It is a dozen years since Tom Sermanni gave Alanna Kennedy her first cap as a Matilda, and the Manchester City defender can’t wait to play under her old boss again.
The veteran has been named interim coach as Australia’s women search for a replacement for Tony Gustavsson, whose four-year tenure came to an anticlimactic end at the Olympics, and Kennedy is fully behind the choice.
“He’s a great coach and an even better person,” the 29-year-old told AAP. “I’m looking forward to working with him again.”
“He obviously knows women’s football really well across the board, but also in Australia. I’m sure he knows what’s required for him in an interim role.”
Kennedy, who also played under the 70-year-old Scot with Orlando Pride, added: “I can’t say many more great things about him. He is just such a legend.”
Kennedy admits the Paris Olympics, in which Australia failed to escape the group phase, were disappointing but is confident it was a blip and the future is bright.
“I think it’s an interesting time for us. Obviously the Olympics didn’t go as well as we had planned for and there’s a lot to learn from that tournament, but we can’t forget the success we’ve had – we finished in the top four in the previous Olympics and the World Cup just gone as well.
“Consistently across the board in those major tournaments we’ve improved a lot over the years, and the Olympics just wasn’t our tournament.”
The Sydneysider, who has won 127 more caps for Australia since that debut against New Zealand in 2012, continued: “There is a bit of change coming, so I think for us we just have to embrace that and see what the next few months have in store. We won’t have a major tournament for a while now so it’s a good time for us to transition.”
Sermanni’s tenure begins with fixtures away to Switzerland and Germany later this month.
Kennedy added: “We don’t have a permanent coach and I’m not sure when that will be announced, but I always like to embrace the change and it will be nice to have Tom back and hopefully we just continue to grow.
“We have a lot of players playing in great teams across the world. The experiences that people are getting at their clubs – and there’s a lot of players who get to play together at club as well – are hopefully going to benefit us as a national team.”
Some of the most valuable experiences are in the Champions League, in which City, who also have Mary Fowler in their ranks, are preparing to face holders Barcelona next week.
Austria’s St Polten and Sweden’s Hammarby are also paired with City in the group stages, which they reached after a year out and two previous years of early exits in qualifying.
“It’s exciting, obviously, to have Barca in there,” said Kennedy. “It’s all out of control with those draws but it’s worked out pretty well for us,” said Kennedy.
“It was obviously disappointing to be to be out early in my first two seasons here, and then not even in the competition last season. But it’s made us more determined to ensure that we were there this time around. I’m looking forward to more Champions League football.”
