Matildas: Sam Kerr a born leader for Ante Milicic

Just days into his new role, Ante Milicic knew Sam Kerr was the type of person he wanted to take the Matildas into the World Cup

Matildas players training at Leichhardt Oval yesterday ahead of the Cup of Nations

When Sam Kerr sat in the front row of the Matildas’ first official meeting with Ante Milicic late last week and eyeballed the new coach, little did she now she was creating an impression that would lead to one of her proudest moments as a professional footballer.

Just days into his new role, Milicic knew Kerr was the type of person he wanted to take the Matildas into the World Cup finals in France in June. Now, the football superstar will get her first taste of international captaincy when she leads Australia in the opening game of the Cup of Nations against New Zealand at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval tonight — also the first game for Milicic since taking over from Alen Stajcic.

“When I decided to take this job I watched as many Matildas and W-League games as possible and a few things really stood out,” Milicic said yesterday. “Seeing Sam over the last three or four days in camp really confirmed my thoughts.

“She’s a leader, she’s fearless, she’s very important to the team and she’s ready to take this opportunity.

“Sam reminds me of Tim Cahill. She sat in the front row, just like Tim Cahill would do, at that first meeting, eyes on me and what that said to me is that the message is clear, she is focused, she is ready.

“I am confident she will grow and go to a new level now.”

Kerr said she wasn’t aware of being so intense during that first meeting.

“Having a new coach I just wanted to get a grasp of how he was, the front seat was the best place for it. I didn’t even know I was doing that,” she said.

“It was just the nerves and I really wanted to get an understanding of what type of coach he is and what type of guy he is.”

Still, Kerr said she “didn’t see it coming” when Milicic pulled her aside to give her the news.

“It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s an amazing honour.

“Given everything that has happened over the past few weeks, and the nerves with a new coach, I didn’t even think about it (captaincy).

“Ante just called me over at training and put it to me more as a question. Then he said ‘if you need time to think about it’ … and he speaks in such a passionate way that it is really uplifting.

“He had me emotional when he asked me but, yeah, I didn’t need to think about it.”

After almost a week in camp with Milicic, Kerr, a huge supporter of previous coach Stajcic, had been impressed with the way he had gone about his business.

“He has been really, really calculated. The other day I was upset that I was swapping in and out of training and doing less than everybody else and he told me I’d run more high-speed metres, so ‘You are not doing this’ because everything has been about the duty of care of the players,” she said.

“He is also very passionate about the game and puts in so much work, so much detail.”

With three months to the World Cup, Milicic was not bothered about the results in the Cup of Nations, preferring to get the team balance and performance spot-on.

“I’m not interested in results (in the Cup of Nations),” he said. “We have three games and I need to see which players stand up and who adapts because no one is guaranteed a place in France. Sure, it would be great to win tomorrow night, but I am more interested in the process, the way we play.”