Sam Kerr may have been found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer in an English court, but the Matildas captain’s behaviour on a drunken night out has given her detractors plenty of ammunition that will be used against her for years to come.
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Back home, reaction has been mixed, with former Adelaide United striker Bruce Djite saying on the ABC that the Chelsea star deserved to be stripped of the honour of captaining her country, while Tracey Holmes penned a piece questioning just how much damage the very public trial has done to a brand that’s been carefully sculpted by Football Australia and is a cash cow for a governing body not exactly flush with funds.
Kerr has been backed by Kate Gill, who dismissed the charge and felt it was all a waste. The former Matilda also voiced her support for the striker to retain her armband.
“As a person who takes responsibility for her actions and stands up for what’s right, Sam is more than fit to continue as the Matildas captain,” she said.
Current teammate Emily van Egmond endorsed Kerr to continue as captain.
“In terms of captaincy, that’s obviously up to other people to decide but for me she’s a great leader,” the midfielder said.
“She’s always been a tremendous leader and I wouldn’t have anyone else lead the team. She’s amazing, for everything she has done for the team and individually.”
An incident like this inevitably prompts questions about her competency as a leader in what shapes up as a challenging period in the national team’s history as traditional football powers belatedly invest in the women’s game at the professional level.
The 2023 World Cup on home soil was likely Australia’s best chance at winning a World Cup in a generation and their failure to progress from the group stage at the latest Olympic Games led to Tony Gustavsson’s “mutually agreed” departure from the head coaching role.
Kerr was injured for the Olympics campaign so it’s difficult to assign blame for that disaster, but nonetheless over more than half a decade she has presided over an underachieving Tillies side.
Sam Kerr and Emily van Egmond (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
A boilerplate FA statement released earlier on Wednesday perhaps unsurprisingly didn’t give many clues as to where James Johnson and the board stand on the captaincy issue but stopped short of definitely stating that Kerr will still be leading the team when she returns from injury.
Culture wars aside, if she isn’t able to stay on the field due to repeated injury issues and has now likely affected FA’s bottom line, will Johnson and co. be tempted to shift the armband to Steph Catley, Mary Fowler or another Matilda?
Kerr is the team’s best player but that’s not necessarily enough to be captain material. What she said isn’t in question, and if it were Matt Ryan in a similar circumstance, it would be hard to see the goalkeeper continuing as captain of his country.
At 31 years of age, perhaps the smartest move is to relieve Kerr of the pressure and responsibility that comes with leading a nation and upholding a moral standard that likely was never achievable.