Matildas’ teenage dreamers have one for the road in bittersweet World Cup playoff

Matildas versus the Swedes. A game so bittersweet it bleeds. A golden generation of Matildas know they won’t get to play another World Cup together.

Hayley Raso is consoled by Steph Catley after the team’s defeat by England. Picture: Getty Images.

One bloke in sport cannot be beaten. Father Time. The cranky old bugger. No one’s ever trumped him. No man, no woman. No superstar, no hack. No way and no how. He’ll get you in the end ­because he gets everyone.

He’ll get a few of the Matildas between now and the next World Cup. That’s the sad truth of it.

F. Time is creeping up on a team you could have sworn is only just getting started.

Isn’t Katrina Gorry a rookie? He’ll get the golden generation of senior Matildas like he got Muhammad Ali and he got Pele and he got Donald Bradman and he got Usain Bolt and he got Roger Federer and he got Cathy Freeman and he even got Ash Barty. Time for her to start a family.

He’ll get Sam Kerr and her mates and he’s going to start doing it between now and their next chance to chase their holy grail in 2027.

The heart, soul and nucleus of this Matildas squad will be on the far side of 30 by then. The far side of 30 is when the cranky old bugger puts you on his hit list.

You don’t want him to get you, and you keep slogging away to hold him off, and you tell yourself 30 is the new 20, but you know the brutal reality of it.

He’s gonna get you in the end. He’s undefeated and forever will be. For the tight-knit elders of the Matildas, they’re grappling with the fact their ship may have sailed when England’s last goal floated home. A few will survive until the next World Cup. A few won’t.

Eight members of the squad trying to rouse themselves for a bittersweet third-place playoff against Sweden in Brisbane on Saturday have been plotting World Cup and Olympic success for more than a decade.

The window for peak performance is only open for so long.

Sam Kerr, Mackenzie Arnold, Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Katrina Gorry, Emily van Egmond, Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso were all born within a year of each other. They all debuted for the Matildas as teens.

Their teenage dream promised to be realised at this World Cup – they’re mostly in their late 20s, experienced enough but still young enough, playing at home – they thought it was the perfect storm of timing and opportunity. So close.

Kerr was a wildly cheeky 15-year-old when she slipped into her first Matildas shirt in 2009. The rest followed her in the next three years. She’s especially close to van Egmond and Foord.

Catley, Arnold, Raso, Kennedy and Gorry joined the squad in 2012. They have nearly 1500 international caps between them. They’ve forged a squad capable of winning World Cups and Olympic gold – but haven’t done it.

The cranky old bugger is slowly closing the window, preparing to slam it shut. Hence the additional heartbreak over the semi-final loss to the Lionesses.

“It sucks,” Gorry said.

Catley claimed defeat wasn’t the end, just the beginning, but the senior figures won’t all be around at the next World Cup. Fresh faces and, more to the point, fresh legs will have arrived by then.

Among those they’re inspiring are players chasing their spots. Van Egmond will be 34 at the next World Cup. Kerr, Catley and Arnold will be 33. Gorry, who was sensational against the Lionesses, will be 35. Foord and Raso will be 32. Lydia Williams, Clare Polkinghorne, Kyah Simon and Tameka Yallop are already 35, 34, 32 and 32.

The Matildas may be relatively new to us, the bandwagon-­hoppers, and yet they ain’t new to football.

Kerr says of her decade-plus teammates: “It’s been amazing to kind of sit back and watch just how much all of these players that I grew up with have grown into their own. They’re all superstars and they’re amazing.”

The teenage dreamers will get another crack at winning something massive together at the Paris Olympics. That event will be another World Cup, for all intents, barring disaster in the qualifying process, with the same players from the same nations lining up for another exhilarating festival of the boot.

Olympic gold ain’t far behind a World Cup for prestige and so there’s still much to play for in the near future.

But then? A disconcerting gap until the 2027 World Cup at a yet-to-be-announced location and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

That’s when the personnel will change. The teenage dreamers will be getting on a bit. Dispersing. Mary Fowler will be in her mid-20s and potentially the world’s best player. Perhaps the Matildas captain in Kerr’s later playing years. Someone like the exceedingly capable Cortnee Vine will be 29 … Kyra Cooney-Cross will be 25 … it will be their time. The established players won’t get another World Cup. Not together.

They cannot win this one. It’s still been a triumph. Third in the world ain’t bad. Nor fourth.

“It’s been absolutely incredible,” Catley says. “I can’t even put it into words, to be honest. Sorry, I’m getting a little bit emotional now. Even coming to the ground and seeing the thousands of people flocking into the stadiums, waving at the bus, you see the full pubs. What we’ve seen on social media, what we’ve seen in the crowd. You can just see that it’s changed the women’s game ­forever.

“It’s a step in the right direction and I’m certainly proud of what we’ve done and the way Australia has embraced it and supported us. It’s definitely a sign for the future.

“People are interested. The numbers are there. Kids are playing. People want to be watching the sport.”

Kerr was asked in Sydney if the football landscape will shift in Australia. “I think it already has, mate,” she said.

The landscape in her own squad will be altered, too, between now and the next World Cup. You’d reckon basically the same 23 players will chase Olympic gold in Paris – starting with three qualifying matches in Kerr’s home town on Perth between October 26 and November 1.

Then a whole new cycle will begin, and a new generation will be sprinkled in. If we know one thing about football, it’s this. You can’t run on old legs.

You can’t beat Father Time with a stick. He’s the one holding it. Gorry is the most glaring example of an athlete to be tapped on the shoulder when you wish she had more time.

She’s only now being properly introduced to Australians as a dynamo of a player and large-hearted human. She’s a rookie in terms of recognition but when no one was looking, she was playing 100 games for the Matildas and turning 31.

Her two year-old daughter, Harper, is coming along well when it comes to the fine art of learning the Queen’s English. “My little one is walking around saying, ‘Up the Tillies’,” she says. “It’s pretty special to be raising a child with such incredible, amazing, inspiring women to look up to. It’s such a special time to be Australian but also to be a football player and a woman in this sport.”

Her appearance against the Swedes, in a game so bittersweet it bleeds, is probably her last at a World Cup. The playoff will be emotional for the teenage dreamers because they know they’re unlikely to do another Cup together. Farewell to that particular fairytale.

“There’s still so much to go for. Don’t jump off the bandwagon now,” Gorry says. “Keep on supporting us and we’ll make you proud. We’ve got to regroup and we’ve got to recover. There’s still a lot on the line for us. We want to bring home the bronze medal for Australia. Everyone is hurting – the veterans probably more than the younger players in the squad. We don’t really have another World Cup in us. It’s a tough one to swallow but we’ll get around each other and make sure we’re ready to go for the next game. We want that bronze medal. It’s dangling right in front of us. Australia has got us here and we’re not going to let it down.”