Matildas win The Don Award for stirring World Cup marketing campaign

The Matildas have been recognised for inflicting a “seismic sporting shift” in Australia, taking out the celebrated The Don Award after a stirring run to the World Cup semi-final on house soil gripped followers of Australian sport in 2023.

Captain Sam Kerr’s facet grew to become solely the third staff to earn the accolade after the Australian girls’s cricket staff in 2020 and the Socceroos in 2006.

The Matildas had been deemed winners over the Australian males’s cricket staff, who received the World Take a look at Championship, retained the Ashes after which received the one-day World Cup in one of the embellished durations within the facet’s historical past.

Most gamers had been absent on worldwide obligation in Canada because the Matildas obtained The Don Award on the Sport Australia Corridor of Fame Awards on Friday.

An announcement from the Corridor of Fame choice committee stated the staff had brought about a “seismic sporting shift” with its performances on the World Cup.

“(The) Matildas brought about a seismic sporting shift: reworking girls’s soccer, uniting the nation, inspiring the subsequent era of hopefuls, and additional elevating girls’s sport with a long-deserved nationwide profile,” the assertion learn.

“What the Matildas achieved within the lead-up to the World Cup and match correct was groundbreaking.

“They smashed quite a few data alongside the best way, drawing extraordinary crowds to their video games: almost two million spectators at stadiums and tons of of 1000’s at stay websites throughout the nation. On TV broadcast, their semi-final towards England was the best ranking program in Australia because the present tv scores system started in 2001.”

The 2000 Australian girls’s water polo staff obtained The Daybreak Award in recognition of their battle to have the game included on the Sydney Olympics earlier than successful the primary Olympic gold medal in a nailbiting 4-3 win over the US.

Seven new members had been inducted into the Sport Australia Corridor of Fame on Friday: Johnathan Thurston AM, Kim Brennan AM, Kurt Fearnley AO, Lydia Lassila OAM, Nova Peris OAM, Tim Cahill AO and Tim McLaren OAM, whereas Bob Skilton OAM, Layne Beachley AO and Mark Ella AM had been elevated to Legend standing.