What if you could start again? Build it from the ground up \u2014 no dream too impossible?<\/p>\n
Matildas coach Joe Montemurro is happy to bite at the question, with an expansive vision not just for the senior women’s national team, but women’s football more broadly in Australia.<\/p>\n
It’s here where the most obvious difference between the Melburnian and his predecessor, Swede Tony Gustavsson, is seen.<\/p>\n
Montemurro has clear ideas around the basics: how he wants the Matildas to play (“possession-based \u2026 controlled \u2026 beautiful football \u2026 exciting”), creating a national style and identity for the Young Matildas (U-20) and Junior Matildas (U-17) to follow.<\/p>\n
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Montemurro wants to help bolster development pathways in Australian women’s football.\u00a0 (Getty Images: Paul Kane)<\/p>\n
But more telling is his deeper emotional connection to the domestic game, and his desire to reshape player development pathways, football philosophies, and even the infrastructure of women’s football.<\/p>\n
Lofty? Yes. Achievable? That’s TBC.<\/p>\n
Player development is a priority<\/p>\n
The Matildas became Australia’s favourite national team through the course of the 2023 Women’s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Some of the shine faded during a disappointing Olympic campaign in Paris 2024 and the subsequent 10-month search for Gustavsson’s replacement, frustrating players and fans alike.<\/p>\n
Montemurro is juggling dual roles: results on the pitch, starting with the home Women’s Asian Cup in March, and masterminding the next steps for the women’s game here.<\/p>\n
The latter is often not expected of foreign coaches, or at least the bar may be set somewhat lower due to their unfamiliarity with the domestic landscape.<\/p>\n
But from the way Montemurro speaks, it is a central part of his mission, and perhaps his success in the role hinges just as much on his impact in that area as it does on winning football games.<\/p>\n
He has already had one international window in charge of the Matildas \u2014 June-July’s friendlies against Panama and Slovenia \u2014 but that came just weeks after his appointment.<\/p>\n
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The 2023 Women’s World Cup, co-hosted in Australia, was a high point for the Matildas and women’s sport.\u00a0 (Getty: Elsa)<\/p>\n
He now has the reins for friendlies in the UK against Wales this weekend, and England a few days later, and has had more time than he’s used to in club-land to really think about what the women’s game should look like at all levels.<\/p>\n
At the core is the A-League Women’s (ALW) competition, now run by the Australian Professional Leagues.<\/p>\n
Tom Sermanni was scathing in his assessment<\/a> of where the league is at just before he finished his stint as interim coach earlier this year, saying, “we are still grossly under-invested in the women’s game here”.<\/p>\n “There’s a huge amount of work that actually needs to be done,” Sermanni said.<\/p>\n “It’s even more irritating when you think how we had the most successful World Cup ever two years ago, and A-League Women are in the situation that they’re in now, it’s just not good enough.”<\/p>\n Professional Footballers Australia’s (PFA) report for the 2023-24 season highlighted some of those challenges, with most players calling for full-time professionalism by the 2026-27 season, elevated match-day experiences, and stronger club environments.<\/p>\n Most ALW players are semi-professional.\u00a0 (AAP: Scott Barbour)<\/p>\n Western United won’t be there this season after being stripped of its licence<\/a>, and Canberra United<\/a> was on the brink of collapse, saved by a late cash injection from the ACT government.<\/p>\n Crowd figures have barely shifted since the league’s inception, and despite a push to grow female leadership in the game, Wellington Phoenix’s Bev Priestman is the only female head coach this season.<\/p>\n But where Sermanni is damning, Montemurro is choosing optimism.<\/p>\n Taking a creative approach<\/p>\n Montemurro cites talent identification as a key issue and ensuring clear communication and smooth transitions between the pathways from the Junior Matildas to A-League clubs to the senior national side.<\/p>\n “I say this in a positive way: I think we just need to do more,” he said.<\/p>\n Montemurro says players need to have more game time and greater exposure to high performance environments. (AAP: Richard Wainwright)<\/p>\n “We need to play more. We need to coach more. We need to get players exposed to more high-performance, international football and international games.”<\/p>\n When the ALW started as the W-League in 2008\/09, it was considered world-leading, only behind the USA’s domestic league, and with both leagues running successively, the world’s best players could easily traverse between the two.<\/p>\n Internationals Jessica Fishlock, Kim Little, Yukari Kinga, and even Megan Rapinoe had cameos in Australia, while the Matildas’ star players were all based here.<\/p>\n But with the rise of the women’s game in Europe, the landscape has shifted dramatically, with the majority of the Matildas now based overseas, and there are questions over whether the ALW should fully commit to being a development league.<\/p>\n Montemurro, who led Melbourne City to the championship in an unbeaten 2015\/16 season, says it’s up to clubs to answer that question for themselves.<\/p>\n Montemurro oversaw Melbourne City’s successfull 2015\/2016 season. (Getty Images: Darrian Trainor)<\/p>\n “I think us as a national body, we need to tap into helping these A-League clubs with identities and football models,” he said.<\/p>\n “The A-League is fundamental and it’s a piece that we’re starting to roll out.”<\/p>\n Whatever the answer, leadership is undoubtedly needed to secure the long-term future of the league, which is still central to providing a talent pipeline to the Matildas, albeit more circuitously now via European and American clubs.<\/p>\n Having also coached powerhouse women’s clubs in England, Italy, and France, Montemurro wants to take a creative approach, finding ways to keep the huge grassroots participant base engaged in the sport, and do things an Australian way.<\/p>\n “Sometimes we put everything in Australian football in the pot of negativity, ‘oh, we haven’t got that, we haven’t got this'”, he said.<\/p>\n “The one thing that I’ve definitely observed, there are issues overseas with a lot of organisations and we’re not that far behind.”<\/p>\n Women’s teams may need to stand alone<\/p>\n One of the issues he identifies is one familiar across many women’s sports \u2013 investing in support staff.<\/p>\n Support staff, including physiotherapists and doctors, aren’t always full-time positions across many women’s sports. (Getty Images: Kelly Defina)<\/p>\n It’s common to hear of women’s clubs where physiotherapists, doctors, strength-and-conditioning coaches, and high-performance managers are entry-level, underpaid, and subject to short contracts.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, it is hardly conducive to elite sport and can contribute to injuries and substandard performances.<\/p>\n It was an area Montemurro insisted on being fully staffed when he was at City, and something he wants to see replicated across the ALW.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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