Amber Barrett: ‘We’re gonna do our best to spoil the party on Thursday night’

The first thing you should know about the now infamous World Cup warm-up game with Colombia is that the footage of Denise O’Sullivan’s tackle, which prompted the game to be called off prematurely, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It had been 20 minutes of aggression, physicality and questionable challenges.

“We don’t shy away from physical contact,” says Amber Barrett. “But there’s a difference between being physical and maybe going in to hurt someone. And I’m not saying that’s what the Colombians were doing, but they did leave their mark on a few players. It was the best decision because, again, Thursday’s far more important than a behind-closed-doors game”.

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The second thing is that the internal game afterwards, the ‘Bs’ beat the ‘A’s, was far from a friendly knockabout admitted Barrett.

“You always find the 11 against each other is nearly as competitive as an actual game because we all want to be the ones in the 11 that gets to play. So, nobody was letting up.”

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While it seems that the team that started against France will once again line out for Australia, Barrett is content either way.

“At the end of the day, playing is the most important thing. So would I rather not start and not play or rather come off the bench in as many games?”

“I know that I’ll be – and I’ve told Vera this – a thorn in her side until she has to name the team. We’re not stupid either. People can make a good idea of what the 11 is probably gonna be for Thursday, obviously, when everybody remains fit and healthy. So it’s just one of those things.

“We’ve still a few days left to training. Everybody has to give a really good account to themselves and then to see [how] Vera makes the team, has she decided to give another player a chance or to look at another player. But at the end of the day, we all have to be ready to play at some stage on Thursday, whether it be from the start or coming on. So that’s the mindset.”

Having been consistently impressive off the bench, Barrett is somewhat of a ‘super sub’, which “doesn’t bother me one bit”.

“I’ve proven – and six out of the seven goals I’ve scored for Ireland I’ve scored off the bench. So I’ll take that with me and that’s something I have to obviously improve on and continue working on it. But again, as I said, I’ll keep pushing to be the striker that she wants to start. But if I can’t do that I have to make sure I’m ready to go.”

Those goals off the bench have proved to others what Barrett herself already knows; she can make an impact when given the chance.

“I do have a very good level of self-confidence [so] that I do believe I can always make an impact in the game. And I feel like sometimes I nearly think that the opposition don’t expect anything from me and that works in my favour that I’m just like, look, ‘I didn’t start, and there’s a sub coming on here’ and I know there’s just a different element that I can bring in.

“Yeah, of course it’s not always easy cause there’s times you come on and the game could be already gone or, it’s very difficult to get into. So it’s just one of those things you just have to adapt over a period of time and something I’ve got used to.”

Barrett is controlling the controllables, envisioning her goals – plural – and her celebrations that will follow. “You can visualise as much as you want, like that moment of scoring, but rarely do you visualise the exact thing that happened. They always say positive manifestation is really important and yeah, of course I’ve envisioned myself scoring hundreds of goals and if I’d scored all the goals I’ve thought about, I’d be the poster child not Sam Kerr,” she jokes.

“It’s just not the way it works. But I think it’s important to have that mindset, that you can see yourself scoring and you know, with that then anything’s possible.”

The anticipation is building, her brother, dad, cousins and friends are arriving, now is the time to #outbelieve. (Back at home, her local parish has moved Mass time back to ensure the 11am kick-off is accommodated. (“Hopefully Jesus does us a wee favour on Thursday!”)

“Everybody has a point to prove,” notes Barrett. “The atmosphere is gonna be very interesting because Australians have a lot of pressure as well. When you look back at the Euros, the most difficult game England played was the first game against Austria. That was the game. All the pressure was on the home nation opening the game and we said it before, we’re gonna do our best to spoil the party on Thursday night.”