Matildas captain Sam Kerr reflects on stunning hat-trick in front of home fans

Kerr was at the peak of her powers during Sunday’s 8-0 drubbing of the Philippines, scoring her fourth international hat-trick.

The Western Knights alumni opened her account in the 19th minute, assisted by player of the match and fellow hat-trick hero Caitlin Foord.

Kerr completed a brace in extra time, banging one home from the box with such force it grazed the top of the net after getting out the back of the Philippines defence. Then just 24 seconds into the second half, a neatly guided header gave Kerr her third goal and pandemonium ensued.

Just days after scoring her first international goal in Perth against Iran, Kerr said Sunday’s hat-trick would be hard to top

“It was a dream come true,” she said. “Even to score one goal and play here was a dream come true so I’m very happy.”

Just don’t expect any more backflips, with Kerr signalling the end of her iconic celebration.

“I turned 30 a month ago,” she joked.

Asked if the Matildas’ performance against the Philippines was the new benchmark leading into the Paris Olympics, Kerr said that the 59,155 fans that packed Optus Stadium helped spur on what coach Tony Gustavsson declared the team’s best-attacking performance of his tenure.

“I’d love to score eight goals every game,” Kerr said. “It doesn’t always work like that.

“It was an amazing performance by the girls but honestly we haven’t played in Perth for a while and the Philippines was a big game. We were up for that one and the crowd helped us for sure.”

Perth set a new football attendance record, eclipsing the 58,228 fans that watched Manchester United play Aston Villa last year and the 56,371-strong crowd at the 2019 A-League grand final between Perth Glory and Sydney FC.

Katanning born, Kalgoorlie raised Matilda Lydia Williams said it was an amazing milestone for women’s football.

“It’s a state that’s been dominated by AFL for a very long time,” the goalkeeper said. “To sell out an AFL stadium and make it a football pitch and sell out all games in Perth and 100,000 tickets is amazing.

“It shows how far the game is developing and what we’re doing in Australia.”

It comes as CommBank and Football Australia unite to launch the Growing Football Fund. The fund is focused on supporting coaches and community teams across the country with the aim of attracting and retaining 50,000 female participants nationally over the next two years.

Kerr, Williams and Charlotte Grant were on hand to surprise a lucky group of aspiring female footballers at the Perth Soccer Club on Monday.

Grant said the quality of talent in the national set-up would dictate the Matildas’ Paris Olympics medal push.

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“The depth has grown so much over the past couple of years,” she said. “You see someone like Clare Wheeler who has done so well in these past two games. Everyone has played really well.

“That’s really important going into such a big tournament like the Olympics. We need depth and we need to be able to rotate players.

“Having that confidence from every player is going to be really important to perform at our best.”