Kerr-Van Egmond-Foord: from Matildas upstarts in 2011 to the team’s core in 2023

Not long after the Matildas’ historic victory over France on Saturday night, after she had helped take Australian sport to a place it had never been, Sam Kerr went back to her roots. To her 1.4 million Instagram followers, the Western Knights junior posted a photo in quadruplicate. It depicted herself arm-in-arm with teammates Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond at each of the previous four World Cups.

This trio, shining treasures of the Matildas’ golden generation, have been rightly recognised as the fuel for Australia’s attack. The whole squad is tight, but the strength of bond between these three is something else. One that has been forged over more than a decade in the fires of international football.

The three enjoyed their first major international tournament together at the World Cup in Germany in 2011, where the Matildas went out to Sweden in the quarter-finals. Former Matilda Heather Garriock was a senior player and quickly recognised something distinctive about the trio. “They were cheeky, they always got up to mischief, and had plenty of swagger,” she said. “But when they crossed the white line, then obviously it was business.”

Each brought something different to the team. Van Egmond, the daughter of former Socceroo and coach Gary, had pedigree, athleticism and determination. Foord was the scintillating winger whose talents secured her the 2011 tournament’s best young player award. And Kerr was, well, Kerr. “Caitlin was more the quiet one that was super keen to follow,” Garriock said. “Emily was the ringleader most definitely, and Sam was just hilarious. Constantly cracking jokes and smiling and laughing, and she always had that charisma.”

Success, however, was not immediate. While Kerr was part of the victorious 2010 Asian Cup side, the other two arrived during a period of uneven results. “It hasn’t been all roses,” Garriock said. After the respectable run in 2011, Australia failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympics after Kerr missed the qualifying tournament in China with a knee injury. Japan ousted the Australians as continental champions at the Asian Cup in 2014.

As Kerr’s Instagram post chronicles, the group went on to share the field at World Cups in Canada in 2015 – another quarter-final loss – and 2019 in France when Australia went out to Norway on penalties in the round of 16. “They leaned on each other,” Garriock says, “and have done so ever since.”

Sam Kerr, Emily van Egmond and Lydia Williams. Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

Goalkeeper Lydia Williams has been a constant presence. Five years older, she has had a front-row seat to their development, from those tentative first steps in 2011. She recognises how privileged her perspective has been. “They were just coming into it, it was exciting for them,” she said. “It’s exciting knowing that, being around for everyone’s first [World] Cup and seeing how they’ve come through to 100 caps, four World Cups. It’s really quite remarkable the shift from a talent to a superstar.”

Over this time the trio has moved from the Matildas’ upstarts, to the team’s core. Kerr is now a global football leader – the cover star of the world’s biggest football video game – and the team’s skipper. Van Egmond has been instrumental in both midfield and attack, and has also worn the captain’s armband. And in Kerr’s absence through injury in this tournament, it was Foord who carried the attacking load, highlighted by her spectacular performance against Olympic champions Canada. If the three arrived in a group on the team’s periphery, today the Matildas’ circle spreads out from them.

Tameka Yallop is another Matilda to have been to four World Cups. She was born two years earlier making her one step removed from the three. But she feels far from left out, as part of a “tight group who have grown up playing football together”. “They’ve been building football memories since they can kick a ball,” Yallop said.

Garriock is now on the board of Football Australia, a media commentator and sports administrator. She believes the trio’s depth of relationship is reflected in how they play. “When you spend so much time with each other and you’re best mates with each other, then not only do you see it off the field, but you also see it on the field as well.”

Together the group has played more than 350 games in the green and gold, but no stage has been greater than this year’s home World Cup. While Kerr has dominated discussion about Australia’s attack, Garriock believes it’s the connection between the other two – who, given Kerr has been injured, have spent much of the tournament on the field together – that has helped the Matildas get this far. “Obviously Sam’s the world superstar but I’m just pleased that Caitlin has been able to step up within that striker’s role with Sam absent,” she said. “Then Emily was a bench player and she’s always had the grit and the determination and ‘I’ll show you’ mentality, and she’s stepped up this World Cup.”

Garriock has put their combined success down to “knowing each other’s game inside out and backwards”. Now, all the way from the Junior Matildas, the three move forward to Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final. And together, Australians hope, beyond. As the caption on Kerr’s photo says: “4th World Cup together, 1st semi together. Job’s not done.”