup in Qatar.”

Ten of the 23-player Matildas squad are NSWIS alumni and of these Cortnee Vine (2018 – 2019), Courtney Nevin (2018 – 2021), Kyra Cooney-Cross (2018 – 2021), Charlotte Grant (2019 – 2021) and Clare Hunt (2019) were all part of the Future Matildas program which was established in 2018 and supported in the initial years by NSWIS.

“The program provided the athletes a professional fulltime daily training environment that prepared them to successfully step into the Matilda’s squad and to now be making their World Cup debut on home soil,” Linton said.

“It’s like the finishing school for football. It’s the best young players from all over Australia training together in a full time environment.

“The program allowed them to accelerate their development and prepare them to jump up into the senior national team and senior club football. The production rate from the future Matildas into the Matildas is very high.”

Linton pinpointed one of the reasons the Matilda’s have resonated with all Australians is because they are a special group of people who are authentic and give generously of their time to connect with their fans.

“There’s no egos, and they’re just so down to earth. They always play with their heart on their sleeve and they work their socks off. I think people get behind that and support that.

Linton believes this moment is an incredibly powerful time for sport.

“What I’ve loved is every day it’s on the radio, it’s on the TV, every person I meet is speaking about the Matildas. I’ve never seen the numbers they’re getting for watching the games.

“What has been so special is talking with parents who have young children – and young boys in particular – who don’t know any different. Kids are growing up without a gender lens on sport. I love seeing young men, in their teens or early twenties, walking around with a Matilda’s jersey.”

Linton, who also coached the Junior Matildas, W-League teams Melbourne Victory and Canberra United, implored everyone to maintain this momentum and continue to support football and women’s sport in Australia.

“I think every part of society has a role to play in making sure that there is a legacy of this World Cup, and we continue to support women in sport. Australia has an important role, but so do government and so do we, the general public, to go out and support women playing, not just when it’s a World Cup.”

And when asked to predict the winner of tonight’s semi final, Linton spoke about the Matildas destiny.

“The Lionesses won the Euros last year,” she said. “But I think the fact that we’ve beaten them recently is going to hold us in really good stead in regards to that mental battle.

“And I think, at the moment, the fact that we have our fans behind us. And the wave that Australia has been on, they will believe that they can beat them. And I think the typical Australia-England rivalry, we always want to bring it to England, whatever sport, it doesn’t matter.

“We will always come up against that. If we’re the underdogs, even better! I think we play well when we’re the underdogs. But I think there’s a genuine belief now within this squad that on the day, they can beat anyone.

“And so, let’s just say, I think it’s going to be really close. Let’s go with Australia because this is our time.”

Frances Cordaro, NSWIS

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