Editorial
One game at a time: Go Matildas
No national team has fused hopes and dreams so magically as the Matildas. On Wednesday night, when they face the English Lionesses, they’ll carry a kind of unconditional love and affection that speaks to the healing power and promise of sport.
On the same field nearly 23 years ago, Cathy Freeman carried the same love as she accelerated around the 400m track at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad. She was willed on by a proud hometown crowd fearful their daring to dream may be a jinx.
Australia is in the same hope and hex quandary in the make or break semi-final at Stadium Australia. The Matildas have only lately run into our collective consciousness, but they’ve galvanised and united the country in a way not experienced since the 2000 Olympics. After the years of problems and pain under the pandemic, they’ve given the nation reason to celebrate and shaped a bright future for themselves.
The Matildas join the Diamonds Netball World Cup win and the recent Ashes victory by the Australian women’s cricket team in highlighting the emergence of professional competitions for women. Cricket, rugby league, AFL and, of course, football have finally given players the opportunity to pursue a sporting career that, while still financially well behind male counterparts, seems heading in the right direction.
For the Matildas, putting aside the early shock loss to Nigeria, their convincing victories against Denmark, reigning Olympic champions Canada and last Saturday’s heart-in-the-mouth win over France, has made them overnight national treasures.
With just a handful of games they’ve put their football code into unprecedented limelight: some 5 million people viewed last Saturday’s game against France, making it one of our most watched television programs of the 21st century, and the icing on the cake. Their physical and mental strengths are an inspiration for many Australians to rethink old attitudes.
That said, Australia’s febrile politics could not wait for Wednesday night’s result and started brawling over a public holiday should the Matildas reach, and win, the August 20 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 final in Sydney. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raised the possibility of a public holiday and has been clubbed by business leaders and Coalition MPs.
They have a point. Despite the well-meaning euphoria surrounding a victory, a public holiday would clearly hurt small business, and throw a multimillion-dollar spanner into the economy just as it appears to be sinking further south. And the impact on the casual workforce, who cannot be expected to rearrange their lives so easily with such short notice, would be significant too.
It’s possible that Albanese recognised Bob Hawke’s man of the people moment when Australia won the America’s Cup in 1983 and thought it could work well for him too. But the circumstances were very different. The deciding yacht race was held in the early hours of Monday and a sleep-deprived Australian eastern seaboard was approaching daybreak when a jubilant Hawke at the Royal Perth Yacht Club good-naturedly fended off reporters questions about a public holiday, declaring “any boss who sacks someone for not turning up to work today is a bum”. In any case, it’s a state matter.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas do not want to risk putting the cart before the horse, but NSW Premier Chris Minns has promised a public holiday and a Sydney ticker tape parade if the Matildas win. He said contractual arrangements had to be worked through, but his government had started the required machinery to gazette a public holiday. He expected it within a week of a victory.
But first. Wednesday night. Take us a Waltzing.
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