Matildas usher in new era after key interim role is filled perfectly by Tom Sermanni

The Guardian

2 days ago

One of the key themes of the past week for the Matildas has been a sense of serendipity.
On Friday, Tom Sermanni's 150th fixture in charge of the national team was marked by Kahli Johnson's goal in a 2-0 win over Argentina, as the debutante became the latest in the long line of players whose international journey has started with the veteran coach.
On Monday, the final game of Sermanni's tenure was played hours after Joe Montemurro was formally unveiled as the team's next full-time coach. Montemurro watched on from the stands of GIO Stadium as he begun preparations for the first games of his reign later this month. After coaching the Matildas across four separate decades, his final hitout in charge came in the same city where his coaching career began back in the 1980s.
As one era ended, a player hoping to play a key role in the next demanded the attention of the incoming boss during the second game against Argentina. In her first start for 549 days, Amy Sayer grabbed a first-half brace to help steer the Matildas towards a 4-1 win in Canberra, before Emily van Egmond and hometown hero Michelle Heyman put the result beyond doubt.
With Sermanni's third stint in charge of the Matildas now over, focus now turns to what comes next. As the 70-year-old himself reflected, his three stints in charge have intersected with the major eras of this team, and while he is too self-effacing to acknowledge it, that means stories of the Matildas cannot be told without him.
He was there when the modern Matildas program was being established in 1993, and when Australian football made its move to Asia, before laying down a marker of what was to come with a continental crown in 2010. During his latest stint in charge, he was offered a chance to experience a team he had been so instrumental in building, after it had ascended to being something more. The 25,125 fans in Canberra – a record for a women's sporting event in the Australian capital – was testament to this.
'Back in the days when you'd essentially get family and friends to come to games, you dreamt of stuff like this' Sermanni told Paramount. 'It's just a dream come true.'
It's this history that made his appointment as an interim such a key one. Not just because he deserved an opportunity to bask in the glow that exists around the side, but also because his willingness to do whatever is in the team's best interests – demonstrated across multiple decades – is indisputable. When he walked back in the door last October, he described the atmosphere that greeted him as being akin to 'turning up at a funeral' following a disastrous Paris Olympics. Combining an existing relationship with much of the squad and an unimpeachable record of service with a humble lack of ambition to make this anything permanent, he filled the temporary role perfectly.
Yet, the results against the biggest nations weren't there. And the effects of an extended period of limbo as Football Australia's search for a permanent coach continued were clear to everyone during three games in February. While he did his best to bring through new talent and prepare the side for what was to come, as a caretaker there was a limit to his authority. Outside of the retired Clare Polkinghorne, much of the established squad looks set to still be in place come next year's Asian Cup, and it wasn't Sermanni's place to say otherwise. That is Montemurro's responsibility.
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But Sermanni cannot be blamed for the maladroit hunt for a full-time replacement. Back-to-back losses to Brazil and a winless SheBelieves Cup weren't part of the plan, but neither was him being in an interim role for nearly a year. He came in and did his job in getting the team back on its feet, and then the federation turned around and asked him to keep doing it. He would have been well within his rights to put decision-makers on blast, but doing what was best for the Matildas came first.
Starting with Daniela Galic and ending with Isabel Gomez, nine players have made their international debuts during his brief tenure, while others such as Sayer, Holly McNamara, and Clare Wheeler have grown in prominence. Fittingly, Sermanni used one of his final appearances as coach of the Matildas to call for improvements to resourcing and staffing in the A-League Women, attempting to spur even more progress for the game, even after his exit.
If some of the recent results have damaged Sermanni's standing in the eyes of a new generation of fans who have rallied around the Matildas, they shouldn't. He has played an irreplaceable role since before many of them were born. And now, with the Montemurro era looming, he can kick back.