Matildas assistant coach Mel Andreatta shot down suggestions those currently on full Matildas contracts are “undroppable”, after being questioned by Dub Zone commentator Teo Pellizzeri if players on those deals have too much job security.
This week, Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson named his squad for the upcoming Cup of Nations, which will see the Matildas take on Spain, Czechia and Jamaica later this month.
The round-robin friendlies are essentially the final chance for prospective Matildas to put their best foot forward for selection, as they are still the only matches scheduled before the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in July.
A number of players, who have been fixtures in the squad, are on full Matildas contracts – which were agreed upon after a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was stuck between FA and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) in 2019.
The Dub Zone crew were joined by Andreatta to discuss the squad selection and Pellizzeri posed the question to the Matildas assistant as to whether players who are on full Matildas contracts have too much job security.
“So I would put it to you Mel, that players on full Matildas contracts – and credit to them for collectively bargaining for it – but players on full Matildas contracts, have too much job security. And if they’re fit to appear at camp and train and play, they’re undroppable. Is that true?” Pellizzeri asked Andreatta on Dub Zone.
Andreatta, however, played down suggestions that this was the case.
“Well, I think you can see from selections that we’ve had that it’s it’s not true at all,” Andreatta said.
It’s all performance based. The discussions that we have with players is all around their performance and we have individual player performance plans in place so that they keep striving to be better.
“At this stage, we have got some consistency in the squad and I think that’s credit to the players for taking that feedback on to challenge themselves to get to better environments and to fight for those match minutes in their clubs, in top clubs in in top leagues, and it’s up to everybody else to try and do the same.”
Pellizzeri provided more context to the situation later in the show and why he posed the question to Andreatta.
“It’s a way of keeping your players employed and on the books, but does it also create a stratified system? Does it create an unofficial hierarchy? And these are the chats we don’t have because I think a lot of people just want to cheer for the Matildas,” Pellizzeri said.
“A show like this asks ‘who wears the shirt’ but also how they come to wear the shirt and I think it puts a greater value on wearing that that shirt to ask that question.”
Former Matilda Grace Gill also weighed in on the situation: “Like any workplace, the difference of being contracted permanently or for a period of time, or a casual employee – you know your security in that job landscape.
“Especially for those players knowing ‘okay, well I’ve got two years here on my contract. I can work hard but even if I have a little fall in form that I may still be called up into camps because I’ve got this contract.
“But to the point of your question Teo; Mel Andreatta said that’s not the case and she said when looking at the squad list, it’s based on form and I’m sure there’s opinions around how right or wrong, we can sit there and agree or disagree on form of the list of the current Matildas but arguably, a lot of those players are and would be on contracts.”
