MICHAEL BLEBY: World Cup wins: Australia’s SA moment

It was just on 8pm. The record 20-kick penalty shoot-out ended as substitute forward Cortnee Vine sank the ball into the right corner, ending the 6-6 stalemate with France and pushing Australia into its first-ever World Cup semi-final.  

The auditorium erupted at the theatre where my daughter’s ballet concert was taking place. Luckily it was the interval – as soon as the house lights went up at the end of the first act phones had been whipped out by people expecting a result, only to see the draw and extra time had failed to yield one.

With Beauty And The Beast on intermission, parents clutching coffee and overpriced sparkling wine and siblings rolling Maltesers around their mouths fix eyes on screens, reaching out and inviting others to watch the gripping national drama playing out in Brisbane.

Strangers rub shoulders, sharing phones and the elation of Australia’s early shootout lead, then the tension of France’s turnaround under the skilful boot of captain Wendie Renard. Australia captain Sam Kerr equalises and the crowd at the Darebin Arts Centre breathes as one as the two teams march in lockstep to 6-6.

When the final goal slides past the outstretched left arm of French keeper Solene Durand the audience in a suburban Melbourne theatre shouts with joy. In a country where eye contact is generally avoided, strangers look each other in the face, smile and high-five. The theatre manager, relieved that the match has ended, rings the bell for the second act, knowing that people will now go back in.

Australia 1 – France 0

It was one of those moments when for once, in a highly divided and increasingly polarised country, everyone was happy for the same reason. It was an instant when people suspended fear, anger, disappointment and suspicion and just enjoyed the moment of being better than we normally feel ourselves to be.

The eruption of spontaneous, genuinely shared happiness is an SA specialty, something my South African wife commented she was used to seeing at home but rarely has in over a decade in Australia. But for a moment we did. And we liked it.

Could it last? The soccer, no — as England showed clearly on Wednesday night. But even in the run-up to Saturday’s heart-stopping game — and well before the Lionesses kicked us out of the final – the Aussies had already turned the Matildas’ never-to-be-realised soccer victory into political football.

The prime minister started talking about a public holiday if they won the cup, the official opposition bagged the notion and business lobby groups started complaining about the cost. Australia’s states (provinces) split into a gaggle of different views. 

It feels that if there’s anything Australians can find to disagree with themselves over, they will. Even something as fanciful and improbable as the notion of a World Cup win against European teams with a huge cultural and financial head start on us. So we should thank England for putting us out of our self-imposed misery.

England 3 - Australia 1

But if we can’t agree over something as trivial as a public holiday, how will we manage the looming decision on Constitutional change?

A promised referendum - likely to be held in October - on acknowledging indigenous Australians in the country’s constitution and creating a formal mechanism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to consult on legislation affecting them, looks like failing.

Opinion polls show falling support for the notion, with a population increasingly scared about the economy and their own future susceptible to arguments of fear and disruption from any such move.

Even the prime minister, who pledged to hold the referendum the night he was elected last year, is backing away from it in the face of opposition calling it out of touch with cost-of-living crisis and ordinary Australians - when in reality it could mean a huge change for the better to the everyday lives of the 4% of ordinary Australians who are indigenous. There will be no winners if the No vote prevails.

The last two weeks have given Australia a rare taste of stepping beyond our expectations to a level of achievement we never thought we could make. We loved how it made us feel - more Beauty than our normal Beast. And hopefully, just hopefully, we can get more used to that sense of absolute joy, that excitement and happiness over something that makes us better.

Australia 1 – Australia 1. That’s a goal to aim for.

• Bleby is a senior reporter with The Australian Financial Review, based in Melbourne.