Did someone forget to include Matildas head coach Joe Montemurro on the emails?
Barely a week ago, after Australia’s agonising defeat to Japan in the Asian Cup final, Montemurro said his team needed “more regular, top international competition” to build on the progress and momentum that the tournament had begun.
With the 2027 Women’s World Cup now just 15 months away, Montemurro and his players now – finally – have a longer runway on which to begin their preparations for what could be the golden generation’s last shot at lifting a major trophy.
“We need to play top games, allowing the next group – if you want to call it that – to really be given the opportunity to feel what playing against a big crowd, playing in difficult conditions … what that means,” Montemurro said.
And so, when Football Australia announced that the next international window would see the Matildas compete against three emerging nations, the highest-ranked of which sits 52 spots below them on the Fifa rankings, you can’t imagine Montemurro was thrilled.
In yet another competition that Fifa has shoved into the already overcrowded calendar, the “Fifa Series” will see the Matildas (ranked 15th) travel to Nairobi to take on Malawi (153rd). And then, if successful, Australia will face the winner of the match between India (67th) and hosts Kenya (134th).
FA’s reasoning for selecting these opponents was that they were limited in their options for the April window, with most other top-level nations already engaged in qualifying for major tournaments.
Noting that international friendlies are often organised up to a year in advance, if not longer, it is perhaps a worrying sign of Australia’s waning global reputation that the only teams they could find to play against in a precious international window were three nations who have never competed in a World Cup.
Malawi, India, and Kenya were likely delighted at the prospect of playing a Matildas team seen as one of the best in the world. But with their tournament opener taking place just 17 days after the Asian Cup final against Japan, Montemurro all but confirmed that Australia’s top players won’t be involved.
So what is the point of this? Why are we spending money and carbon emissions flying a team halfway around the world to compete in two likely uncompetitive games, which will be played at an ungodly hour for Australian fans, in front of potentially tiny crowds, all while missing the key players who this 15-month runway is meant to be preparing?
What will any of us – let alone Montemurro – learn about the team he is shaping to travel to Brazil next June?
Probably nothing. But that is not the point of this window any more. Montemurro has flagged that he will use this trip as an opportunity to test a whole new crop of players who are on the fringes of the national team, or who got minimal (or zero) minutes at the Asian Cup.
But who, exactly, will Montemurro call up? With Australia’s under-20 women’s national team competing in their own Asian Cup in Thailand in the same window, and the under-17s preparing to compete in China the following month, the players already in the Matildas’ development pipeline likely won’t be available for selection.
He may draw on more familiar (but under-used) Asian Cup players like Michelle Heyman, Holly McNamara, Kahli Johnson, Amy Sayer, Alex Chidiac, Charlize Rule, Remy Siemsen, Courtney Nevin, Jamilla Rankin, Chloe Lincoln, and Morgan Aquino. But will Montemurro be forced to dig even deeper into Australia’s domestic stocks?
Could we see Kayla Morrison, Izzy Gomez, Leah Davidson, Annalise Rasmussen, Natasha Prior, or Teresa Morrisey get their chance? Perhaps. But A-League Women clubs probably aren’t happy about this, either.
Having already paused for two weeks during the Asian Cup, the Australian domestic league will be forced to pause once again for a window in which their best players could fatigue or sustain injuries right before their own finals series begins. A break will also scupper the increased wave of interest in the league coming off the back of the Matildas’ home tournament.
No matter how FA tries to massage it, the April window seems like a calamity from all angles, and an example of what happens when consultation is ignored in favour of top-down decision-making.
But FA is only partially to blame here. Fifa’s overzealous scheduling – designed seemingly without talking to the leagues and players it affects the most – will continue to squeeze women’s football into tighter and tighter cages, just as it is beginning to spread its wings.
If the global body’s monopoly on the international calendar isn’t challenged, and football’s other stakeholders are still not given a real seat at the table, we shouldn’t be surprised if situations like this become all the more common.
