Women’s World Cup 2023: Australia’s accidental icon – how Sam Kerr became the face of a nation

Coach Sermanni had no qualms about bringing Kerr into the senior squad at such a young age.

“She had the raw materials. My first impression was power and energy,” he said.

Sermanni said her sense of honesty and fun and “devil-may-care attitude” arrived fully developed.

“I think in 2010, we went to play Germany away,” said Sermanni.

“I remember coming in at half-time and Sam just said, deadpan, ‘that’s the hardest game I’ve ever played’. So she just had that kind of innocent honesty.”

In club football, the goals initially came as more of a trickle than a flood, until a tactical masterstroke.

At the start of her professional career, the obvious place to put Kerr – blisteringly fast, but still a naive teenager – was on the wing. And that is where she was stationed for Perth Glory.

However when Bobby Despotovski was appointed as the W-League side’s coach in 2014, he sensed she could do more centrally.

“I thought to myself, she’s unused, being so far out of the box, and so far from the goal,” he told BBC Sport.

“Why don’t we actually put her closer to the goal as an out-and-out striker and see what happens?”

After some injury setbacks, the goals started to flow.

“I said all along that she’s going to be one of the best footballers in the world,” Despotovski said. “And nobody believed me.”

There was a lot more to Kerr’s development at Perth Glory – she also had to work on mental toughness.

While Daniel was one of Australia’s leading AFL players, he was also frequently involved in off-field controversies, often featuring alcohol and violence.

“At an early age, when her brother was playing AFL very well, he was in the media for good reasons,” Despotovski said.

“But later on, in her teen years, it was for bad reasons.

“I think she needed to develop mentally to block that out and continue on her path. It’s full testament to her mental state.

“I remember numerous times and she was very, very frustrated.

“We would have long chats about the frustration and how she can channel it and use it as a springboard to be much better.”

Kerr worked on properly channelling her mood during games, and instead of making endless runs for passes that didn’t come, she focused on fewer, more dangerous darts into the box.

“When we gave her the captaincy, you could see her stepping up to the next level,” Despotovski said.

“She would lead the team from the first minute until the end of the game every time.

“She took everyone under her wing and she led by example on and off the park.”