Niamh Owens

He looks at the amount of sleep the boys are getting.

He looks at the amount of salt they put on their food.

He looked apparently at the pillows at the hotel.

He is analyzing every single part of this setup.

And he then showed enormous faith in this next gen.

So he made some huge calls.

And each and every one of them paid off in what I think was a script we couldn't have written any better, Sam.

We couldn't have hoped for more for this opening game.

Absolutely.

And maybe here at home, it gives us a little bit more faith in what we're doing and what we're seeing in the A-Leagues.

Maybe we need to take a little bit more pride in our own national competition and its ability to stand up against some of those other leagues in the world.

I think traditionally, Sam, we've been seen as a physical side, a really fit side, a determined side, a football team that will run all day, not a skilful side or a creative side or a team full of goal scorers.

This current crop with some of these young players who are coming through is

they have got a mixture of all of those attributes.

And that could be very, very exciting moving forward.

They're still pretty young.

They're still pretty green.

We had 17 World Cup debutants in this squad.

So it is still very much generation next.

But after that opening game, I don't think I'm alone in being very excited about what they can do.