With the Matildas’ new pay deal comes increased scrutiny as they chase Tokyo 2020 qualification
Men’s football has always been a cut-throat business, and with their new pay deal, the Matildas can expect similar scrutiny - but also the best-possible assistance to thrive.
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If the record 20,029 crowd at Bankwest Stadium amounts to evidence of Matildas patriotism, there’s plenty of it.
The sea of green and gold at Australia’s first match since the World Cup shows little has changed when it comes to public support.
The only difference is that a newly announced national-team revenue-sharing deal means more responsibility for the players.
True gender equality means equal pay.
It also means equal scrutiny.
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Being the same allows little room for difference.
And thus, just as the Socceroos will be critically examined should they lose this week’s World Cup qualifier to Jordan, a Matildas stumble against Chile - even in a friendly - is likely to arouse questions about the quest for Olympic glory.
This is not a bad thing.
Being critical is not one and the same as being unpatriotic, which seemed to be the creeping sentiment around the team at France 2019.
Exhaustive analysis, however confronting, is a potent indicator of the Australian public’s investment in a team that has come to symbolise so much of what is good about sport in this country.
Even skipper Sam Kerr told The Telegraph this week that a failure to qualify for Tokyo 2020 would constitute “a huge hit to women’s football”.
It’s a nod to how swiftly the Matildas have flown up the charts that we’ve come to expect so much, regardless of whether they play 37th-ranked Chile or first-ranked USA.
This unprecedented presumption of success was apparent at the World Cup, where the players became uncomfortably aware of the heat an opening group-stage loss to Italy can engender.
By very principle, that level of pressure should be supported by off-field benefits equivalent to their male counterparts in areas such as travel, sports science and medicine.
Now that they have it, the post-mortem that accompanied their round-of-16 exit in France must be shouldered in the same manner as the Socceroos carried that which followed their group-stage departure in Russia, or their Asian Cup quarter-final defeat.
It’s true that a paucity of investment in female football in Australia, as highlighted repeatedly by coach Ante Milicic, puts the national team at risk of falling behind emerging European powers - not to mention Asian countries, against whom the Matildas must compete for an Olympic spot.
It’s also true that Socceroos coaches past and present have also named a lack of resources as one of the biggest roadblocks to success.
But then, football has always been a cut-throat business for men.
Now it is for women, too.
So, contrary to some opinions on social media this week, the Matildas will not be laughing all the way to the bank.
They’ll simply be given the best-possible assistance to survive and thrive in an environment where, as Kerr aptly put it, there are “no excuses now”.
Originally published as With the Matildas’ new pay deal comes increased scrutiny as they chase Tokyo 2020 qualification