‘Doesn’t feel real!’ - Inside Kaitlyn Torpey’s ‘whirlwind’ 2024 as the Matildas newbie prepares to face San Diego Wave team-mates Alex Morgan & Jaedyn Shaw at the Olympics

The catalyst for it all came just before Christmas when Torpey heard that a club in the U.S. was interested in her. “I had no idea what team or whether it was even in the top league or anything,” Torpey tells GOAL. At that point she was a seasoned A-League Women’s player, in her eighth campaign in Australia’s top-flight, but was still playing National Premier League football during the off-season, that the regional second-tier, still waiting for her big move abroad.

“I think that I was ready for it,” she remembers. “I didn't want to leave just for a mediocre offer, a not-as-good overseas club or league to play in. But this opportunity, I felt like I couldn't say no. It was such a big league, it's one of the top two leagues that I wanted to go to in the world. Wave won it last year so they are an amazing team with amazing facilities and everything. For me, there was no hesitation to leave. It's obviously, personally, a massive move, it's my first move overseas, but I was ready to go the next step and push myself and push myself for the national team as well.”

One of the biggest reasons this move was seen as a no-brainer was Wave head coach Casey Stoney. After speaking with the former England star for the first time, Torpey said to her agent: “I can't see anything that's wrong with this. I can't see a fault in this move.”

“The one thing I really loved about her is that she said, straight away, 'Okay, I know where your strengths are, but I also know where your weaknesses are and what we want to work on'. And she named them,” the 24-year-old recalls. “And that's what's happening now. I felt straight away, 'Okay, I'm going to improve as a player under an amazing coach like Casey'.

“I think the best thing about her is that you don't have to be playing for her to give you her full attention. Even when I don't play or don't get as many minutes, she will sit with me through game film each week if I want to, and then we'll do extras after training and we work on really specific things just for me. It's not like she's just handing me over to an assistant coach or anyone else. She's like, 'No, you and me are going to do this' and she always makes time for me. That's been one of the biggest things that I love about working with her.”

As a former defender, Stoney has been able to give Torpey, who can play full-back or winger on either side, a few pointers – and the players she comes up against every day in training also help, without even knowing it. Torpey remembers her first session with the Wave and going up against Shaw, the exciting young United States women’s national team star. “I was like, ‘Okay, this is where you know where the standards are’,” she says.

“She's obviously an amazing player, but everyone [is]. If you make one mistake, it can lead to a goal in training and that's why it's so good because you learn so much. In the last two to three months, I've probably learned more than I ever have on the football side of the game. Casey's a big reason for it, but it's also because the players around me are world-class and everyone has a name and everyone's got a bit of fame here. It's great. I'm learning so much and that's exactly why I wanted to come here.”

In Sofia Jakobsson and Kyra Carusa, Torpey has been coming up against two forwards who played at last year’s World Cup, and there is no introduction needed for Morgan, the captain of this team who was also at that tournament. The two-time world champion has a great reputation with nurturing young forwards and there are ways she has been able to aid a promising defender like Torpey, too.

“She’s said a few things that have really helped, but it's also just having a quality player like that running at you,” the Australia international explains. “Yesterday in training we were going at it and I had to tackle her a few times and she was so class with everything. She's such a hard player to mark. She doesn't even need to say anything for me to learn from her, just defending her is enough.”

There is plenty of star quality in San Diego on the defensive side as well, with a World Cup winner in Abby Dahlkemper and the exceptional Naomi Girma, and their direction has been useful for someone with Torpey’s skillset. The 24-year-old can be thrown into a number of positions, so having players like that around her as she settles into a match in a different role is a bonus.

“It's been so helpful when I sub into games to have leaders at the back like Abby and Naomi, they've been massive. As soon as I step onto the field, I feel like, 'Okay, I'm covered either way', whether it's covered from the wing or covered from my center-backs,” Torpey says. “They talk to me so much and that's one of the biggest differences I've felt. In this team, everyone communicates and everyone's a leader so it makes it so easy to just slot right in and feel at home straightaway.”

Constantly being able to switch positions is something Torpey admits can be a lot of work, requiring extra study, film and time with the coaches to go through how it changes her set-pieces roles, for example. However, she loves that, she’ll “do anything” to get on the pitch and she recognises that such versatility is “one of the best assets” she has.

Indeed, Torpey believes it is that part of her game which has earned her the right to go to the Olympics with Australia, after the Matildas’ squad was announced on Tuesday. It’s only four months ago that she got her first call into camp with the seniors and yet, she’ll be on that plane to France this summer as Tony Gustavsson’s side look to win a first medal at the Games.

That inclusion in his February squad was “a big shock”, she says. Torpey had never previously spoken to Gustavsson when his invite landed in her inbox and caused some emotional scenes, arriving while the 24-year-old was enjoying a rare bit of down time with her family. “I got the email when we were shopping for clothes,” she remembers. “I just cried in there for 10 minutes. I just cried and hugged my mum and I was like, 'Mum, we need to go. I need to go tell Dad'. It was so nice. It was the perfect time for me to find out because I was around my family. We just had a big family group hug. I don't go home that often, so the fact that I was around them when I got it, it was so surreal and a moment I will never forget.

“I was so ready for it,” she adds, despite the surprise. “I'd been pushing for it for so long. I had that feeling of, 'It's going to come. It's just a matter of when'.”

Torpey’s first camp would be Australia’s first without Kerr after she ruptured her ACL in a devastating Olympic-ending injury in the New Year, too, and it was the debutante who got the iconic No.20 shirt in her absence. “I definitely wasn’t expecting it,” she says with a laugh. “But it was honestly great. It was a privilege to wear the number and to wear the jersey. It's Sam's number and as much as it was a privilege, as soon as she comes back, she's got it.”

In a true show of leadership, Kerr was keen to send her encouragement to the 24-year-old newbie on social media as well. "What a number to do it in," the captain wrote, offering her congratulations. “I haven't officially met her, so for that comment to come through was so nice,” Torpey adds. “I knew I had her support. She's obviously a massive player in that team so I'm pretty keen to meet her and play with her.”

Who will sport the No.20 shirt at the Paris Olympics? Only time will tell - but we know that Torpey will be on that roster after Gustavsson revealed his list of 18 this week. It caps a truly incredible few months for the 24-year-old, who has shown no sign of being overwhelmed in her five appearances for the Matildas.

“I just feel at home there,” she says. “I feel really comfortable going into that environment and I feel like I can be myself and play myself. It's so hard to be at that level and be like that. I'm learning a lot going in and I definitely feel more and more at home there. It's been great. I've loved every minute that I've got.”

While many of her Australia team-mates won’t kick a ball now until the pre-Olympic friendlies, Torpey will be back in San Diego for the next month or so, getting ready for the Games by playing her part for the Wave in the NWSL. It’ll be good preparation, too, because as well as facing Shaw and Morgan in training, she’ll be coming up against them in the group stages in France when the Matildas take on the USWNT.

For now, though, it’s that top talent, those names with a little bit of fame as she puts it, that are getting Torpey geared up for what will be the biggest moment of her rather wild 2024. “I'm learning every single day because of how quality these players are,” she says. “It's been an amazing experience and I've loved every single second of it.”