Matildas defender Clare Hunt signs with Tottenham ahead of 2024/25 Women’s Super League season
In just 18 months Clare Hunt has gone from unknown A-Leagues players to superstar Matilda and Tottenham recruit - none of it would have happened without a former Matildas coach.
In just 18 months Clare Hunt has become a household name. An Olympian, a home World Cup and now she has just signed her second lucrative contract with an overseas club joining the Aussie invasion at Tottenham.
None of it may have happened without a former Matildas coach and a special invite to Tony Gustavsson who then went the extra mile to make sure Hunt was the player he needed to fix a big problem in the Australian team.
From the outside it looked like Hunt just waltzed into the national team in time for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. No one, dedicated A-League's fans aside, had any idea who she was.
She played just 30 A-League's games after seven surgeries across an injury hampered six-year period.
Now it is now hard to imagine a Matildas team without Hunt standing next to Alanna Kennedy.
When then Matildas coach Gustavsson decided to pull her into the squad just before the World Cup many questioned his decision.
Once they saw her in action their doubts disappeared.
Her World Cup heroics landed her a contract with French super club PSG – she played 22 games across her first season – helping them finish second on the ladder.
Now she has joined the WSL – signing with Tottenham FC on a three-year-deal alongside fellow Matildas defender Charli Grant at a club that is headlined by ex-Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou as the men’s team coach.
“The WSL has so much exposure, there’s some of the best players in the world in this league and to play alongside them week in, week out will help me develop as a person and a footballer,” Hunt said.
“Sometimes I catch myself and I’m like it’s been an enormous 12-18 months for me but I also think there’s so many amazing things I can look forward to.
“So I just like to take it as it comes.
“I don’t think it will hit me until years down the track, because I’m so fixated on what I’m doing right now.
“I just try to enjoy it as much as I can and not get caught up in things too much, the more I dial it down, the more I try to mellow it down, I can deal with the pressure better.”
THE HUNT FOR A NEW DEFENDER
If you were to rewind time to early 2023 and tell Hunt all that she would achieve in the coming 18 months she would have laughed and not believed a word of it.
Despite all her hard work in rehab and impressive efforts on the field no one was looking at her until former Matildas coach Tom Sermanni called Gustavsson.
With centre backs Alanna Kennedy and Clare Polkinghorne both nursing injuries Sermanni knew Gustavsson had a hole to fill.
Sermanni had been closely managing Hunt’s comeback via Western Sydney Wanderers where he promoted her to captain even as she wrestled with the idea of giving it all away.
“She wasn’t even close to being on anybody’s radar because she had been injured,” Sermanni said.
“She’s a player that everybody knew had a lot of potential but, because of injury, never got a chance to get any kind of consistent roll of games.
“So when Tony was over I said why don’t you come and have a look at her. To his credit he came along to four or five games. What he did, particularly in our home games, was he would walk around to the other side of the field to get close to Clare.
“He would watch up close and listen to her, not just watch her, but listen to her during the game.
“It is quite an incredible story to go from being on no one’s radar to being one of the staples and probably first picks in the team.”
Hunt conceded she was at the point in her career where she was starting to question if she should continue playing before the Matildas call up came.
“Prior to breaking into the national team I’d had seven surgeries and I thought you don’t see many stories of people coming back from seven operations and think yeah I’m going to play for the national team,” Hunt said.
“You see it as a gradual progression, they play good consistent football then break in.
“I never quite had that.
“I was getting to an age where I really had to make a decision if it was football or if I had given it my all and it just hadn’t worked out for me.”
THE FIGHT BACK
While Sermanni is the man who put Hunt on Gustavsson’s radar, Hunt needs to get full credit for capturing Sermanni’s attention in the first place with her insatiable work ethic and focus.
“She turned up every day for training in the zone,” Sermanni said.
“No matter what we did, whatever the practice, whether it was on the pitch, in the gym, running, tactics – she just focused, she went in and did a job.
“I think that is what’s got her to where she is. She never gets distracted.
“I think you can see that in every performance she has had for the national team. There’s nothing that seems to faze her or impact her in any way.
“I don’t think she has ever had a below par game. She’s not your outgoing player – she is professional through and through and just goes about doing her job.”
Hunt said it was the need to have no regrets that pushed her through her multiple rehabilitations.
“Part of me knew it’s what I wanted to do and I knew I hadn’t given it my best shot because I hadn’t had the opportunity to have a full season,” Hunt said.
“I told myself to just give it a full season and see what happens.
“I’ve always had self belief but I’d never had the opportunity to do it in the way that I wanted to.”
LIFE AT PSG
Hunt grew up on a lamb farm in a rural NSW town called Grenfell. It is 425km from Sydney.
When the defender got a call telling her top flight French women’s club PSG wanted to sign her Hunt’s first reaction was to turn it down.
The 16,741 km to Paris is a lot further than the four hour trip to Sydney.
“I texted a friend and said I’m not sure if I’m going to do it,” Hunt said.
“She said ‘what do you mean you are not going to do it.”
Hunt realised it was a huge opportunity and once she grappled with the concept of being on the other side of the world to her family she put pen to paper.
“You don’t know your limit until you test it and I feel like I’ve tested it,” she said.
“I jumped in the deep end, but I think that is what I’ve been doing for the last 18 months.
“I feel lucky to have these opportunities after being injured for so long and it has made me appreciate it far more because I pushed so hard for it.”
“To see the engagement from the kids here is really cool and there’s a lot of talent — I’m grateful to have had this experience.â€
— Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (@SpursFoundation) August 29, 2024
Summer of Spurs meets @SpursWomen’s Clare Hunt! ðŸ˜
Playing at PSG is a huge leap from Western Sydney Wanderers. Then there is the language barrier.
Hunt said she is glad she jumped in and it has made her a better footballer.
“I’ve learned a lot, the football is very competitive, very possession based, very technical over there,” she said.
“That has pushed me a lot. I feel like I’ve grown a lot there and shifting and moving to France has really challenged me and helped me grow as well.”
As she starts to achieve her dreams and set new goals she never thought possible Hunt’s main focus is her body.
“I’m learning to manage my body better and how to perform in a high pressure environment.
“I’m learning on the go, trying to navigate what works for me.”
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