Australian sport has in the main benefitted from being a country built on migration when it comes to sport.
Over the years in many sports fans have witnessed the attributes that have been instilled in many by their parents and grandparents benefiting Australian national teams. Attributes, such as skill, tenacity, physicality, work ethic, self belief, and one that has been used for decades a never-say-die attitude.
Some will tell you that at the time of the First world War the Australian troops were some of the most resourceful, loyal, and bravest men they came across. They would always be there for their mate. The one other characteristic that was there as well was a lack of respect for authority. Australians enjoy nothing more than proving people in authority wrong.
As one former Test cricketer wrote in his autobiography when doing his national service he discovered what bad losers Australians could be. How once knocked out of a tournament they expected to win, they simply packed up and left. Others have shared similar tales.
Is this the result of arrogance or self belief? To many across the world it is perceived as being the former, when the truth is that it is far more likely to be the latter, for Australians rarely fear anyone when it comes to competing in sport, and their success across a great many sports for a relatively small population is something to be proud of.
Yet is modern day Australia losing many of the attributes that enabled them to achieve such results?
The Socceroos have always been a team that has reflected what can be achieved when individuals from different cultural backgrounds with different attributes come together with a common cause.
While many are handing out plaudits to the modern generation of players serious thought should be given to the team that qualified for the 1974 edition of the FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup Finals saw only 16 of the best teams in the world compete. So for Australia to be there amongst the best in the world was a huge achievement, and they proved many who thought they would be whipping boys wrong.
They may have lost their opening game to East Gemany 2-0 but this was far from a disgrace. In their second game they took on the host nation and eventual winners West Germany and lost 3-0, but they frustrated their opponents so much that the crowd not only booed the hosts, but the great Franz Beckenbauer bared his backside at the home fans at the end of the game to let them know how he felt!
In their final game they drew 0-0 with Chile.
There were no World Rankings in FIFA back in 1974 so it is hard to compare how far down the rankings Australia were at that time, but Haiti, Zaire and the Socceroos were the least respected of the other nations competing.
It took Australia until 2006 to qualify for a second World Cup Finals, again in Germany; now a unified country. This time around there were 32 teams competing.
Since 2006 Australia has qualified for every World Cup Finals that has been held, including this year in the USA when the tournament expanded to 48 teams. Some have questioned whether this team would have made it to the USA had it still been just 32 teams, that we will never know.
What has been interesting to watch is the evolution of the Socceroos over the past 25 years.
When football was shut down and rebooted there was clearly a new energy surrounding the game. The A-League was being supported by a marketing campaign that instilled excitement. There was ambition too with the appointment of respected Dutch coach Guus Hiddink to the Socceroos.
The game had the chance to ride the wave of enthusiasm that swept Australia as it qualified for its first World Cup Finals in 32 years. Sadly though there was little or no forward planning, just as there had been none in 1974. The sport failed to capitalise on the success of the “Golden generation” who progressed to the round of 16.
To make matters worse for the sport the money generated by their success was not re-invested into the game, it was blown on bonuses to players and coaching staff, as well as paying Qantas for the lease of an aircraft to fly the team to and from Uruguay.
Football Australia boasted about how much money the FIFA Women’s World Cup generated in 2023, but again the sport has seen little evidence of that money being reinvested into the game to help bring the next generation through.
Australia’s final ranking at the end of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is 22nd. Which means that the team received USD2.5M as “Preparation money’ to contribute toward training camps, travel, and logistics prior to the World Cup starting. They received a further USD10M for qualifying, and a further $12M for making it to the round of 32. So a total of USD22M from the tournament.
Having played four games at the World Cup the squad of 26 should have accounted for just over AUD2M in wages. With 32 support staff it would be good to know how many were contracted or salaried, and also whether there were any bonuses to be paid to them for the Socceroos getting out of the group stage, and if so how much.
With Football Australia announcing a loss of AUD15.3 M before the World Cup Finals it would appear that there is going to be very little left over to reinvest in the game.
There have been many who while proud of the national team and their endeavours have questioned whether the Socceroos have lost some of the qualities that were often taken for granted. This should not be a surprise as the modern day player in many sports players are coached to limit the attributes that they have and not maximise it. Which may work if you have a large talent pool of players or are a top nation in that sport, but is going to be detrimental to a team outside the top echelon. Certainly Cabo Verde never gave the impression that this was how they had been coached.
The opening game against Turkiye which the Socceroos won 2-0, thanks to two well taken goals and unbelievable backs-to the-wall defence, embodied the Socceroos of old. Every single player put their body on the line and battled to the end to ensure a victory. It was a performance that will live long in the memory.
Their second match against the host nation the USA could not have been more different as they went down 2-0. Coach Tony Popovic in his post match interview with SBS questioned whether the occasion was too much for some of his players playing against the host nation. He then went on to say “we had a lot of fatigued bodies in the first half. Physically and mentally it was tough.”
If an Australian team in the past had been overawed, you would never have known. They would never have let their opponent see that. They would have felt they deserved to be there and were as good if not better than their opponent. This was a game where many of the traits that have defined teh Socceroos went missing.
No one seems to have asked why were players fatigued as Popovic claimed. This is a World Cup, every team is playing games in quick succession. Of course it is going to be mentally tough as these are supposedly the best 48 teams in the world. As a coach you have to make sure that your players are prepared for such games.
It is hard to understand how they were physically fatigued after one game. Australia had six days between their first and second game, similar to any league competition in the world. Their first game was in Vancouver, Canada, their second in Seattle in the USA only a two and a half hour drive! So why were the players fatigued going into the game?
These are professional footballers, they should not be fatigued six days after a game. Clearly the support staff did not have the players ready, iso why not? As a coach if you knew the players were fatigued why did you select them?
Another question that has not been asked is did Popovic have adequate experience alongside him on the bench as his assistant coaches? He and Hayden Foxe have had great success at domestic level, but did Foxe have the knowledge required at a World Cup? As a player Foxe played for Australia at the 2001 Confederations Cup when the Socceros claimed 3rd place, and started in one game and came on as a substiute in another. He participated in two of the five games played in the biggest tournament of his international career
Popovic’s other assistant was Paul Okon the former captan of the Socceroos. Again his experience in coaching is limited, with a spell domestically with the Central Coast Mariners where he was sacked when they were bottom of the A-League, and before that he coached the Australian U20’s. Again despite playing at the highest level did he have the experience needed as a coach at a tournament such as this to help Popovic?
The game against the USA was not a good one for Australia, and it was so sad to see Australian players diving and falling over at the slightest touch. This is not the way Australia plays; or maybe it is the way we will see them play in the future?
Many in Australia have praised the Socceroos for their performances at the World Cup. There were without doubt moments when praise was warranted. Definitely key individuals deserved the plaudits they received. It was however clear that some selections back-fired.
Tony Popovic is an ambitious coach. He wants a job overseas, and why wouldn’t he? To improve you have to test yourself against the best. Here was his chance, but did he have his eye on what might come after rather than what was right in front of his face? One could not help feeling that the coach was trying to be too clever, too cute, with his selections and changes. Maybe hoping that they would show him to be tactically astute. Unfortunately it back-fired.
This was a disappointing campaign, although some will say it matched the team’s form in qualification. This was a team that struggled to get the win it needed to qualify against Japan’s second team, so maybe they actually did perform higher than expectations.
Which begs the question has Australian football fallen into the trap of expecting too much? Are fans seeing what they want to see?
It was certainly a strange move to bring into your World Cup squad a player who had rejected playing for Australia previously, and one who had never played a game at national level with the rest of the squad. One wonders how that was taken by the other players, even if they were unlikely to air their views.
At the end of the day one has to ask if the coaches knew what their best line-up was?
If we compare the performances of Australia in previous World Cup Finals where does this one really rate?
There can be no doubt that Rale Rasic’s team qualifying for a World Cup finals with only 16 teams, and making their opponents fight for a result is still up there. Guus Hiddink’s team were the first to win a game at a World Cup Finals and progress from their group in second place, only to be denied the chance to progress against eventual champions Italy on a decision that VAR may well have overturned today; but to be honest you never know with VAR!
Then there is Graham Arnold’s 2022 Socceroos who again achieved a second place finish in their group when only the top two progressed. They were also the first Australian side to win two games at a World Cup Finals. It is also worth noting that the only games they lost were to the two teams that contested the final, France in their pool, and Argentina in the round of 16.
Arnold had as his assistant Dutchman René Meulensteen who had experience coaching in other countries outside of the Netherlands, experience that would have brought an alternate perspective.
The flipside of that however is when Bert van Marwijk took over from Ange Postecoglou for the 2018 World Cup Finals he opted to bring in and pay his own backroom staff and assistant coaches. This was not a good campaign for Australia, and many have put that down to van Marwijk allegedly being forced to have Tim Cahill as part of his squad because the player was linked to a sponsorship campaign.
After the performance of Arnold’s Socceroos in 2022 is it therefore understandable that some feel that this campaign was underwhelming?
Let us look at Australia’s performances at the World Cup Finals.
| World Cup | Games Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | Goal For | Goals Against |
| 1974 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 2006 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 2010 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 2014 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| 2018 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 2022 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| 2026 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
Feisty former Socceroo Robbie Slater has come out blaming the coaching staff and those running the game. “The players were let down by the coaching staff and Football Australia. How are we still in the same position we were 20 years ago after we first reached the knockout stage in 2006? Someone needs to held accountable” he was quoted as saying by Code Sports.Does he have a point?
Looking at the table above credit must be given to Popovic and his team as Australia tightened up its defence in this World Cup. Only conceding three goals in four games, thanks in part to Patrick Beach. However, it was a far from memorable performance. It was one in which the team appeared to always be clinging on to games hoping to survive. A very different feeling to four years ago where under Graham Arnold you felt anything was possible.
Slater though does have a point when it comes to Football Australia. Why is it that Football Australia is still relying on the money from a World Cup Finals to bail them out financially?
Is there a goal as to where they want Australia to finish at a World Cup in 10 or 20 years time, like Japan? Or is it a case of hoping to get out of the group stage just to secure that extra money? What is interesting to note is when Hiddink and Arnold were in charge of the Socceroos at the World Cup there was a belief that they could progress. With this campaign that belief was missing and it was a hope that they could. How do you translate hope into belief?
One of the hard questions that has to be asked and listened to is does the sport have qualified individuals in the key positions to sign off on key issues or more importantly to say “no” when that is needed? Or is the sport still not able to attract the best people in key roles?
With consecutive financial losses it is definitely time for more transparency, especially if the game is as we are constantly told, a family. Where is money being lost? Expenditure needs to be looked at, and so too the capabilities and suitability of staff in key roles. Not just their salaries but their ability to deliver the sport what is required while in that role.
As covered before the governance structure needs to be adhered to so that every part of the game has a voice. (Are the Answers Football Australia is Looking for in the Crawford Report?)
Only then can we be sure of progressing on the international stage. As the old saying goes only a fool tries to build a house on sand.
As for on the field of play, Australia must emphasise the attributes players have, and use them to the team’s advantage. That has paid dividends in the past and it always will, within a structure there has to be some freedom, especially at this level and if technically you cannot match the top sides. Play to your strengths is an adage that has survived for a reason.
