For Matildas players Caitlin Foord, Charli Grant and Lydia Williams, the biggest change since last year’s World Cup is the number of people coming up to them in the street and saying thank you.

“The first time someone did it, I was so confused, but then more people would say it, and then say ‘thanks for showing that women can be powerful’,” Foord told The Australian Financial Review Magazine. “It was weird because we’re just doing what we always do. It’s just the whole country is watching now.”