Matildas The Matildas Thread

stax on the mull

Norm Smith Medallist
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Should keep this open for the players that don't play in the W-League. eg: Kerr and Galabadaarachchi playing in the UK league, a few in Europe (Luik, Chidiac, Gielnik, De Vanna) and some younger ones in the US College system.
 
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Jul 5, 2011
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Should keep this open for the players that don't play in the W-League. eg: Kerr and Galabadaarachchi playing in the UK league, a few in Europe (Luik, Chidiac, Gielnik, De Vanna) and some younger ones in the US College system.

Thread is remaining open, but for all the overseas players news you can always post in the Aussies abroad thread.
 
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Chloe Logarzo is not signed to Orlando Pride because the NWSL stepped in and told the Pride she shouldn't have been on the waiver wire since she was playing for the Spirit on loan from Sydney FC. Logarzo is now on the rediscovery list as a free agent.

 
The Guardian is running through the top 100 female footballers, as voted on by a panel of coaches and former players.

Ellie Carpenter is 88th as the first Matilda.

 

stax on the mull

Norm Smith Medallist
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The Guardian is running through the top 100 female footballers, as voted on by a panel of coaches and former players.

Ellie Carpenter is 88th as the first Matilda.



Kerr No 1, but only 2 Australians in the Top 100 when we are ranked in the top 10 teams in FIFA.

Rose Lavelle comes in a 7, probably due to her performance in the World Cup, particularly the finals, but wasn't in the top 100 last year. Indicates how much of it is based on a calendar year rather than rating built of reputation of being a consistently high level player.

Really don't know enough about the 100 players to make comment ( although I've been a fan of Le Sommer from the 1st time I saw her in the previous World Cup), and the judges are from all over the world - probably means they don't see performances outside their leagues first hand, if at all.

One thing you see with the W-League is that Americans that come out here bring a standard that is far above the average W-League players - and yet most of them aren't in contention to play for their national team.

We are just battling away with a bunch of 12 or so players who on their day might be able to match it with the best team in the world. Think Foord is as good a player as any I've seen, including Kerr.
 

swingdog

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Kerr No 1, but only 2 Australians in the Top 100 when we are ranked in the top 10 teams in FIFA.

Rose Lavelle comes in a 7, probably due to her performance in the World Cup, particularly the finals, but wasn't in the top 100 last year. Indicates how much of it is based on a calendar year rather than rating built of reputation of being a consistently high level player.

Really don't know enough about the 100 players to make comment ( although I've been a fan of Le Sommer from the 1st time I saw her in the previous World Cup), and the judges are from all over the world - probably means they don't see performances outside their leagues first hand, if at all.

One thing you see with the W-League is that Americans that come out here bring a standard that is far above the average W-League players - and yet most of them aren't in contention to play for their national team.

We are just battling away with a bunch of 12 or so players who on their day might be able to match it with the best team in the world. Think Foord is as good a player as any I've seen, including Kerr.

As the BTL comments on that article suggest, there's a fair bit of over-rating of players from certain European clubs (e.g. Lyon who beat up a league of minnows in France) and under-rating of anyone outside Europe.
 
Daily Telegraph published a story on Milicic handing out contracts in tiers for Matildas. It seems like the FFA have gone down the cricket Australia approach to central contracts.

Basically three tiers of contracts. Tier I gets the most cash and there are only 11 players in that tier. Tier 2 gets more cash than tier 3 but not as much as tier 1. Lisa de Vanna is in tier 3. Katrina Gorry missed out altogether.

It's a paywall article.

 
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By the middle of 2018, there was fresh unease within the Matildas.​
One of the thornier issues was tensions between Stajcic and some of his players over how to manage the balance between high-performance sport and sexual politics. Some players didn’t see why teammates sharing a bed should disrupt team harmony on the pitch. The coach took a different view. Some parents of some younger players raised separate concerns about senior teammates making sexual advances towards them.​
“We are talking about personal relationships and predilections inside the Matildas squad being thought to distract from performance,’’ an FFA insider said. “Alen was trying to enforce a soccer regime and was being railroaded by a more powerful group who saw it as against their interests.’’​

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...e/news-story/618da6dad51d7dc5afd904494aa0f6f6

The independent review into the sacking of former Matildas coach Alen Stajcic made no mention of why he was sacked, or Heather Reid's role, apart from finding no evidence of the 'lesbian mafia'. It's a whitewash.

They bizarrely recommended a player centric approach. It's out of touch with how successful teams operate and will lead to the same issues we saw this year.


 
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Stajcic wasn't spoken to for the review, and FFA "sources" blame the independent panel and Stajcic for that.

This article also claims that an "athlete centric" approach isn't even defined in the summary report and that it makes unfounded claims as to what it would do
 
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Stajcic wasn't spoken to for the review, and FFA "sources" blame the independent panel and Stajcic for that.

This article also claims that an "athlete centric" approach isn't even defined in the summary report and that it makes unfounded claims as to what it would do

The report is an embarrassment.

They didn't even speak to Stajcic after he offered to spend a day with them answering their questions. No mention of speaking to former FFA board member Heather Reid, who was instrumental in Stajcic's dismissal, then later apologised for her allegations against him.

And the supposedly 'independent' panel was liaising with FFA chairman Chris Nikou.
 

stax on the mull

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The report is an embarrassment.

They didn't even speak to Stajcic after he offered to spend a day with them answering their questions. No mention of speaking to former FFA board member Heather Reid, who was instrumental in Stajcic's dismissal, then later apologised for her allegations against him.

And the supposedly 'independent' panel was liaising with FFA chairman Chris Nikou.

But the article in the SMH states that they asked for a written response and Stajcic declined - so he wanted to give his version of events on his own terms. Why not in writing. He read out his prepared statement at his press conference - so what was the problem with putting it on written record?

Reid said what she did, and eventually both parties came to a settlement, well after the fact, for Reid to make an apology, and for Stajcic to move on

The context of her comments were that on the weekend Stajcic was sacked, she was already being accused of being the orchestrator and the phrase "Lesbian Mafia" was coined by followers of what's known as "sokkah twitter" - football fans who would otherwise show scant interest in the Matildas and W-League. The "if people knew..." comment was something Reid said when a reporter put those allegations being made via social media to her - some of it so vile that it forced her to lock her personal account.

People have perceived those specific comments about Stajcic as a planned attack, and I'm not saying they shouldn't, its just that I don't. It wasn't a planned interview and she was just caught offside by the fury being directed at her and used her own fighting words in defence.

The theory is that once Reid got onto the FFA panel, in the space of a few months, with the help of a couple negative surveys on culture (one survey where Stajcic played a significant role in framing the questions) she was able to convince all the other members of the FFA to come to a unanimous decision to terminate Stajcic's contract. Yeah, nah.
 
Feb 28, 2009
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People have perceived those specific comments about Stajcic as a planned attack, and I'm not saying they shouldn't, its just that I don't.
So it was just awfully coincidental then that others basically said the same thing in defending the sacking? Then there was the unsolicited sending of Twitter DMs to players by an "anonymous" person claiming to be fighting for women...

If that initial comment wasn't planned (which I doubt), it very quickly turned into a coordinated plan
 

stax on the mull

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So it was just awfully coincidental then that others basically said the same thing in defending the sacking? Then there was the unsolicited sending of Twitter DMs to players by an "anonymous" person claiming to be fighting for women...

If that initial comment wasn't planned (which I doubt), it very quickly turned into a coordinated plan


Just covering the same old ground now.

Yes, there were a bunch of people who categorically stated they were aware of some issues within the squad, and then didn't expand on what they said. Who were they again? Lucy Zelic, Anna Harrington, Joey Peters, Clint Bolton said something - mostly people who actually have close connection with the women's game and watch it, call it, analyse it, interview the players.
 
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But the article in the SMH states that they asked for a written response and Stajcic declined - so he wanted to give his version of events on his own terms. Why not in writing. He read out his prepared statement at his press conference - so what was the problem with putting it on written record?

Reid said what she did, and eventually both parties came to a settlement, well after the fact, for Reid to make an apology, and for Stajcic to move on

The context of her comments were that on the weekend Stajcic was sacked, she was already being accused of being the orchestrator and the phrase "Lesbian Mafia" was coined by followers of what's known as "sokkah twitter" - football fans who would otherwise show scant interest in the Matildas and W-League. The "if people knew..." comment was something Reid said when a reporter put those allegations being made via social media to her - some of it so vile that it forced her to lock her personal account.

People have perceived those specific comments about Stajcic as a planned attack, and I'm not saying they shouldn't, its just that I don't. It wasn't a planned interview and she was just caught offside by the fury being directed at her and used her own fighting words in defence.

The theory is that once Reid got onto the FFA panel, in the space of a few months, with the help of a couple negative surveys on culture (one survey where Stajcic played a significant role in framing the questions) she was able to convince all the other members of the FFA to come to a unanimous decision to terminate Stajcic's contract. Yeah, nah.

According to this report there was a plot brewing for Stajcic to be sacked and replaced with a female coach. It's naive to think that Heather Reid was not involved in this. You can be pretty sure that Reid was forced to publicly apologise as part of the settlement with Stajcic. What she said was highly slanderous.

"It’s good for me – but it's not so good for you". These are the words that Football Federation Association chief executive David Gallop said to Matildas coach Alen Stajcic in November last year when a new board was installed.​
Months before that, an FFA board member warned Stajcic that powerful forces within the game wanted him sacked and replaced with a female coach. "They're out to get you," he was told.​


Apart from the withdrawn allegations we still don't know why Stajcic was sacked. A genuine independent report should have slated the FFA board for what occurred, and recommended cliquey player groups be curtailed from undue influence.
 
Australia plays China, Chinese Taipei and Thailand in the first round of the qualifiers in China. Must finish first or second in the group to advance to the next stage of the qualifiers. The second stage is a two leg playoff in March against the first or second placed team from the other group.
 

stax on the mull

Norm Smith Medallist
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Experienced squad. Don't know if they're all in form. Gorry a bit of a surprise. Polkinghorne slowing down and starting to make the odd mistake at the back.

Happy to see Kyah Simon back. Roestbakken the only youngster and McCormick inexperienced at international level but mature.

I don't know when this 3 goalkeepers in the squad for a tournament became the vogue (sometime in the 80's for one of the men's world cup tournaments I think) but for 3 matches it seems unnecessary.
 
Feb 28, 2009
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Polkinghorne starting to make the odd mistake at the back.
Starting to? She made mistakes pre-WC, made a massive one in the WC and was still making them in the friendlies against Chile.

She just doesn't seem capable of being a ball playing defender like Ante wants the CBs to be
 
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