For the Matildas, the season never ends

Updated

As Sam Kerr stood on the confetti-strewn Kogarah Oval sideline after her side's W-League grand final loss to Sydney FC, the 25-year-old admitted her performance wasn't up to scratch.

"We gave it all we could [today], I felt really tired," explained Kerr, in a monotonal voice after the Perth Glory conceded two goals either side of the break to go down 4-2.

It's little wonder she was looking jaded.

Before her grand final appearance, Kerr had played in a staggering 112 matches over the past three years, data compiled by the ABC shows.

The three-year dataset includes more than 850 games played by the core group of the Matildas squad, some of whom make a living by playing in both the US and Australian domestic leagues.

Kerr isn't the only player pushed to extremes.

According to the data, three in 10 of the 858 matches came after less than five days' rest.

The interactive chart below plots the number of games the Matildas have played after certain rest periods.

It shows three players in particular — Alana Kennedy, Steph Catley and Kerr — have played significantly more games on less than a week's rest than their fellow team members.

Rob Reid, a sport and exercise physician from Sports Medicine Australia, says the amount of games being played by these athletes during a three-year window is unusually high.

"In general terms, athletes do need some kind of break, we think, and that is around three to four weeks, at some stage during the year," he says.

"That is when they get their deep-down recovery, they get their freshness back.

"These [numbers] are a bit extreme."

Catley, Kyah Simon, Katrina Gorry and Emily van Egmond have all recently suffered serious injuries, leading to extended breaks ahead of the World Cup in June.

Chloe Logarzo was this week ruled out of the upcoming Cup of Nations tournament in Sydney with a serious ankle injury suffered during the grand final.

But as the chart below shows, the player taking on the most significant playing workload is 24-year-old Kennedy.

The key defender has played 137 games over the past three years, with nearly half of those matches occurring after less than a week's rest.

Twelve games came after two days' rest and a further 29 after a three- to four-day break.

On average, she takes just eight days' off between games and in the past three years, has had only three breaks of five weeks or more.



Kerr fares little better, with an average break of 8.5 days between games and three breaks of at least five weeks over the three-year period.

The other eight core players analysed all had at least five breaks of five weeks or longer in the timeframe.

While the dataset doesn't include matches played in Europe, it is clear that those who play in the US league carry a more significant workload during that season.

Dr Reid, who also served at the Australian Institute of Sport for two years, says travel is another key factor when trying to understand the complexity of player workloads.

"When they are playing in the American league they do quite a lot of time zone changes," he says.

"If you keep changing the parameters, the body doesn't react to those changes too well and over time, it can accumulate.

"There is increasing work being done on this. It is the number of the games, the level of games, the time between games and the amount of recovery they do."

Players have little choice given a lack of pay

Kate Gill, deputy chief executive officer of Professional Footballers Australia says many of Australia's leading female players are placed in a very difficult position, given they have to manage their own playing loads while balancing the need to make ends meet as a professional.

"The fragmented club and national team calendar demonstrates the challenge for female players to manage their match minutes, break and incomes, considering the football calendar is often driven by clubs and national teams with competing interests."

The average W-League wage is around $15,000 per season, with the minimum wage set at $12,287.

The larger US league remains slightly more lucrative for players, with the minimum wage of $22,000.

While the likes of Kerr earn a marquee allowance, many of Australia's best female soccer players earn a fraction of the leading male players, while carrying a far more substantial workload.

Tom Rogic, the Socceroos' 26-year-old midfielder, has racked up more than 80 matches predominantly in Europe for Scottish club Celtic as well as Australia over the past three seasons.

Unlike Rogic, Kerr plays for two clubs and travels all over the world.

Kerr's second club is Chicago in the American National Women's Soccer League (NWSL); another elite competition that runs during the W-League off-season.

It's not getting any easier

An expanded American NWSL league kicks off next month, featuring a 24-game schedule built around the 2019 World Cup in France.

On top of that, the relentless calendar of Matildas matches means substantial travel, media and publicity commitments leaves little time to rest.

Australia will play three matches in the space of one week at the Cup of Nations tournament, which was announced late last year by the FFA as a key World Cup build-up event.

Ms Gill says the PFA is working hard to manage the issue.

"The inaugural W-League CBA in 2017 included the introduction of minimum medical standards at all W-League clubs and we continue to work closely with the clubs and FFA to ensure players are not overworked," she says.

Indeed, the data shows it's the international schedule that places the harshest demands on the women.

The international league makes up 35 per cent of total games but 82 per cent of games played on just two days' rest and 68 per cent of games played on 3-4 days' rest.

By contrast, no domestic games were played on two days' rest and only 6 per cent came off the back of 3-4 days' rest.

Dr Reid believes an independent professional would be well placed to monitor the wellbeing of players, given the fact that they are moving from club to club.

"We know if they do acute stuff like more sprinting, then they may have a greater risk of injury," he says.

"Somebody has got to take that responsibility to monitor their 12-month workload.

"Things like ice baths, massage, nutrition, psychological back-up, meditation and ability to have time off, to switch off [are important]."

Outgoing Matildas coach Alen Stajcic made a notable reference to the dilemma of managing player welfare during his press conference in the wake of his sacking as coach.

"The notion of how many competitions they have to play in whether it is domestic or overseas, that has brought its own challenge for the players in terms of their welfare," he said.

"Having to transit all over the world to play their football to ensure they have enough substance to be able to have a normal life has been a really big learning curve for the bulk of the group."

When Kerr, one of the game's marquee players, was asked about a possible return to the Glory for the 2020 W-League season, she confessed she hadn't come close to looking that far ahead.

"Ahh no, I haven't had any thoughts like that. Just focusing on the World Cup," she remarked.

Perhaps she should have referred to the grand old sports cliche: One game at a time.

Topics: sport, soccer, australia, sydney-2000, perth-6000

First posted