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"Are you ready for it?"
As the house lights dimmed and the first three beats of Taylor Swift's song thundered around the stands, Michelle Heyman lined up in the tunnel beneath Docklands and felt her lightning-white hair stand on the back of her neck.
Just a few metres ahead of her, down a long yellow carpet lined by flames, 54,000 screaming fans were up out of their seats, scrambling to get a glimpse of the 11 players who were about to take the Matildas to the Olympic Games.
Heyman was one of them. And she was more ready for it than anyone.
The 35-year-old striker has spent the last few years dreaming about what this moment might be like.
Since retiring from the national team in 2018, Heyman had been part of a generation of Matildas who'd just missed the wave of popularity that has carried the current players into a new realm of super-stardom.
She had been part of the Matildas for a decade, leading the line at World Cups and Olympic Games, yet the Canberra United forward had to watch this meteoric rise happen from the stands.
She was one of millions of others who flocked to stadiums during the Women's World Cup, swept up in the fan frenzy as Australia battled to fourth place, but she had never been able to quite shake off that lingering question: what must it be like to be out there, to be part of this thing you had spent so long building?
On Wednesday night, she finally found out.
"Just to hear how loud it was walking out... it gave me goosebumps," Heyman said after their 10-0 defeat of Uzbekistan.
"It was something that I've always wanted to be a part of, especially after the World Cup. It was so nice to be in the stands supporting the girls and just dreaming of being out there.
"I think that helped [build] that fire within myself to try and get back in the team because that atmosphere was insane at the World Cup.
"Now for myself to be able to experience something so special — to hear the crowd cheer for you — you know, we used to get big crowds when we were overseas, so for it to be in our homeland was just a beautiful feeling.
"It's grown so much since 2010 when I first debuted to where we are now. So it's an incredible feeling to be part of that journey and see what football in Australia has done."
Heyman is one of the few remaining Matildas who bridge these old and new eras, reminding all of us just how far the team has come and the many players who have rarely, if ever, been given an opportunity to bask in the legacy that they have helped create.
Indeed, this international window has captured in microcosm the Matildas' journey from little-known Australian national team to other-worldly sporting celebrities.
In the first game against Uzbekistan in Tashkent last Saturday, we were transported back to what being a Matilda used to look like: the team travelling to far-flung places across the continent to play crucial qualifying games in front of a scattering of fans.
Fewer than 2,500 people showed up to Bunyodkor Stadium in freezing temperatures for that first leg, with only a small contingent of die-hard Australian supporters making the days-long journey to watch them live.
While Heyman's selection for this window had been questioned by some due to her age, her lack of recent international experience, and the impossibility of filling the enormous Sam Kerr-shaped hole at centre-forward, the Canberra striker let her football do the talking when she came off the bench in the second half in Tashkent.
Alongside Caitlin Foord, Heyman's presence up front fundamentally shifted the way the Matildas were playing. Having struggled to break down a defensively compact Uzbekistan for the first hour, the veteran's introduction finally gave her teammates someone to aim for.
Her off-ball movement, combination play, angled runs in behind, and strength in the air added a different dimension to Australia's attack, with her opening goal coming 7 minutes after she'd entered the pitch.
Such was her impact that she earned her first start for the Matildas on Wednesday — her first since 2016 — and repaid Tony Gustavsson's faith by scoring one of the fastest hat-tricks in Australian history: three goals in 13 minutes, with a fourth thrown in towards the end of the first half for good measure.
Once again, her chemistry with other players (particularly long-time friend Katrina Gorry, whose attacking midfield role was its own kind of blast from the past) and slotting seamlessly into the system, was the mark of not just an experienced player who builds on their own history with players around her, but also a forward-thinking and adaptable one, capable of adjusting to new contexts and solving new problems with newer teammates.
Heyman's five goals across these two games were an extension of the form and longevity that has seen her become the A-League Women's all-time leading goal-scorer, surpassing the historic 100-goal mark earlier this year on her way to a potential record-breaking third Golden Boot award three years after retiring from football altogether.
And while she will never be able to replace Kerr (who can?), Heyman's renaissance against Uzbekistan proved that she doesn't have to: she is capable of solving the Matildas' striker conundrum in her own unique way, while also reminding us all that this team need no longer be defined by Kerr's absence, but by the presence of everyone else.
"It's always fun to try and be like Sam, but we're very different players," she said.
"I've watched her grow up since she was a 16-year-old kid coming into the W-League and just destroying everyone. I aspire to be like her; we're very similar in certain ways. But I play my own game as well.
"I think I can bring things that are quite different to what Sam brings as well, so it's nice to be able to be that solid forward who can get in the box and dominate when you're in front of goal."
The fact that Heyman's re-introduction to the Matildas has started this way is, perhaps, an indication of the new era that the team in general is entering.
The World Cup was the first hard test of whether Australia were capable of scoring goals and running deep into major tournaments without their talismanic striker, and with Kerr's ACL injury all but eliminating her from Olympic selection, the team is now morphing, deliberately, into something else, as it has been slowly doing over the past two years.
That new version — this new era — is one that holds space for players who are re-discovering themselves or blossoming later than what modern football often has the patience for, from Heyman to Aivi Luik to Katrina Gorry to Mackenzie Arnold.
"Age is just a number," Heyman said, "and if you're willing to put in the hard work to drive yourself to be successful, anything can come from that."
It's also an era of renewal, with young players like Mary Fowler, Kyra Cooney-Cross, Amy Sayer, Charlotte Grant, and Kaitlyn Torpey being slowly drip-fed into the team that they will inherit once the current core moves into the next stage of their lives.
Off the pitch, this era is taking on new forms, too.
Hours before Wednesday night's second leg in Melbourne, green-and-gold lines of fans snaked their way around the perimeter of the ground, waiting patiently to get their hands on one of the few remaining purple goalkeeper jerseys that were released by Nike and Football Australia, a day after the online store was exhausted.
Groups of teenage girls stood confidently in front of television cameras, pointing and singing chants designed just for the players they were about to see, before filing into yet another sold-out stadium on home soil in front of yet another million-mark television audience.
Hundreds of hand-made posters were unrolled and waved around as the teams made their way out for warm-ups, and as the stadium announcer listed the names of Australia's starting line-up, the biggest cheers erupted for players who, barely two years ago, the vast majority of the country would not have recognised.
Swift herself may have departed Australia last week, but the Matildas are now in the midst of their own Eras tour, pulling the past and the present together on their journey towards whatever comes next, including, possibly, their first-ever Olympic medal.
And Heyman is going to do everything she can to be ready for it.
"It's been a very emotional rollercoaster," she said.
"I've been pushing so hard to try and get back into this squad, and as soon as I got the email saying [I] was back in, I'm not letting it go. I'm going to do everything I can, work as hard as possible, and bring that positive energy to the team.
"When I'm feeling as happy as I am, my football flows. I become one with the game. I'm lucky enough that I've spent so many years within this team prior that I know the girls and I know how they play, and I know the system.
"I've been watching so much in the last four or five years that I haven't been playing for the Matildas, so I've done my research, and I know what I need to do to secure a spot in this team. I've been pushing myself as hard as I can to show people — or show myself — that I'm capable.
"And I'm not stopping."
"Baby, let the Games begin."