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Are the Matildas as good as we think? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, July twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: Another Reserve Bank rate rise would raise the benefits of
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  Speaker 1: tax cuts for households. That's according to new economic analysis
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  Speaker 1: in The Australian Today, and it comes as families brace
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  Speaker 1: for a quarter percent hike. On August six, United States
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  Speaker 1: Secret Service boss Kimberly Cheetle has resigned in the wake
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  Speaker 1: of a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Joe Biden
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  Speaker 1: is expected to address the nation on Thursday morning Australian
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  Speaker 1: time for the first time since he announced his pulling
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  Speaker 1: vice president Kamala Harris a chance of victory. Come to
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot a U to see the
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  Speaker 1: President's address live and follow all the action. Just two
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  Speaker 1: sleeps until the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics officially begin
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  Speaker 1: with a glittering opening ceremony, but Australia's Matilda's are getting
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  Speaker 1: in early, taking on Germany on Friday. The women's football
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  Speaker 1: side have a tough road ahead. Today we get real
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  Speaker 1: about the prospects for the Matildas and all Australia's Olympians.
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  Speaker 2: Wait.
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  Speaker 1: Jessica Halleran is the Australian's chief sports writer and she's
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  Speaker 1: in Marseille ready for the Matilda's first game. We caught
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  Speaker 1: jess at the train station. Okay, jess Australia really has
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  Speaker 1: fallen in love with the Matildas. Are they as good
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  Speaker 1: as we think they are?
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  Speaker 3: These Olympic Games are really going to show the world
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  Speaker 3: where the toolers are at right now. They finished forth
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  Speaker 3: at the Tokyo Olympics and they've been saying over and
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  Speaker 3: over and over again in press conferences that they really
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  Speaker 3: want to win a medal, but they're up against it.
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  Speaker 3: They're in a forum of death. Their first team that
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  Speaker 3: they're taking on is Germany and they're the world number
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  Speaker 3: fours and it's going to be a really, really tough
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  Speaker 3: ask to get a win over them. But if we're
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  Speaker 3: going to win over them, it shows us that we're
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  Speaker 3: going to have a real shape for a medal here.
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  Speaker 1: So Germany first, then what for the Matilda's.
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  Speaker 3: So then the Matilda's will travel to Nice and play
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  Speaker 3: Zambia and after that they've got the USA, the powerhouse
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  Speaker 3: of soccer, who are really going to be a huge threat.
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  Speaker 1: Sat. Look what that's it.
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  Speaker 2: USA have won the gold medal. They've got a new coach.
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  Speaker 3: Her name's Emma Hayes and she has absolutely cleaned out
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  Speaker 3: that team and injected a lot of young new talent
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  Speaker 3: into it.
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  Speaker 2: So that's going to be a must watch match. But
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  Speaker 2: the Matildas need to.
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  Speaker 3: Finish near the top of their group to get through
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  Speaker 3: to the next stage. But you've got a lot of
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  Speaker 3: pundits who are picking them to finish last in this
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  Speaker 3: group of deaths, so they're up against it. But if
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  Speaker 3: anyone can do it, it's the Materidas.
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  Speaker 1: Is Australia mature enough to cope with the Matilda's maybe
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  Speaker 1: not winning gold?
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  Speaker 2: I think we will love them no matter what.
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  Speaker 3: This team is the most popular team I think we've
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  Speaker 3: ever had. I mean, you look at those television ratings
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  Speaker 3: last year, nearly twelve million people tuning in to watch
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  Speaker 3: that semi final against England. The love and adoration for them,
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  Speaker 3: I don't think so. The Wayne if they don't do
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  Speaker 3: well here. But if you speak to any of the girls,
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  Speaker 3: having spoken to mar Wither on the either of these games,
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  Speaker 3: you just really understand how important these opportunities for them,
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  Speaker 3: and that they've got the experienced players. We've got players
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  Speaker 3: that have been two three Olympic games. Now they're really
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  Speaker 3: feeling is they're going to meddle. They're going to have
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  Speaker 3: to do it now.
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  Speaker 1: It's not so long ago that the Matildas were playing
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  Speaker 1: to empty stadia or stadia that were closed because it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't worth the cost of opening them for such tiny crowds.
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  Speaker 1: Have the Matilda's improved in that time or is it
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  Speaker 1: just that we've started to notice them.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, they've improved dramatically.
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  Speaker 3: But I think what you've seen happen is pay parody
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  Speaker 3: has made a huge difference. There was a historic paydal
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  Speaker 3: sealed not so long ago where saw the female players
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  Speaker 3: play the Saness and in so they've paid the same
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  Speaker 3: as stoppers and that kind of listin professionalism has seen
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  Speaker 3: these players being able to quit their butts jobs and
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  Speaker 3: really put their all into being being in Matilda. That's
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  Speaker 3: why you've seen this great rise in professionalism in But look,
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  Speaker 3: there are a crossroads right now.
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  Speaker 2: This could be Turn.
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  Speaker 3: At the Starsul's last big gig as Matilda's coach, and
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  Speaker 3: behind the scenes is a real want of this team
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  Speaker 3: to go up another level.
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  Speaker 1: How significant is the absence of Sam Kerr She's out
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  Speaker 1: with an injury.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, Oh it's huge, It really is huge.
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  Speaker 3: I mean if they win it without her, it'd be
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  Speaker 3: an extraordinary feat.
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  Speaker 2: But she just has so much talented I'm here, shunka.
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  Speaker 3: She's probably needs to put that goal that she's got
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  Speaker 3: It against England at the World Cup last year.
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  Speaker 1: Was a shot.
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  Speaker 3: It was just like chronic. She has the ability to
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  Speaker 3: turn a game on its end. And I think she'll
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  Speaker 3: be but Che's home in England and won't be here
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  Speaker 3: and is.
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  Speaker 2: Said to be watching it for abroad.
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  Speaker 1: The opening ceremony is just a couple of days away
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  Speaker 1: early Saturday morning Australian time. Will the Matilda's be there, No.
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  Speaker 3: They will be most likely traveling to Nice where their
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  Speaker 3: next game is, which is against Sampia, so they will
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  Speaker 3: be on the road. I was at the Athlete's village yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: The meeting was given a private touring. You can really
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  Speaker 3: see all the buzz now and there is just so
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  Speaker 3: much energy and excitement in the city for that opening ceremony,
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  Speaker 3: and absolutely with the Australians, it was great being in
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  Speaker 3: their quarters and they've got their own boyster there and
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  Speaker 3: they're all sitting around and college it's just like home.
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  Speaker 1: Now you've covered a lot of Olympic Games. How are
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  Speaker 1: Australia's prospects generally?
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  Speaker 2: I think this could be a fantastic games for US.
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  Speaker 3: I mean we're going to see gold medals in swimming,
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  Speaker 3: Ari Tipmos Morri o' callahan of some of the superstars
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  Speaker 3: that we should see bringing the gold.
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  Speaker 2: Our women's real eighteens are amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Then we've got the ruckty sevens where both the men
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  Speaker 3: and the women should medal. They should have had a
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  Speaker 3: real crack at gold as well. Like anything could happen there.
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  Speaker 3: These are all the first weeks and the coming days
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  Speaker 3: and courts and Tilda's all going well and they couldn't
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  Speaker 3: make some Olympic magic happen too.
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  Speaker 2: So it is expected to be.
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  Speaker 3: A strong games for US here and they seem really
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  Speaker 3: really well prepared.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up fears a rising of a terrorism incident in Paris,
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  Speaker 1: so does it feel safe? You can check out Jess's reporting,
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  Speaker 1: including her big interview with Mary Fowler right now at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back
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  Speaker 1: after this break. Jess, there are serious concerns about the
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  Speaker 1: security situation in Paris. We've seen two serious incidents, one
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  Speaker 1: alleged sexual assault of an Australian woman and an alleged
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  Speaker 1: assault onto nine radio personnel. The travel alert for Australians
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  Speaker 1: heading to Frances exercise a high degree of caution due
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  Speaker 1: to the threat of terrorism, and Australian Olympians have been
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  Speaker 1: warned against wearing their teen uniforms outside the Olympic village.
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  Speaker 1: Does it feel safe.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's hard to walk out of our hotel here
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  Speaker 3: in Paris and not be confronted by the French military
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  Speaker 3: holding machine guns and their police absolutely everywhere, especially around
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  Speaker 3: all sites like that. Had to go to a Christonal
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  Speaker 3: Prince at the Art of Towers stating in the other
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  Speaker 3: day and the security was just.
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  Speaker 2: Quite insane, to be honest. It feels quite heightened.
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  Speaker 3: It feels a little bit wrong each but you can
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  Speaker 3: really feel that the French don't want anything to go
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  Speaker 3: wrong with you. And yes there have been incidentss, but
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  Speaker 3: people feel that they really are scarring everything at it
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  Speaker 3: to stop something huge, in catastrophic happening here at these
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  Speaker 3: games while the eyes of the world wromble.
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  Speaker 1: Jessica Hallerin is The Australian's chief sports writer. All the
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  Speaker 1: glory and drama of the Games will be live twenty
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  Speaker 1: four to seven at the Australian dot com dot au