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Sam Kerr hardly needs any help right now when it comes to going viral.
The Matildas superstar would have to be just about the most popular and most talked about person in Australia over the past month.
Starting with the extraordinary fallout from her calf injury and last-minute withdrawal from Australia’s opening World Cup match against Ireland, Kerr has been a constant in the ever-evolving news cycle.
The “will she, won’t she play” headlines continued throughout the group stage – which finished with the Matildas atop their group without Kerr kicking a ball – before she finally made her return in the final 10 minutes of the round of 16 showdown with Denmark.
The 29-year-old again came off the bench in the remarkable quarter-final victory over France, getting more involved in the play and then burying her attempt in the successful penalty shootout as Australia made the last four of the tournament for the first time.
Now, as the country awaits a semi-final showdown with England and the possibility of Kerr finally starting her first match at this World Cup, the West Australian has gone viral of her own accord following a post she put on Instagram.
Kerr, who has been posting photos and updates to her 1.4 million followers throughout this World Cup, published a sensational pic that has generated enormous interest.
Technically it’s four photos, all of them showing Kerr alongside teammates Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond.
The first photo is taken from the 2011 World Cup in Germany.
It shows the baby-faced trio at the ripe ages of 16 for Foord and 17 for Kerr, while van Egmond turned 18 during that tournament.
The following photos show the same trio competing at the 2015, 2019 and this year’s World Cups in a remarkable feat for all three players in their careers.
“4th World Cup together, 1st semi together,” Kerr wrote on the post.
“Jobs not done,” she added, along with the “strong” emoji.
Liked more than 135,000 times at the time of writing, the first two comments on the post are from Foord and van Egmond.
Foord posted a video of actor Bill Hader taking off on a rollercoaster, a comment that received over 1,000 likes of its own.
“Quick on the field and on the gram,” one user replied to Foord’s comment.
Van Egmond simply replied “The best” with a love heart emoji.
Another eagle-eyed fan has written “Pretty sure you have 2015 and 2019 mixed up” and on close inspection of the post, we think they are correct.
Another follower couldn’t resist a stab at outspoken British media personality Piers Morgan, writing: “Do Australia a favour, make Piers cry.”
“Perfect,” he wrote in his tweet. “You know what to do Lionesses – make Ashes of the Matildas.”
Among Morgan’s seemingly non-stop diatribe on Twitter was a retweet of a 7Sport post with the kick-off time for the Matildas’ clash with England.
Morgan ranted and raved throughout the Ashes series, with Australia retaining the urn courtesy of a 2-2 draw with the Old Enemy.
In terms of the World Cup, an old photo has surfaced showing how far the Matildas have come in 10 years.
Record crowds rolled through the turnstiles for their victory over Ireland before they unofficially eclipsed that mark in their round of 16 clash against Denmark.
Capacity crowds have become second nature for the Matildas during the 2023 tournament with 75,784 turning out twice at Sydney’s Stadium Australia.
But the days of sold out stadiums and record-breaking viewership numbers are new territory for this Australian squad.
It’s in stark contrast to what they endured years ago on Australian shores.
Back in 2014 the Matildas welcomed football giants Brazil for two matches Down Under at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
Unlike what we’ve seen in recent days, tickets for the matches back in 2014 couldn’t even be given away. The first match attracted a crowd of only 2583 fans. The second match however saw Football Federation Australia shut the doors to the stadium.
A lack of demand for tickets ultimately resulted in the match being played in front of 50,000 vacant seats as opening the venue up for a few fans would have been too costly.
Seven players from that 2014 squad remain among the Matildas group now with Clare Polkinghorne, Steph Catley, van Egmond, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso, Mackenzie Arnold and Katrina Gorry still donning the green and gold.
Fast forward to 2023 and the Matildas are obliterating the record books and it’s not just attendance records.
The thrilling penalty shootout win over France smashed Australian TV rating records as the most watched event since Cathy Freeman won gold at the Sydney Olympics.
Channel 7’s coverage of Saturday night’s World Cup quarterfinal had an average audience of 4.17 million, an incredible number given many Australians were out and about watching the games in pubs or public spaces.
According to the OzTAM ratings, the free-to-air viewership was a staggering 3.8 million and another 427,000 watched on 7plus, making the game the most streamed TV program ever in Australia.
The total overall audience peaked at 7.2 million during the penalty shootout.
