By Kieran Yap 24/7/24
Above: The 1978 Australian Team selected from the National Championships. Photo: Matildas Alumni.
The 1978 Australia team was the result of an intense, competitive selection process. Impetus looks back at the National Championships.
Whenever a Matildas squad is announced there is inevitable discussion. Some fans favourite miss out, others are in despite dips in form. Sometimes people rejoice at the surprises, on other occasions those shock selections are met with skepticism. The discussion will last days, or months in the case of a major tournament, but these days the noise in mostly online, or in the comments section.
In the early days of Australian Women’s Football it was no less competitive, but some might say selection was more ruthless, and there are few harder ways one can imagine to earn a cap than the 1978 team.
Women’s footballers in the 70’s may not have been professionals, but they were just as dedicated as the players today. The path to wearing the Green and Gold was one forged by countless volunteered hours by organizers and relentless fundraising by the players themselves. They had to make it happen for themselves, and for a growing sport in a vast country, the best way to find the best players was through the National Championships.
First held in 1974, the National Championships was a round robin tournament where each state would use their own district competition to create a representative squad, and that team would compete for their state and to some degree, themselves.
This was closer to State of Origin than a Champions League style of event. The best players went, not simply the top placed team from each state.
From 1975 to 1977 an “All Stars” team was named at the conclusion of the games. It was a way of recognising the tournament’s best performers. None was named in 1974 because at that time, there was no expectation of Australia taking part in full internationals.
The schedule was intense, in the years following its inauguration, The National Championships grew to nine representative squads. In a new format teams would play almost daily over the week long event. The fixtures were arranged so that the bottom team would avoid one of the top two sides from the previous year and the top sides would avoid one of the bottom placed teams.
In 1977 when the National Championships became the first ever method for selecting a national team in Australia, this limited round robin format ensured that there were few lopsided games for the selectors to judge from.
Players had to be among the best in their district, then the best in the state team and then perform under the pressure of the National Championships to be eligible to play for Australia. On top of that, they needed to fund their own travel, organise time off work and school and pay to attend the compulsory presentation night where they would find out if they would become Matildas (as they would one day be known.)
In the modern game, when a Matildas squad is selected, players enter a discussion with the coaching staff to explain why they are out, or congratulate them on making it. For the All Star Teams and to select the 1978 Matildas this was done publicly and almost in one instant.
At the presentation nights, the names of those selected would be read out in a room filled with every competitor from the week. A move was made to have the players announced randomly, as opposed to positionally or alphabetically, suspense could be high, tension certainly was.
Everybody in that room had given up something to have a chance of their name being called. Jobs were lost, expenses paid and full domestic seasons played for hundred of players to be whittled down to 23. Even then, the best individual players may not have been rewarded according to talent. They had to be at their best during the National Championship, and they had to be what the coach needed to make the team function at its best.
All of the discourse that spreads across days online in the modern era about who is in the team and who is not, was concentrated on one room, with everybody present and after a grueling, competitive, high quality week of football.
It was triumphant and merciless at the same time, and there would be no second chances until the following year. That is how hard it was to earn a cap in the early days and just one of the many reasons that The Matildas Alumni carry themselves with well deserved pride.
At every stage, from the district leagues to the state competition to the national champions, the odds were hard. Funding for individual players and the competition itself was almost unheard, and once they made the team it did not get any easier.
After being named and congratulated, the players would be informed of their itinerary and be given a bill for the costs of playing for the national team. A $525 bill was not out of the question to be a Matilda and once again the process of getting time off work and raising the funds began.
Squad selection and international preparation has come a long way since. Players still have to gamble on themselves and sacrifice from an early age to become a Matilda, but since the players strike of 2015, they are thankfully renumerated, and endorsement deals await for some of those with public profiles.
But it was a long road to now, and back in the days when the sport was made up entirely of volunteers, the path to becoming a Matilda was as hard as it has ever been. The payers had to be at their best for a year, peak at the right time and still leave something in the tank physically, mentally and financially for when or if they were selected.
The National Championships of the 1970’s and 1980’s were where the best of the best could be found, playing with and against each other, to earn bragging rights for their state and the right to represent the national team.
For one week every year, it was as intense, competitive and celebratory as Australian domestic football has ever been.
Further reading on the history of Australian Women’s Football can be found here: https://edgeofthecrowd.com/posts/four-women-s-football-books-to-read-before-the-world-cup
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