Speaker 1: The Christian Connor Show podcast.
Speaker 2: On the show, the voice of the Matildas has been
Speaker 2: producer Caitlin.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling this morning?
Speaker 3: My heart is still in a bit of pain from
Speaker 3: last night, I suppose. Yeah, it was a tough loss,
Speaker 3: but and you can see it in the girl's eyes.
Speaker 3: You know, that meant the world to them, to get
Speaker 3: to the semi final even but for them, their dream
Speaker 3: is to win the pinnacle, right, which is the World Cup.
Speaker 3: And I think you could see the heart breaking them
Speaker 3: and that's why my heart was breaking a bit. But
Speaker 3: I think for us, you know, it was so much
Speaker 3: more then that. And I don't as much as my
Speaker 3: heart's my heart's breaking, I'm also so proud of them
Speaker 3: and they've done so much more for us and the world.
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, once they kind of look
Speaker 3: back after the heartbreak that they've gotten, when they wake
Speaker 3: up this morning and in a couple of weeks and
Speaker 3: they look back and they see like what actual impact
Speaker 3: they had, you know, they'll see it through better eyes,
Speaker 3: I think. And so as much as it's breaking right now,
Speaker 3: I'm also still so proud and to have experienced that journey,
Speaker 3: to have lived in this history has been awesome.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so well said.
Speaker 2: When there were changel of players yesterday and even Sam
Speaker 2: Curl it absolutely devastated.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they were. They were broken because that's their dream.
Speaker 3: They pushed through the barriers their whole life, like these
Speaker 3: girls played soccer in Australia, which is not our number
Speaker 3: one sport, not even our second or third. They pushed
Speaker 3: through and kept prevailing, and then they turned Australia into
Speaker 3: this country that just loved soccer as much as England does,
Speaker 3: as much as the like the Euros do. And that's crazy,
Speaker 3: like that had never happened. I remember playing as a
Speaker 3: kid and like it was the odd sport to play,
Speaker 3: like I was the only girl in a boys team,
Speaker 3: because as if there was going to be enough girls
Speaker 3: to play soccer in a small town that I was from.
Speaker 3: So yeah, once they take it all in and they
Speaker 3: look back and all these girls start playing soccer next
Speaker 3: year and all these little kids start playing soccer next year,
Speaker 3: they'll really understand the impact that they've created in this country.
Speaker 3: And to be honest, around the world, like the world
Speaker 3: has been watching this World Cup and seen sold out stadiums,
Speaker 3: They've sold out merch like that is unfathomable. Before this
Speaker 3: had even started, these girls wouldn't even have thought that
Speaker 3: this would have happened.
Speaker 2: You're right, if you just said something, you'll make the semifinals, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that would have gone. There's no way, especially Curb being injured.
Speaker 3: But if you told them that, they would have had
Speaker 3: sold out games, sold out merch and the whole country.
Speaker 3: People that don't even care about soccer. My partner doesn't
Speaker 3: care about soccer, Patsy doesn't care about soccer. But we
Speaker 3: all know about it. We're all heartbroken today, we're all
Speaker 3: sad today. That's incredible. And I think you know, as
Speaker 3: much as they're breaking right now, that it doesn't matter
Speaker 3: because because when they look back, this is the bigger picture, right,
Speaker 3: this is the bigger and more important thing for them.
Speaker 3: It's it's their dream, but they've changed the dreams for
Speaker 3: a whole country. And I just I kept thinking about
Speaker 3: that as I was a falling asleep last night because
Speaker 3: I was sad, and I just thought, you know, what
Speaker 3: they've done is so much more impactful, and I'm just
Speaker 3: proud of them, and it makes me emotional, and it
Speaker 3: makes them emotional, you know. Steph Catley talked after the
Speaker 3: game and she said, like, I'm getting emotional because you're
Speaker 3: telling me all of these things that I don't think
Speaker 3: that it went through their heads properly. I don't think
Speaker 3: that they could have taken that in because they was
Speaker 3: so focused on the game. And so yeah, once they
Speaker 3: step back and look at it, they should be very
Speaker 3: very proud.
Speaker 2: Oh and also, do you know what your tears it's
Speaker 2: a it is still history making. It was never about
Speaker 2: whether you're not when you get to the final. And
Speaker 2: then even if you get to win the World Cup final,
Speaker 2: it's not about that you will win, you willn't lose.
Speaker 2: And it also sport doesn't give you, like life, what
Speaker 2: you deserve. It's brutal. Sometimes a three to one score
Speaker 2: is actually brutal. And Matilda deserve so much more. And
Speaker 2: you know what, all the teams in the tournament, I
Speaker 2: think everyone, even the other other players in other countries,
Speaker 2: were saying, do you know Matildas deserve to win the
Speaker 2: World Cup?
Speaker 1: They do? They did.
Speaker 2: They had so much compassion, so much kindness, and you
Speaker 2: saw the devastating reaction from the players.
Speaker 1: They felt like they'd let you down.
Speaker 3: Yeah they did, but they changed that what that tournament
Speaker 3: meant like at first it was about winning, right or
Speaker 3: just winning a game, and then it turned into changing
Speaker 3: history for little girls, which is huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, boys and girls around the country and are so
Speaker 1: women so much more powerful?
Speaker 2: You know in Australia and all over the country. You
Speaker 2: used to seeing men elevated every weekend doing sporting great things.
Speaker 2: To see it front page news, other teams, other TV
Speaker 2: shows having to rearrange what they're doing because the women
Speaker 2: are doing it so well and so dramatically. Most popular
Speaker 2: thing on TV in the last ten years was Saturday
Speaker 2: Night Go desays what it was last night. But the
Speaker 2: bigger thing is what will actually change now, what.
Speaker 1: It will do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they made Australia come alive for four weeks, right,
Speaker 3: and like as an adult, you know, you remember that
Speaker 3: feeling at Christmas when you're a kid and it was
Speaker 3: so exciting. That is the first time as an adult
Speaker 3: I've felt like that feeling of this is so exciting,
Speaker 3: like just imagine what tomorrow will bring. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: they've just absolutely nailed it. And I'm still so proud.
Speaker 3: I've still got my scarf, still has powers, I promise.
Speaker 3: But yeah, play soccer kids, it's the best sport ever,
Speaker 3: well said.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Look Christian Connell Show podcast.
Speaker 2: Jack and I is in the studio, still chatting to Caitlin,
Speaker 2: who's making so much sense more than Jack and I
Speaker 2: are about what's actually really happened here and did the
Speaker 2: Matilda's really lose? I almost wish the girls that Matildas
Speaker 2: could actually hear what you just said five minutes ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know. And I'm watching the replays
Speaker 3: back and people have asked me because I've been talking
Speaker 3: about it so much on my own personal socials. You know,
Speaker 3: how was I feeling and or if like I was
Speaker 3: angry at the red or if I was annoyed that
Speaker 3: someone missed something and.
Speaker 1: I Smiley wasn't she Oh she was?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was been hopeless. But let's not even worry
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: You know, should come from the Barbie movement script android.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I just I was so proud of them,
Speaker 3: regardless like whether they won or not. And I posted
Speaker 3: something yesterday that was just my perspective on this whole
Speaker 3: journey for the girls and why it meant so much
Speaker 3: for me personally, and that was because I did play
Speaker 3: when I was younger. I started when I was probably
Speaker 3: eight or nine, and I remember going to my first
Speaker 3: ever training session and it was all boys, and I
Speaker 3: remember being split off into groups and I went into
Speaker 3: this group of boys and I remember them thinking like, oh,
Speaker 3: we've got this girl on our side, like this is crap.
Speaker 3: And I remember just being great at it because my
Speaker 3: brothers I played against, you know, growing up, they were
Speaker 3: always older. And I walked in there and I just
Speaker 3: smashed it and I had so much fun. But it
Speaker 3: was still scary, like I have anything in common with boys.
Speaker 3: You know, I was a little girl, so I was
Speaker 3: just like, you know, you're still in that stage of oh,
Speaker 3: boys have cooties kind of vibe, so.
Speaker 1: You feel like you didn't belong to playing.
Speaker 3: I really did it, no, and I had to just
Speaker 3: like and I'm a confident person, and even in that moment,
Speaker 3: I didn't feel confident, but I just put on this
Speaker 3: brave face and I loved soccer. I played it for many,
Speaker 3: many years. I stopped for a couple of years because
Speaker 3: we didn't have I wasn't allowed to play after a
Speaker 3: certain age because I was a female.
Speaker 1: But then we were not that long ago.
Speaker 3: No, this so I'm thirty one, so this would have
Speaker 3: been twenty years ago or you know, nineteen years ago whatever,
Speaker 3: And yeah, I remember taking a couple of years off
Speaker 3: and then we were lucky enough to have made a
Speaker 3: women's team to play in the area. And we played
Speaker 3: for like five years, us girls, and we were really great.
Speaker 3: But then it got to a point where you know,
Speaker 3: you had to choose, like were you gonna continue playing
Speaker 3: sport and having to pay to play or did you
Speaker 3: go to UNI and start, you know, thinking about a career.
Speaker 3: And so I decided to go to you in get
Speaker 3: a career because there just wasn't future in sport for
Speaker 3: women for me at the time. And that's why I'm
Speaker 3: proud of these girls, because these girls have pushed their
Speaker 3: whole way through having to pay to play, get paid
Speaker 3: hardly anything, you know, push their bodies to extremes, get
Speaker 3: injured like Hailey Razo broke her back, and pushed through
Speaker 3: still to play. And so at the end of last night,
Speaker 3: even though we did lose, I was still so proud
Speaker 3: of the journey that they'd been on and what they'd
Speaker 3: created for this country, a history making run, and what
Speaker 3: they did for soccer in Australia is yet it will
Speaker 3: be seen next year and will be seen in the
Speaker 3: coming years as little girls know that they can take
Speaker 3: on the world and do what they want to do.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm super proud and even though'm a heartaches,
Speaker 3: I'm still super proud.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And also it's not over now. A legacy is something
Speaker 2: that should be kept alive and carries on.
Speaker 3: This this will live with us forever. These moments that
Speaker 3: we've had in the last four weeks will live forever.
Speaker 3: That's Sam Amazon, that's Sam Kerr, gooh last night. Everyone
Speaker 3: will remember that forever and a.
Speaker 2: It should be the only thing they play, not the result.
Speaker 2: It's like, that's a world class goal right there.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So yeah, I'm just so proud of those girls,
Speaker 3: and they've changed my story for all the little girls
Speaker 3: that are out there today. They don't have to walk
Speaker 3: into a soccer team full of boys. They don't have
Speaker 3: to think that they have to go to UNI and
Speaker 3: get a career. They can be a sports star and
Speaker 3: they have women to look up to, and I'm so
Speaker 3: glad that those girls are the women that they look
Speaker 3: up to. They deserve to be heroes and they deserve
Speaker 3: to be icons of the sport, and I'm so proud
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 1: Well, so thank you.
Speaker 3: So it's not really a loss, is it, Not at all,
Speaker 3: not at all, and we've still you know, we're still
Speaker 3: going to get third place, so it's all good.
Speaker 1: Well. Christian Connell's Show podcast