Former Matildas stars call for embattled Sam Kerr to remain Australia’s captain

Matildas greats have leapt to the defence of Sam Kerr, saying the embattled star should remain captain of Australia despite being on trial for the charge of racially aggravated abuse of a police officer.

Kerr, who remains sidelined with a knee injury, has this week been in a London court, where video footage has been shown of her swearing and calling a policeman “stupid and white” following an earlier incident in a taxi on January 30, 2023.

Kerr said she was “embarrassed” watching the footage but denied she was “drunk and kicking off” in the back of the taxi.

Football Australia will wait until the trial’s completion to make a call on whether Kerr will be stripped of the Matildas captaincy.

However, former Matildas co-captain Kate Gill and national women’s team great Joey Peters are both adamant that Kerr should again wear the captain’s armband when she returns from injury.

“I just have full admiration for Sam Kerr and what she’s done throughout our game,” said Peters, who made 110 appearances for Australia between 1996 and 2009.

“What we’re hearing about the case, I don’t think it takes away anything from the quality person that she is.”

Peters said Kerr was a “disrupter” rather than a “nicey, nicey girl” by nature, and that had be embraced by the Australian football public.

“She has disrupted the world of football, and we can’t expect her to be quiet and sit back and be a ‘nicey and nicey girl’ because she’s not that at all on the pitch. She’s lethal, so for her to stick up for herself off the field, for me personally, I 100 per cent back her.

“I can’t imagine the pressure that she’s under with her public profile. She’s in this pressure cooker and delivered so much for our game and continues to do that, and we should hold her in the highest regard whatever happens, because we all make mistakes as humans.

“In Sam Kerr’s case, she’s an absolute champion of our game and should be treated as that in her home country for sure.

“It’s not that I don’t care what she’s (allegedly) done, but in this particular instance, we’ve got to protect her and cheer her on.”

Peters was surprised the police officer took offence to what Kerr said, saying Kerr was “quite right” with what she said.

“We’ve all heard plenty worse – I know I have. She’s quite right … even if she did say ‘white’ because it’s a privileged position,” Peters said.

Gill, who made 86 appearances for the Matildas and led the team with Clare Polkinghorne in 2013 and 2014, said Kerr was an “exceptional human being”.

“She’s also the first person to acknowledge if she’s done something wrong and made a mistake,” said Gill, also a former co-chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia.

“She’s got morals about her, so it’s hard to question her from that kind of area.”

Gill said Kerr should “definitely” captain the Matildas again.

“It’s hard for us to all sit in judgment when we don’t have access to the full facts and understand what happened and how Sam was made to feel in that moment,” he said.

“There should be no reason why she shouldn’t captain her country.

“She wears her heart on her sleeve, she loves playing for her country, she loves captaining her country, and she’s given her some very inspirational and fantastic sporting moments.

“We shouldn’t forget that.”