‘Can’t believe it’: Matildas ‘very emotional’ after Cathy Freeman’s inspirational visit — WC Daily

Matildas captain Sam Kerr has repeatedly said she wants to lead Australia to World Cup glory and create her own ‘Cathy Freeman moment’.

But Kerr and her Tillies teammates last week received a very special visit from the Australian sporting legend herself.

The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games 400m gold medallist Freeman, a proud Kuku Yalanji woman, is the sporting hero of ‘over half the team’, and joined the team in Melbourne last Wednesday.

Kerr told Freeman: “You’re an inspiration to the whole team … You’ve been an idol for all of us for so long. What you did for us as a country, hopefully we can replicate even half of that. We’ll remember this night for the rest of our careers. It’s been amazing.”

“A lot of girls were very emotional,” Matildas veteran Aivi Luik said.

“I still can’t believe that happened because a couple years ago, we were going through some questions about who your sporting hero is and why, and over half the team said that Cathy Freeman was their hero.

“The staff, because of that, tried to get her in, and bless her heart, she came in.

“She doesn’t do a lot of public speaking but she did that for us. We asked her questions informally and she spoke back to us just like she was a friend, and we got a lot of good insight from that.”

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Freeman told the Aussies: “The power of you just being here is unimaginable. It’s beyond your wildest dreams what you’re going to be able to do.

“You’re going to be able to get