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Pending qualification, the Paris Olympic Games will likely be the last that a handful of senior Matildas are able to play before their careers draw to a close.
Many of the players we know and love are now in their late 20s or early 30s, and with the Olympics coming around only once every four years, some of them will probably retire before Los Angeles 2028.
Steph Catley (30) is possible one of them, alongside Sam Kerr (30), Katrina Gorry (31), Clare Polkinghorne (35), Emily van Egmond (30), Aivi Luik (38), Tameka Yallop (32) and Michelle Heyman (35).
Catley was asked about the last-chance saloon of the Paris Games yesterday, and spoke eloquently about how it feels:
“With this group we have come very, very close to achieving something physical.
“At the last Olympics and the World Cup we finished fourth, and that’s something that sits pretty heavy within this group.
“We obviously are all getting a little bit older now and the opportunities for major tournaments is getting thinner, and we’re definitely very motivated to get something physical out of the last however many years that we’ve built this team up to the point that we are now.
“I think the football we’ve played, especially over the last couple of years, we are competing with the best in the world consistently. And we want to continue to do that for as long as we can.
“But obviously, you look at the core group of this team, and we are definitely sort of running out of opportunities.
“We have to qualify for the Olympics first, but we definitely see this as a massive opportunity to get something physical out of what we’ve done over the last few years, and the passion and desire to do that is definitely there.”
They’ve finished fourth in the last two major tournaments they played in (Tokyo 2020 and the 2023 WWC). Could this be the year they finally win a medal?
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