Clare Wheeler believes Australia's winning performances during the Cup of Nations is merely a glimpse of what's to come for Matildas' fans during the FIFA Women's World Cup.
The Adamstown Rosebud junior was part of coach Tony Gustavsson's 25-player squad for the four-nation invitational tournament hosted by Australia in the past week and used as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup group stage in five months' time.
The Matildas put on a show to secure the Cup of Nations with victories over Czechia (4-0) in Gosford, Spain (3-2) in Sydney then Jamaica (3-0) in Newcastle.
"It's great for the team in regards to winning a tournament so close to the World Cup," Wheeler, who played the final seven minutes against Jamaica in front of her home-town crowd of 9093 on Wednesday night, said.
"It's a good sign of what's to come and it's a really good performance from the girls. You can see with games that we want to win, and it's really competitive for places and for time.
"For me personally, I'm looking to the World Cup and I know that I really need to perform to be there. That's the competitive environment that we have right now and it's good, we're getting the rewards from that with the results."
Wheeler was not used against Czechia or Spain but that has only made the Everton midfielder more determined to be part of the Matildas' World Cup squad.
"It's a tough part of the game, but there's a lot of value in it too because the strength of the squad is better for the team," she said.
"At the end of the day, you want the team to do well and obviously you want to be a part of that in whatever way that is.
"If I make that 23 for the World Cup, I'm going to be happy and I'm just going to play my part and do the best I can do."
The Matildas have now won seven matches in a row and, importantly, are becoming accustomed to it.
"If you look at past performances of the Matildas at recent camps, we're starting to string together quite a good unbeaten run and really get some goals," Wheeler said.
"Hopefully that's just going to build and build and build, and when we get to the World Cup we're going to be flying."
Although there was plenty of work to be done before facing Republic of Ireland in their World Cup opening match in Sydney on July 20, the Cup of Nations gave Gustavsson plenty to be buoyant about.
"The one thing we did learn is what it feels to win, and we can't discard that," Gustavsson said in Newcastle on Wednesday night.
"It wasn't a brilliant game tonight. It wasn't a brilliant first half against Czech Republic. It wasn't a brilliant second half against Spain, but tournament football is about finding a way to win, and grinding through, believing in what you're doing."
The Matildas scored 10 goals across the three Cup of Nations matches and produced two clean sheets.
Importantly, they got to lift a piece of silverware.
It is something Gustavsson expects to drive his players over the next five months.
"When it comes to silverware, we spoke about that yesterday when we circled up after training and we used a couple of players as example," he said.
"They've been with this national team for 15 to 17 years, some of them, and they've only lifted silverware three times since we moved to Asia - 2010 Asian Cup and then 2017 and 2019, two tournament wins lifting trophies.
"So this doesn't come around too often - the chance to win a trophy and lift it. We need to take that opportunity, to take that feeling what it feels to win, and that was amazing."
The Matildas will play world No.4 England in London on April 12 in the final international window before the World Cup.
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