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What do avocados, omelettes and pasta have in common? They are all favourites on the menu of Australia's new favourite sporting team, the Matildas.
When Alicia Edge decided to study nutrition and dietetics at university, she never expected it would lead to a career working with Australia's top sporting teams.
Ms Edge gained her bachelor's degree at the University of Newcastle in 2008, unsure where her qualifications would lead her.
"I never set out only wanting to do sport. I kind of said yes to everything," she said.
"I worked in hospitals, in clinical, in the community and what not."
But in 2012, Ms Edge was offered a fellowship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) as a dietitian.
"I was there for three years ... I worked with Australian Volleyball, para-triathlon and also really fortunate to work with Brumbies Rugby," she said.
"I also worked with the under-17s Socceroos and that was a really cool experience."
Through her connections at the AIS, Ms Edge became more involved with Football Australia.
In 2019, the business she runs with her husband secured a contract as the nutrition provider for the organisation.
Working with the Matildas
Ms Edge now works as an advanced sports dietician with several national female football teams.
"We integrate really heavily with the development of the 17-to-23-year-olds coming through," she said.
"We also work with the Matildas and do a little bit with the junior Matildas.
"I really love it. It really is my dream job."
While she works alongside the players during tournaments, much of Ms Edge's work is done in the lead-up to competitions.
"A lot of what I do is actually when the players are outside of camp and in their homes — setting up those habits and relationships with food and body and allowing them to feel permission to fuel," she said.
"We are very much not the food police, and we don't instruct or prescribe food.
"We're making sure that they're fuelling for the amount of training they're doing.
The World Cup
Ms Edge travelled alongside the Matildas for some of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, an event she described as a "whirlwind".
"It was amazing, intense, stressful ... I think for all of us [it was] more than we ever imagined," she said.
"We always knew it was going to be big.
"The World Cup, and the lead-up to it, has always been such a big time for us."
Ms Edge said her main focus was ensuring each individual player had a diet that made them feel good and helped them perform their best.
"Leading up to a game, we're thinking about what their performance means — how long these girls are running for," she said.
"If we're thinking about the game against France, for example, those girls are on the pitch for almost three hours.
"And so in that instance, a lot of what we're doing is actually prioritising how much they eat, but also how much carbohydrate they can get in."
What do the Matildas eat?
Ms Edge said it was vital the players had a variety of food available to them throughout the World Cup.
"These girls were in camp, literally living at work really for two and a half months," she said.
"Our amazing chef Vinnie did a beautiful omelette station of a morning and that was very popular and a pasta station the night before a game, which was also very popular with the girls," she said.
"But avocado was the favourite, it was an essential, it had to be there also."
Ms Edge said supporting the Matildas through the World Cup was an "incredible experience".
"During the tournament, I was just so invested and so aware of how they were feeling and wanting them to succeed that I found it really hard to sit and watch games and enjoy," she said.
"But looking back and reflecting on what an incredible time [it was], I feel astounded by the level of support and adoration that the team gained.
"To have so many people become involved and curious and excited, that just meant so much. It was a really awesome time."
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