Sydney FC winger Cortnee Vine has re-signed with the A-Leagues club after her World Cup heroics spark record membership figures. Her club boss Ante Juric spoke with KEEPUP.
After just one look at the expression on Cortnee Vine’s face, Ante Juric knew it was over for France.
He was nervous for his Sydney FC star as she made the long walk to the penalty spot; Vine was 10th in line to take a penalty in a quarter-final shootout against Les Bleues, and incredibly, for the first time in World Cup history, a 10th penalty taker was required in the longest shootout in tournament history.
Juric has had plenty of time to learn all of Vine’s mannerisms, having coached the Matildas winger at Sydney FC for the past three seasons, and when the broadcast cut to a close-up of Vine’s face, he spotted a look he’s seen time and again from the Sky Blues star.
There was only going to be one outcome from that moment.
“I’ve seen her frown in the past if there’s something stressful happening in a game. You see her head go down,” Juric told KEEPUP.
“Initially, I was a little bit protective. You’ve been around football, people miss (penalties) and they cop it for years. I don’t know why I thought that but I was like: ‘Oh, please, you wouldn’t deserve this if (you miss)’.
“Then seconds later I saw her face. It’s funny I remember that feeling. I saw her face and I was like: ‘No, you’ve got this’. From there I was very confident.
“I know from being an ex-player, you’re in the zone, you’re walking up, you do your job and you’re done. She had that look to her. I’ve seen that lots of times and that’s why I was quite comforted when I saw the shot of the camera walking towards the penalty spot, and I thought: ‘Yeah, she’s all good’.”
VINE RE-SIGNS! Matildas star pens new deal with Sydney FC after World Cup heroics
Vine dispatched the winning penalty with relative ease, speeding off in the direction of her nine outfield teammates who were sprinting back toward both her and keeper Mackenzie Arnold to celebrate the result Vine had just sealed: the first quarter-final win at a women’s or men’s World Cup in Australia’s history.
Just like John Aloisi for the Socceroos in 2005, Vine was in the right place at the right time to seize her moment and etch her name into Australian football history.
It could have been Arnold, and it could have been Clare Hunt, but neither the Matildas keeper or centre-back converted from the spot with the game on the line.
No such issue for Vine. The reaction since has put her name up in lights, and Juric says you’ll be hard-pressed to find a player more deserving of their moment in the spotlight.
Vine is one of only two players to have used the 2022-23 Liberty A-League season to seal a spot in the Matildas World Cup. The other is Western Sydney Wanderers defender Hunt, who has been a revelation at centre-back in Tony Gustavsson’s side.
And after becoming a household name at the World Cup, Vine has put pen to paper on a fresh contract at her A-Leagues club.
LOVED THE WORLD CUP? Here’s how to enjoy the Liberty A-League Women incl. FREE tickets for U16’s
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“Super proud from a connection point of view with Vine, in terms of Sydney FC without a doubt,” Juric said. “It’s huge for our club. It’s huge for our brand. It’s huge for the girls currently playing in the team. It’s enormous.
“But I think beyond that, even more so when I look bigger picture, it’s huge for the A-Leagues. Everyone can jump on board with this.
“Just like we can with Clare Hunt, because it is a good league. You can play here, you can succeed, you can kill it and still play in this league.
“For Sydney FC it’s enormous, but from a league perspective, all the clubs can jump on that, I think.”
Juric sent just two messages to Vine throughout the World Cup before the semi-finals, deliberately keeping his distance to allow the winger to focus on the task at hand.
One of those came before the World Cup began. The other was sent on after her shootout heroics.
His congratulatory message was delivered in just two words.
“I won’t tell you exactly what it was! But it was pretty much two words of excitement,” Juric said.
“She would have got a million messages… again, I like to leave them to their own time, but this was something special.”
Vine’s emergence on the World Cup stage unsurprisingly coincided with a spike in interest in Sydney FC’s upcoming A-League Women campaign; the club revealed it had already surpassed its record A-League Women membership numbers two months out from the league’s opening round scheduled for the weekend of October 13-15.
“She’s been the face of Sydney FC and the A-Leagues for the last year,” Juric said.
“There’s been a push from the club. They’ve been very smart to try and capitalise on this momentum, with the World Cup and the A-Leagues so 100% (it’s been a factor).
“Viney is a big face, a big persona, a big brand now in the A-League, let alone Sydney. So yeah, that would have had a big influence.
“She’s very good with the fans and the kids as well giving shirts away and things like that. So she is someone young girls and boys and families would definitely want to watch. And the way she plays adds to that: she’s very exciting. She’s someone you’d pay money to watch.”
Vine’s Sydney contract ended at the end of the 2022-23 season, in which she played an integral role in the Sky Blues’ Premiership/Championship double.
Since that accomplishment, Sydney have lost Mackenzie Hawkesby, Charlie Rule, Madison Haley, Deborah-Anne De La Harpe and Sarah Hunter to European clubs; Juric admitted there was potential for Vine to join those players in departing for an overseas opportunity – before the winger inked a fresh contract at the end of the World Cup.
“I’m excited and thrilled to be staying with Sydney FC and playing in the Liberty A-League for next season,” she said.
“I can feel the Women’s World Cup has ignited a real passion for the women’s game in this country and given it real momentum.
“We are heading into an exciting new era for Australian football and I’m incredibly happy to be a part of it.”
Vine was a young player with plenty to learn when Juric recruited her from the Wanderers in 2020. He believed she was of international quality then – and had to work to make Vine believe it, too.
Now she’s a shining example for young Australians inspired by the 2023 World Cup to follow.
“I’m proud of where she’s come from,” Juric said. “When she came to us she was in the A-Leagues for a while, but never regularly started. No one really had her name anywhere.
“But when she did come to us, we had a good chat and worked on certain things she had to work on, from a mentality point of view to technique at certain moments. She listened, and worked at it.
“She wasn’t the finished product. She wasn’t even close to the end product and she’s not now, but she was definitely not the player she is now three years ago or four years ago.
“We’re definitely proud of where she’s got to and where she’s come from. That’s rewarding, and we’ve had a small part to play that as a club and myself as a coach – but she’s put all the work in. She listened and did the right things and worked hard, so I’m extremely proud.
“That why you coach – or why I coach. Championships are nice, but that is more rewarding than anything else.”
LOVED THE WORLD CUP? Here’s how to enjoy the Liberty A-League Women incl. FREE tickets for U16’s
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE LIBERTY PASS
CLICK HERE TO BUY A LIBERTY A-LEAGUE CLUB MEMBERSHIP
“For three years, I’ve been talking to Viney about (making the national team) because I thought she killed it three years ago and never really got a look in,” he added.
“For a year she never got a look in and I kept telling her: ‘Just keep knocking the door down. You keep knocking the door down, eventually, people will talk. Eventually, you’ll get in’. In my head, she should have been in three years ago. But really in the last year and a half, she’s got that opportunity.
“That’s the message I’ll give to (the rest of the squad). There are other girls that currently haven’t been picked from our team, and you just have to keep going until you get picked.
“For those players, seeing Vine do that, they’ll see that you’ve got to bide your time sometimes, but there are rewards at the end.
“I’ll definitely use that as a story probably more than motivation: that if you keep doing what you’re doing things, can happen for you.”
