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Meet the Matildas — and Sam Kerr.
If you haven't already familiarised yourselves with the team and its star striker, do so. You'll be hearing a lot more of them both.
In the past four days the Matildas have beaten the spiritual custodians of football, Brazil, not once but twice. Three times in a little over a month.
You must have heard. If you weren't watching yourself last night or last Saturday, chances are you knew somebody who was.
Fresh from victory in last month's Tournament of Nations in the United States the Matildas are now waltzing on the international sporting stage in the biggest code of them all.
And striker Sam Kerr is in the starring role.
Move over Socceroos. Move over Tim Cahill.
For someone who celebrates her prolific goal-scoring ability with a trademark backflip, Kerr is a remarkably well-grounded athlete.
Perhaps it's her sporting pedigree. Her father, Roger, played and coached AFL in WA. Her brother, Daniel, won a premiership with the West Coast Eagles during the glory days in the mid 2000s.
She's seen the highs and experienced the lows. She knows the ebb and flow of a life played out in-large on the sporting stage where crowds can exalt you one day, and topple you the next.
"I'm a bit of a firecracker on the field but I also enjoy myself. I have fun."
A star that just keeps rising
Sam was first called into the Matildas a decade ago aged just 15. Now, aged 24, she's had contracts with Sydney FC, Perth Glory and is in her fifth season in America's National Women's Soccer League, where she has recently become its all-time leading goal scorer.
Last weekend she was named the Player's Player of the Year.
She's also a finalist for this year's FIFA Female Player of the Year, alongside male nominees like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
"I could say I try to be like Ronaldo as a goal scorer, but I don't think I'm like him personality-wise," Kerr says.
There are actually striking similarities — talent, confidence, and that hard-to-define X-factor amongst them.
And then there are the differences — recognition, multi-million-dollar contracts and groupies, to name a few.
Although, given time, Sam Kerr might have those too. She's well on the way.
One man in the crowd at Saturday's game arrived wearing an old Socceroos shirt. The name of former captain Lucas Neill was scratched out and replaced with "Kerr". Neill's playing number, 2, had a taped-on zero next to it to become Kerr's playing number, "20".
Sam saw a picture of him on Twitter after the game and herself tweeted:
He tweeted back.
Three days later in Newcastle, true to her word, after the game she found him and handed over what one hopes will be a jersey he treasures as Kerr's fame grows — not one that is on eBay by the end of the week.
Putting Australia on the soccer map
Sam Kerr is a class act.
As a kid she played AFL and was convinced she'd one day play for the West Coast Eagles. When reality hit, that she was the wrong gender, and that at a certain age she could no longer play the game, she switched to another football code — soccer.
"I truly thought they were going to change the rules for me, being the young kid I was … but I made the change to soccer," she says.
"To be honest I didn't really enjoy it at first because I couldn't use my hands but I grew to love the game and now the game has given me so many opportunities that I wouldn't change it for the world."
Ironically, this past season has seen the introduction of a women's competition in the AFL. Despite numerous offers, Kerr is staying with the global game.
"The way that we [Matildas] play everyone can see that we are having fun … we work hard first and foremost but we also enjoy it, we love being a part of this team and we love representing Australia and we think we represent Australia well," she says.
"We're the underdogs, we're hungry, we're fast and we're fierce.
"I think we're doing really well as Australian role models but I think we've still got a lot of work to do, so that's the exciting part."
Since qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, it's the Socceroos that have enjoyed the recognition — and borne the pressure — of being the team that has put Australia on the soccer map.
In the past few months that swell of support has shifted to the Matildas, with wins over top teams like the USA, Japan and Brazil.
"We have been talking about this for a while, you know, getting the public to sway our way — hopefully they sway back a little to the Socceroos because we're a whole team here at the FFA [Football Federation Australia] — we support the Socceroos, they support us," Kerr says.
"I didn't think it would happen all of a sudden and so quickly, I guess that's what success does."
A sporting landscape that transcends gender
If the sporting gods could grant Kerr any three wishes, she has no hesitation in knowing what she'd asked for. The answer is immediate.
"The first thing would be is lifting that World Cup trophy; the second one would be Olympic gold; and the third one would be for the Australian public to stay behind the Westfield Matildas so this sport can continue to grow to be one of the best teams in the world," she says.
They already are. Tuesday night's victory in Newcastle pushed them into the top five in the world.
Earlier this year, the player union, Professional Footballers Australia, released a blueprint to develop the women's game in this country.
It suggested if Australia was ever to host a FIFA World Cup it would likely be a women's World Cup, and if Australia was ever to win a World Cup it would likely be the women's World Cup.
That vision is a distinct possibility, with the next World Cup only two years away, to be staged in France.
Yet the desire and commitment shown by Kerr and her teammates, under the leadership of coach Alen Stajcic, is not entirely selfish. They are schooled in the history of those that came before them, and know they continue to grow a legacy for those who'll come after.
"We don't just want this to be a one-month thing, we want this to be 20 years on and the Matildas are still being talked about on the front page of the paper," Kerr says.
This week Sam Kerr and the Matildas have changed the Australian sporting landscape.
The Matildas are not being spoken about as our best "women's" team. They are being described as Australia's best team. Full stop.
And Sam Kerr is not being spoken about as one of our top "female" footballers. She is being described as our best footballer. Full stop.
This is no small matter. This is a dramatic cultural shift.
We have changed the way we see ourselves.
Sport has grown up.