Matildas coach Joe Montemurro is confident he will have his side fit and firing in time for the 2026 Asian Cup despite overseeing a series of unconvincing results in his first camp in charge.
Australia were lucky to escape with an error-riddled 3-0 win over world No.38 Slovenia in Montemurro's first game at the helm, and it was followed up by a 1-1 draw against the same opponents.
Alarm bells were ringing when the Matildas slumped to a shock 1-0 loss to world No.56 Panama last week, and Australia were 1-0 down in Tuesday night's re-match before a Michelle Heyman brace and Charli Grant's 91st-minute goal rescued a 3-2 win.
In fairness, Montemurro was missing a huge chunk of the Matildas' best XI during the four-match stint in WA, with the likes of Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler, Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, Katrina Gorry, Cortnee Vine and Clare Wheeler among the absentees.
Other key players such as goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, Ellie Carpenter, Alanna Kennedy and Kyra Cooney-Cross left after the Slovenia series.
The Matildas have two more international windows before the Asian Cup kicks off in Perth on March 1.
Montemurro's possession-based style comes with teething problems, but the former Arsenal, Juventus and Lyon coach is adamant his team will be ready for the Asian Cup.
"I've had less time to prepare teams for big tournaments," Montemurro said.
"The good thing about it, we're going to have a lot of players who are in season (for the next window), so they're going to be at least physically - and from a rhythm perspective - in tune.
"That was the biggest thing over the last 20 days - you saw the players, the rhythms were up, down, everywhere.
"All of them had to be managed physically.
"We won't have that problem (next time). So at least we can go forward with players that are ready to go."
Montemurro is keen to base the Matildas in Europe for the next international window (October 20-29) before having a home base for the final international window (November 24-December 2) ahead of the Asian Cup.
The 55-year-old wants his players to continue to be brave with the possession-based game plan, but he felt the team fell into some bad habits against Panama on Tuesday night.
"Today I was a little bit disappointed, because there were things I thought we got rid of over the last three games," Montemurro said.
"Obviously we've got some more work to do.
"We fell into the trap of wanting to rush the play when we needed to slow it down, and we fell into the trap of slowing it down when we needed to go quick.
"That caused a lot of technical errors, because people weren't in position at the right time.
"And every time we turned the ball over, Panama looked like they were going to hurt us."
