Julie Dolan doesn't care about numbers or caps or a guard of honour or a lapel pin.
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"I care about having some integrity," Dolan, who was until recently recognised as the first Matildas captain with cap No.1, said.
"And I mostly care about all these players that were denied that opportunity, because had they known this would be the first national team ... I'm standing up for them because they would have been there."
A major point of contention in the Australian women's soccer community has been bubbling along for several years and is set to reach boiling point on Friday night.
It threatens to overshadow Sam Kerr's return to the national squad and the Matildas' two-game series against the Korea Republic, which starts in Sydney before heading to Newcastle for a Monday-night showdown.
Because Dolan is set to snub a special ceremony before the opening match as her former teammates from a 1975 team - largely made up of St George Budapest players - are officially recognised as the "First Matildas" and given a guard of honour by the current players. It will be the first time Matildas players have formed a guard of honour for past representatives.
And the presentation of the lapel pins, which are going to be given to all past Matildas and Socceroos in the next 12 to 18 months, is the tiny symbol of a much bigger issue that continues to create a headache for Football Australia officials.
The group of players speaking up now - including Dolan and Cheryl Salisbury - say they have been "silenced" and ignored by the process. They say 17 former national captains and two-thirds of the Matildas alumni support their views.
Football Australia is standing by its decision and says its process has been completed.
But the fact Dolan, who has a foot in both camps, won't accept the O1 A international cap being given to the First Matildas, pin or attend a function on Friday speaks volumes about the divide and a saga that has dragged on for years.
Renaye Iserief, Matildas cap No.26, felt the decision "devalued" the Matildas cap and how it was earned.
Joey Peters, Matildas cap No.91, said Matildas alumni as key stakeholders should have had a voice at the table for such a significant decision in their history.
The aggrieved players aren't questioning the 1975 team, which played at the first women's Asian Cup, or the fact it has a place in history. But they are frustrated at the selection of that team, or lack thereof, and how a "club team" has come to be considered a national side.
On two previous occasions, the most recent in 2022, the Herald understands Football Australia (FA) administrators reviewed the status of the 1975 team and concluded they were a club side.
"The whole situation was farcical, and it is," Dolan said. "I don't know how it's progressed this far. We've had two previous reviews that have knocked it back, and they were extensive in their research and the people they did ask about it, the historians, have been sidelined since then.
"I've heard a lot of stuff about, 'Julie's just upset because she loses the No.1 cap'. Well, I don't. And, honestly, I don't care about caps. I care about what's here.
"For any sport in the world, to make the national team you need to go through national trials. This team didn't. So, how are they a national team?"
WHAT'S CHANGED
So what has changed? A comprehensive review was conducted by a dedicated working group within Football Australia, including FA chair Anter Isaac, deputy chair Jaclyn Lee-Joe and director Spiro Pappas.
The team worked with "external experts" to develop "a robust set of criteria to ensure that the history of Australian football is accurately and fairly represented".
On July 1 last year, FA announced it had determined that the 1975 team met all necessary new criteria as it had played against recognised national teams, wore the green and gold with the Australian Coat of Arms emblem, and comprised players who were eligible to represent Australia at the international level.
FA's history books now show that the first Australian women's national team captain was Pat O'Connor, the first national coach was Joe O'Connor, and the first Indigenous Matilda was Aunty Tarita Yvonne Peters (Stacey Tracy).
"Football Australia is proud to formally recognise the 1975 Australian Women's Team as the 'First Matildas'," a Football Australia spokesperson told the Newcastle Herald.
"Their selection, participation, and representation of Australia at an international tournament meet all the threshold criteria now applied to national team recognition."
Members of the Matildas alumni feel Football Australia has rewritten Australian women's football history without due diligence of evidence.
THE SELECTION PROCESS
"Selection" continues to be the point of contention - that a club team from Australia is different to a nationally selected Australian team.
According to FA's own website, the 1975 Asian Cup "began as a club-based invitation" but evolved into an international competition, with national teams from across the region.
Until the recent development, the first recognised nationally selected Australian women's team to play internationally was in 1978 in a world invitational tournament in Taiwan. As Australia was the only country to send a national team - 11 other countries sent club teams - the matches were deemed B Internationals.
Australia's first A international fixture and caps were previously recognised against New Zealand in 1979.
The 1975 national championships were held in Australia at the same time as the Asian Cup and alumni members, including Dolan, maintain had a national selection process been held, many players would have trialled.
Football Australia said it consulted with international regulatory and academic experts, including former FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber Chair Omar Ongaro and Dr Kevin Tallec Marston to develop the criteria.
Several of the items listed as player eligibility and selection evidence remain a point of contention, including item 401 - a newspaper clipping, that does not have a date, talking about a trial between NSW players for an Australian team to go to a World Cup in Hong Kong, not an Asian Cup.
MORE NEWCASTLE SPORT
Members of the Matildas alumni sought answers and clarification from Football Australia after the initial announcement last July but felt their concerns fell on deaf ears.
Football Australia's women's football council subsequently recommended an independent review to the Matildas alumni's concerns around the board's decision.
That review remains ongoing, so alumni members were upset to learn in recent weeks the First Matildas were being capped on Friday night.
THE PAST PLAYER REACTION
Shona Bass, Matildas cap No.2 and chair of Matildas Alumni Advocacy Group, said it was about "holding our governing board to account".
"We won't rest with this because the ramifications are too huge," Bass said. "It's the principle. It's governance.
"This team status was reviewed in 2022 by the Football Australia board and it was comprehensively determined that they were a club team not a national team.
"The evidence that was used to satisfy the criteria, there was no due diligence on that. Some of the information that was provided to satisfy the criteria was incorrect.
"There's another criteria, continuity, that the majority of the players who played in the 75 team went on to become Matildas. In actual fact, less than 20 per cent went on to become Matildas and some of the 1975 team weren't even good enough to get into the NSW state team."
The Herald sent questions to Football Australia seeking clarification on what evidence had been used to satisfy some of the criteria but those were largely unanswered.
Former Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury, who has 151 caps for her country and is one of Australia's most decorated footballers and sportspeople, felt the Matildas Alumni had zero choice but to speak out through the media to be heard.
"We've always fought for the Matildas Alumni," Salisbury said.
"We've fought for anyone that's had an A cap that hasn't been presented for it. We've fought for everyone who has had a B cap that hasn't had it presented.
"We've fought for these 75ers to be recognised as pioneers because that's what they are, but they're not Matildas A cap and that disregards everyone else that's had to fight for it.
"And, at the end of the day, when I look back on my career, we've been subjected to being second-rate. We've been silenced. We've been told we're not good enough. We've been told we're not equal. We've had to wash our clothes in a sink at World Cups because we're not the men.
"We've been silenced and we're getting silenced again. We've been disrespected since day dot by men in suits. The history of the Matildas is us. It's who we are. It's not about anyone else."
