Joe Montemurro took charge of his first Matildas game about a year ago and is set to stand on the sidelines for Australia’s opening match at the Women’s World Cup in Brazil in another 12 months. In that period he has had six international windows in charge and roughly a dozen weeks to work with players in person; he will have another five windows to prepare for the tournament.
Each window this year has produced largely similar squads and consistent starting XIs, a pattern Montemurro has defended. After the friendly with Mexico, he described the lineups as “close to where we want to be” and said continuity was important because “we’re not going to reconvene for the next four months.” He added that while rotations were possible, he did not feel they were necessary in the recent camp.
Montemurro has repeated the continuity message through 2026, including in the lead-up to the Women’s Asian Cup, during the tournament and for the FIFA Series in April. He has also argued against the idea that every player who attends camp should be given playing time, saying, “I think we’ve got this illusion that we’ve got to give everyone a go in international football; it doesn’t happen like that. That’s just not a reality.”
The emphasis on continuity carries risks. The source text notes that disruption is inevitable when players are unavailable, out of form or retire. There is concern that the current squad may not look substantially different from the team that reached the home World Cup in 2023 and fell short, in part because of a perceived lack of depth and rotation.
Montemurro will have further chances to adjust. The team reconvenes in four months for a European camp to face “top teams,” where he believes he can rotate more. In the year before the World Cup he will have between 11 and 13 games to embed his style, expand the pool of trusted players and attempt to peak at the right time. The current Matildas are described as being split into three tiers as they look toward the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
