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For every Matilda on the verge of qualifying for her first Olympics, another is staring down the barrel of what could be her last. And Steph Catley’s golden generation know Paris 2024 represents one of the final chances to finish their careers with something golden - or silver, or bronze.
Tony Gustavsson’s Australia finished fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and were more devastated still upon placing fourth again at last year’s home World Cup. Now, on the eve of Wednesday’s decisive qualifier against Uzbekistan, the lack of something tangible to show for their historic achievements in green and gold weighs particularly heavily on the shoulders of a core group of outfield players aged 30 and over.
That includes captain Sam Kerr (30) - for whom this Olympics is already an impossibility because of her ruptured ACL - and Catley (30), Katrina Gorry (31), Clare Polkinghorne (35), Emily van Egmond (30), Aivi Luik (38), Tameka Yallop (32) and Michelle Heyman (35). Core squad members Caitlin Foord, Hayley Raso, Alanna Kennedy and Chloe Logarzo are all 29.
And while the likes of Mary Fowler, Ellie Carpenter and Kyra Cooney-Cross are well positioned to take the team into the long-term future, the reality of the short term is front of mind.
“With this group we have come very, very close to achieving something physical,” Catley said on Tuesday in Melbourne. “At the last Olympics and the World Cup we finished fourth, and that’s something that sits pretty heavy within this group.
“We obviously are all getting a little bit older now and the opportunities for major tournaments is getting thinner, and we’re definitely very motivated to get something physical out of the last however many years that we’ve built this team up to the point that we are now.
Fourth-place finishes at both the last Olympics and World Cup weigh heavily on stand-in Matildas captain Steph Catley.Credit: Getty
“I think the football we’ve played, especially over the last couple of years, we are competing with the best in the world consistently. And we want to continue to do that for as long as we can. But obviously, you look at the core group of this team, and we are definitely sort of running out of opportunities.
“We have to qualify for the Olympics first, but we definitely see this as a massive opportunity to get something physical out of what we’ve done over the last few years, and the passion and desire to do that is definitely there.”