The Matildas: Australians going OTT on sport yet again?

A lot of people seem to lose their common sense when it comes to sport. Just look at the number of supporters that become emotionally attached to "their" team and go into ecstasy because "we won". At the extreme, this can lead to highly partisan spectators, and even to sports-related violence. Of course, Australians would never be like that (or would we)!

Public expectations of the Matildas have been noteworthy.

Prior to the World Cup finals, the Matildas were ranked 10th in the world. They had dropped to 12th following their defeat by South Korea in the Women's Asian Cup in 2022. In addition, you have to bear in mind that women's soccer is little played in much of the third world (and still not that widely played here and in many other developed countries). Thus there is limited international competition and (despite the odd spectacular goal) a much lower standard than men's soccer. Added to this, being the home side, the Matildas did not need to qualify, and had home advantage (worth an extra goal?) in every game.

Despite this, even before the semis, they had lost to Nigeria, and barely won against France.

In short, despite home advantage, nobody should have sensibly expected the Matildas to have more than a very outside chance of winning the Women's World Cup. Despite this, the PM and some other politicians (before the semi-finals) started hyping the prospect of declaring a public holiday, if the Matildas did manage to win the competition. Australians needed to "get real" but instead continued to dream before the team lost their last two games.

Although it was a disappointing finish, the Matildas still made history. Fourth place is the best an Australian side has ever achieved at a FIFA World Cup (even if only in the women's competition played at home). "We're really disappointed"said Captain Sam Kerr.

On the positive side, the team is much improved since it was beaten seven-nil by a team of Under 15 schoolboys in 2016, and it did score a couple of spectacular goals. In commercial terms, the Matildas managed to fill stadiums and draw record numbers of viewers on TV. On this basis they deserve to be highly paid for their efforts (probably more than the Socceroos), at least for this competition.

I am a firm believer that pay should reflect fair commercial value. So-called "equal pay for men and women" in individual sports is a travesty, where sporting performance and capacity to draw a crowd are unequal. If the Matildas continue to draw bigger crowds and viewing audiences than the Socceroos, then they deserve to be paid more. I would, however question whether their drawing capacity during the Women's World Cup is any more than a temporary aberration.

Some of the fetingof the Malildas was (quite frankly) ridiculous.

Even after the loss to England, Annastacia Palaszczuk promised to fund a statue at Suncorp Stadium acknowledging the success of the Matildas, while PM Albanese announced that Women's sport in Australia will get $200 million in extra funding. The Queensland Premier also vowed to triple investment improving female facilities at local sporting clubs. Meanwhile the Matildas were also given the keys to the city of Brisbane.

In my view, our politicians (even if they are genuinely fans of the Matildas) are opportunistically seeking to associate themselves with a popular team. Being in this respect insincere, they went OTT.

The statue for coming only fourth is absurd, especially when you consider that our national women's netball and cricket teams (that actually won international competitions) got no statue. Women are entitled to their fair share of sports funding, but this is best determined in a considered policy process rather than by emotionally reacting to sports results or popular acclaim.

The recent Women's World Cup has been dubbedby SBS as "the gayest ever" due to the number of players who have "public queer personas". This is symptomatic of women's sport overall, where openly lesbian competitors are disproportionately successful, probably because of greater inherent drive to win (a characteristic more commonly associated with males).

Australians love a winner, and unduly watch sports, where Australia does well. Cricket is a prime example of this, whereas public support for the hapless Wallabies has declined. Swimming (not a particularly attractive sport for spectators) draws enough interest to entice TV coverage, mainly I suspect, because Australia does well internationally. The Matildas, I suspect, will fade in apparent public success, when they revert to playing half or more of their matches overseas.

We should stop deluding ourselves that Australia is world champion material in any football code other than Rugby League. Australians play four different football codes, with the diversity in participation reducing our competitiveness in each, compared with countries with one dominant code. The only reason for our dominance in League, is that, while it is foremost in NSW and Queensland, few overseas countries play the sport to any great extent.

In the longer term I think it likely than there will be continued growth in participation in women's soccer, and that (in the short term) the Matildas' recent performances will contribute to this. Soccer is perceived as less physical than other football codes, which makes it more appealing to women. Aussie Mums already (in many cases) prefer to see their sons play soccer instead of rougher football codes like rugby and AFL. By extension, while the future for women's soccer is bright, I think women's AFL and (especially) rugby may struggle.