All Aboard the Tillies Train
A decade ago, barely 2800 people gathered in Gosford to watch the Matildas’ farewell match ahead of the 2011 World Cup. Four months ago, the A-League Women’s Grand Final still couldn’t manage more than a four-figure crowd. On Wednesday, more than 75,000 will pack into the Olympic Stadium to watch their semi final clash, and millions more will tune in around the country.
The slogan for this tournament has been Beyond Greatness, an allusion to the off-field change that organisers hoped would be inspired by on-field performance. This tournament has already delivered on that in spades. More people watched the Matildas heart-stopping win over France (seven million) than literally anything on TV since the Sydney Olympics. Already, this World Cup has gone beyond the greatness witnessed on-field.
It’s an incredible sight that long-time fans of the game will celebrate, and one which has surely been foreshadowed at over the last 5 years.
But with the blow-ins come the questions from some quarters.
There is a certain class of citizen who jostles for social status by trying to prove that they are a more authentic fan. They claim that a more obscure musician is their favourite, that they prefer the old Kanye, or that modern cinema is an affront to their arthouse sensibilities.
There’s nothing wrong with any of those opinions individually, but anyone who has witnessed this pseudo-Tall Poppy syndrome knows the phenomenon to be real.
Sporting fans do it too. We wear vintage jerseys to show that we haven’t just hopped on the train last night, talk about the old days, and try to out-do each other by appealing to yesteryear with increasingly abstract and apocryphal analysis.
Heck, I even did it at the start of this article.
This guy on Instagram put words to what I think we’ve all known: this World Cup has been all of the good parts of football, minus the bad parts.
There’s been no diving, no cheating, no time-wasting, no shithousery.
So is it really any surprise that so many have gotten around the Matildas? They’ve played attractive, brave football with a tremendous spirit. Never mind the cynical claims of some footy journos that this team lacked ‘cut-through’ and that no one knew who they were (there’s an entire Disney+ documentary on them), this team is generational in its ability to animate the nation.
Football fans in this country have every reason to be cynical — the game has been historically marginalised, and even today remains the subject of media beat-ups around hooliganism. Just 9 months ago we thought the game had reached a breakthrough with the Socceroos’ World Cup success, only for administrators to bungle the momentum and set progress back again.
But despite all the pangs of despised love, I urge the jaded and scorned football fans around the country to welcome all aboard the Tillies Train. We know this hope of a new dawn for the sport might be a false one, but is that any reason not to be excited that so many others are joining the party?
Womens’ sport has long since suffered from a lack of support at the lower levels. Craig Foster said he’s been ‘keeping receipts’ of all the politicians who’ve declared their support for the game, and you’d better believe he’ll come banging on their doors to fund women’s sport properly.
But the buck doesn’t stop there. I can only hope that all those who’ve seen the light and caught World Cup fever will turn out to watch their local A-League sides when the new season starts. It’s one thing to be an armchair pundit and tell politicians to sling more money at the game — why not put a few of your own dollars down in the form of a ticket?
22 of the 23 players in the Australian squad have their origins in the A-League, including Cortnee Vine, who lifted the premiership with Sydney FC a few months back.
On Wednesday night this bandwagon rolls onto the biggest stage an Australian football team has ever reached, with the largest following of a generation in tow.
And there is no more fitting venue than that which hosted the hitherto biggest sporting event of this century.
All aboard the Tillies Train. Next stop: Beyond
