Matildas coach Joe Montemurro says Australian football does not do itself any favours. (Getty Images: Paul Kane)
In short:
Matildas coach Joe Montemurro has called out Australian football's "inferiority complex" in a passionate plea to those involved with the game.
Montemurro says "we put ourselves down for no reason", echoing a sentiment made by former Matildas coach Alen Stajcic.
What's next?
Montemurro's Matildas face New Zealand in Adelaide on Tuesday night, the team's final friendly before next March's Asian Cup.
Matildas coach Joe Montemurro says Australian football's inferiority complex must end, backing a predecessor's passionate plea for unity.
Montemurro's Matildas host New Zealand in Adelaide on Tuesday night in their last friendly before the Asian Cup next March.
The fixture comes just days after former Matildas coach Alen Stajcic, now the boss of A-League Men's outfit Western Sydney, offered a blunt appraisal of the game in Australia.
"We're infighting all the time. We're like two seagulls fighting over one chip," Stajcic said.
"We've got nothing and we fight over it. I don't know why we always put ourselves down."
Montemurro agreed with Stajcic, who was the Matildas coach from September 2014 until he was sacked in January 2019.
"I've said this from day one, that I think sometimes we put ourselves down for no reason," Montemurro told reporters in Adelaide.
"We just think that we're so far behind; we've got this sort of inferiority complex of the rest of the world in football.
"We've got coaches all around the world. We've got top players all around the world at top clubs.
"So we must be doing something right and we should be celebrating that.
"And we should be really using that as a platform to say, 'OK, well, where can we grow?'
"I think the reality is, is now unity. Unity of everyone coming together and saying, 'OK, what's our next step as a nation, what's our next step as a league, what's our next step as federations and where we can take it forward?"
Montemurro's next steps after Tuesday night will centre on communication with Matildas players as they return to their clubs ahead of Australia hosting the Asian Cup.
"What we've tried to do is just stabilise not only the playing squad, but staff — staff processes, stability in the people coming in, stability in the direction, having a clear direction where we're going forward," he said.
"And as I keep saying, it's what we do from now with the players who are going back to their relative clubs.
"The information we keep giving them, how we monitor them, how we monitor just their physical load and just simple chats and updates.
"I think this is now the important part.
"They're plying their trade in big clubs, in big competitions.
"And for me, as long as they're at that level, we'll always have a healthy national team."
AAP
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