By Emma Kemp
Ellie Carpenter says she took part in “some conversations” with Football Australia regarding their hunt for the next Matildas coach but has placed her faith in the federation to appoint someone who can return a dissatisfied team to the world’s top 10.
FA is two months into the recruitment process for Tony Gustavsson’s permanent successor and signalled early on that the players themselves would be consulted about what worked and what did not during the Swede’s tenure, which included reaching a World Cup semi-final and crashing out in the group stage of the Olympics.
Ellie Carpenter is hungrier than ever at the start of a new four-year Matildas cycle.Credit: Getty Images
As a vice-captain, Carpenter has been in those discussions and said her primary concern was remedying Australia’s recent results and slide down the FIFA rankings to their lowest place since 2007.
“Initially, we had some conversations,” Carpenter said from camp in Zurich, where interim coach Tom Sermanni is preparing the Matildas for friendlies against Switzerland and Germany on Saturday and Tuesday (AEDT).
“But at the end of the day, we trust them for that process and to make the right decision. And for us, it’s simple: we want a coach that can bring the best out of all of us players, to play the best football and to get results.
“We are 15th now in the world, and I think we’re not satisfied with that. We need to produce results in these next couple of years, and this is a very important start of a massive cycle for this team.
Tom Sermanni is overseeing the Matildas as interim coach.Credit: Getty Images
“You look back at our recent games, and you think about the best games that we’ve played and how we performed and beat top-10 nations, we want to get back to playing that way.
“Results for us now onwards matter, especially leading into the World Cup with rankings etcetera. So we’re out to do a job, we’re out to perform and we want to get us back in the top 10.”
The next four-year cycle includes the home 2026 Asian Cup, the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. For now, however, FA is content for Sermanni to oversee Australia’s first outings since that chastening Olympics campaign in Paris.
The feeling under Sermanni is one of familiarity. The Scot, in one of his previous two stints coaching Australia’s women, gave several of the squad’s most recognisable faces their international debuts. They included Sam Kerr, Emily van Egmond, Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso and Katrina Gorry.
They did not include Carpenter who, despite her seniority, is still only 24 and eight years into her international career. But the Lyon right-back was “very impressed” with what she had seen from Sermanni so far and said he had “voiced that he’s all in with us 100 per cent”.
“I think that’s important, to have that right from the get-go,” Carpenter said. “He’s going to do everything for us that he can to make us play the best football to get results. So I’m very impressed by him coming in, and I think we’re going to work well under him.
“For us, it’s about playing with confidence, playing with freedom, and I think Tommy’s going to allow us to do that. He’s come in, he’s implemented what he thinks this team is world-class at, and what our strong attributes are.
“We want to play our style of play - the Australian way ... represent our country and get back to winning ways. Whether that’s winning 1-0, winning 5-0, scoring goals on transition, building up perfectly. I think that will come, and against different oppositions it’s going to be different.
“But to be honest, it’s just nice to be back into camp ... it’s kind of just starting from scratch again. But it is important for us to get results because we want to win. We don’t like losing.”