Tom Sermanni's story: The longest-serving Matildas coach facing the stars he created

The longest-serving Matildas coach finds himself - once again - facing the very stars he had a hand in developing into some of the best footballers in the world.

Tom Sermanni was at Australia's helm for 12 years and gave debuts to many of the senior members of today's national team.

Now he is trying to use that insight to provide technical support to Canada, a team the Matildas are set to face on home soil at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, but he knows just how dangerous the side and players he helped create are.

Where it all began

He managed the national team for 136 matches across two separate stints, one from 1994-1997 and the second - the longer stint - in 2005-2012 because he "really enjoyed the job the first time", with an overall win percentage of 53.6 per cent.

He was approached to see if he had any interest in taking on the job by a friend from his time coaching the men's program at the Australian Institute of Sport.

The former Blackpool footballer jumped at the opportunity. Sydney had just learned it would host the 2000 Olympic Games and women's football was set to feature in the 1996 edition in Atlanta, so a record amount of money - albeit small - was pumped into the Female Socceroos as they were known then to provide resources to the program.

Like all coaches, he was tasked with developing a successful national team program but he had an extra task. Sermanni had to build and maintain a system underneath to feed into the Matildas from an office in Canberra's suburb of Hackett.

That's his bread and butter, building things and developing programs. It's why he took on his new role as the Head of Women's Football at the Western Sydney Wanderers and it's why he coached Australia twice.

"When I went across in '94 I got serious question marks because I came out of men's football and suddenly jumped into women's football. If I'm being honest, people were saying, 'What are you thinking?'

Whereas now it's very much just another strand of football," Sermanni told Optus Sport.

"My aim as a coach has always been that when you go into somewhere, have you left it better once you leave?

"I don't think about winning the Asian Cup or things like that, I've never thought of my job in that way. I've always thought a coach's job is to individually improve the players that you're working with, to make the team better and to make the organisation better than before.

"I don't know if that's the right or wrong way of looking at coaching because it's a pretty ruthless business. I hate when I lose, I feel terrible stress and responsibility when a team loses or I cock up decisions, I really do, but I don't measure myself by saying 'we won this tournament' or 'we won this'.

"For me, it's more about having made the players better that you're working with and the organisation that you're working for. That's how I've tried to judge my career and sometimes I think I've done that successfully, and sometimes I've done it not so well."

Sermanni's instrumental part in developing today's talent

Sermanni led the side to an Oceania Championship title in 1995, booking them a ticket to their first World Cup, and an AFC Asian Cup win in 2010.

His coaching philosophy of leaving an organisation better than he found it has rung true during both of his Matildas' stints, as he was instrumental in establishing the pathways leading to the Matildas and the development of the W-League, or the A-League Women as it's now known.

This led to the development of today's household names like Sam Kerr, Steph Catley, and Caitlin Foord.

"In 1994 there were two or three of us running the entire women's program but we put really good programmes in place, like the National Training Centres, and they were responsible for the development of the current generation of players," Sermanni said.

"The second thing was the W-League, it was really important at the time because we needed a league that helped players develop, made them better and ensured the best players in the country played against each other more often.

"If you fast forward to I think about 2014 and some rocket scientist in the government sports department decided to basically cut the NTC program. We lost that whole core of development from there. So that's why when people say, 'Where's the next generation?', well, unfortunately, the next generation has not had the background that this generation did."

The Scottish coach had to deal with the retirement of a number of highly capped players and find new players to fill the gaps appearing in his second stint, similar to what current coach Tony Gustavsson has been tasked with since he took over the reins last year.

Although Sermanni took it beyond what his successors have done. Over his nine-year tenure in the 2000s, he handed out 55 debuts to some of the most recognisable faces in today's squad, including Kerr, Catley, Foord, Emily van Egmond, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso, Katrina Gorry, Lydia Williams, Clare Polkinghorne and Tameka Yallop.

This meant he was debuting 6.1 players each year, compared to the 2.6 per year (13 debutants in total) that would follow over the next five years, but he recognises why he had that talent pool to pull from.

"It was a combination of firstly, a golden generation of players coming through, that was the first thing," Sermanni explained.

"The second thing was the systems that we had in place. We had fantastic National Training Centres in place with top-level coaches who could identify players that they thought were going to be national team players.

"The third thing that was important was our move into Asia. Before we moved into Asia, we basically played New Zealand and got to World Cup. So it was a bit like the Socceroos trying to get into the World Cup, we'd play Oceania teams then all of a sudden you'd play Argentina. So going into Asia changed the whole dynamic of what we had to do."

"And the other thing that it did, well it put me under more pressure because it was harder to qualify, that's the most important thing that it did," he added with a laugh.

"The thing it did is all those younger players that came through were getting experience, not just at times in the senior team, but they were playing in the under 17s, they were playing in the under 20s and they were travelling into the Asia - Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, China.

"So they were getting a real football education that they never would have gotten had we not gone into Asia. You can't undersell the value of that, it helped give younger players that core development in very, very tough environments. So I think all those factors combined to develop that group of players."

Sermanni can put his finger on a pivotal moment that set the Matildas on the path they find themselves on today - competing, beating and becoming one of the best teams in the world.

It was when they made it to the final of the AFC Asian Cup in 2006, as it gave them the self-belief and confidence the next year to win their first World Cup game in 2007 (a 4-1 win over Ghana) and progress to the knockout stage.

He said:

"Those were critical moments, in the sense of building the confidence in the team that they can actually compete at that level, and compete against the best teams in the world and be able to beat some of the best teams in the world."

"So if I'm looking at pivotal moments, that is it because what that breads is the belief in the players coming into the squad that we can beat anybody and any team.

"The 2010 Asian Cup win was a great moment but the foundation for that happened before, it began with that belief four years earlier that they could go win it."

What did he create?

Following his success with the Matildas which led to a sixth finish at the 2007 China World Cup, he went on to coach national programs in the United States, Canada and most recently New Zealand.

After he finished up with the Football Ferns following the Tokyo Olympics, the 68-year-old was looking to retire and make his cup of tea and crossword tradition his sole priority.

That was until the Wanderers approached him, and then Canada's head coach Bev Priestman did the same.

Yet the former Orlando Pride coach always has an eye on the Matildas and he has noticed a key difference in the side today from his time at the helm a decade ago.

"There's a couple of differences. The biggest difference is the profile of the team. People say 'what about the Matildas now?' The Matildas have been successful for the past 16 years," he admitted.

"In 2006, go to the final and lost in penalties at the Asian Cup, 2010 win the Asian Cup, 2007 came fifth in the World Cup. So the success of the team hasn't just happened. The profile of the team and the profile of the game have gone gangbusters compared to what it was.

"The other big differences are that the players are recognised internationally as world-class players and the players have been professional players since a very young age. That's probably the key difference, you've got a group of players like Sam (Kerr), Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley etc, who for 10 years now have been professional players, and I think that's a big difference."

"Obviously, the games developed greatly, and I think now there's a real depth in quality about the Matildas that puts them up there with the best teams in the world."

Gustavsson's side faces tough opposition in next month's Women's World Cup, including reigning Olympic gold medallists Canada, alongside the Republic of Ireland and Nigeria in group B.

And even though the Wanderers coach is on the opposite side, he knows there is one thing that separates Australia from other countries.

"The thing that separates the Matildas are they're match-winners," Sermanni said.

"When you see football at the top level, it's the match winners who make a difference. What's happened with the group of Matildas we've got now is they've got some really dynamic attacking players, and then you've got some really creative midfield players."

"You get a good blend of both of those and you get a team that can actually score goals and that makes a huge difference. It makes the Matildas a constant threat, regardless of who they're playing against."

Originally published for Optus Sport on June 24, 2023