It’s going to take a long time for many to get over the omissions of Brianna Davey and Kate Gill from the Matildas World Cup squad announced by Alen Stajcic on Tuesday.

Part of the reason might be familiarity. We see so little of the Matildas, with internationals once in a blue moon, rarely televised and never in our own backyards if you are outside of Sydney/Canberra.

And then there’s the W-League, it’s so short. With a maximum of six regular season matches at “home”, if you blink or have a family wedding to attend, you’ve missed half of it.

So Gill and Davey. They’re faces we know and trust. They’re not politicians. They deliver. Gill has been around for a while. She delivers. She scores.

Davey. She’s younger but she delivers no less than Gill and I get to see her commitment and conviction regularly. Davey in particular seemed like a sure thing.

Only not this time.

There have plenty of comments from football fans around the world. They have effectively praised us, or more particularly praised Alen Stajcic, for picking players based on form, which was labelled “unAmerican”.

Those same discussions also praise Australia’s willingness to give young players a chance, something Tom Sermanni was renowned for with the Matildas and potentially, ultimately dismissed for by US Soccer, who are beholden to their veterans.

Stajcic has undoubtedly got the toughest job around. In his own words he has struggled. “We’ve agonised over a lot of tough decisions” he said. “Making the final 23 cut was a really really difficult decision”.

He is to be applauded him when he says, “We can’t really look at people’s history and say they were good two, three years ago”.

And it is understandable when he states that we “Might only play three to seven games. We don’t have a 40 game season for someone to gain form during a tournament. They’ve got to be ready to go game one” … although we never ever have 40 game seasons, but I get the drift.

I respect the challenging judgements he, along with his selection team, have had to make, but that doesn’t mean I understand them.

Looking at the key weaknesses for the Matildas, it’s no secret it’s their inability to finish in the final third and their inability to keep clean sheets.

So it is shocking even more that the two key omissions are Gill, the Matildas all time leading scorer, and Davey, their number 1 go to keeper!

Take Gill. W-League Golden Boot winner and the ultimate reliable finisher. Sounds pretty compelling. Yes she had less impact in the 2014 Asian Cup. Yes Gill is the kind of striker who relies on full service which is a dying breed in football.

Stajcic has made no secret of the fact that he wants players who are versatile and can attack and defend. But Gill is our Wambach. When the goal is near, she scores. We need that. Even if it’s not plan A it’s a bloody good plan B and it gives the Matildas more options and more versatility if the main strategy isn’t working. Otherwise we’re stuck and we don’t want to be a one trick pony.

Davey. The Matildas number 1 goalkeeper for 18 internationals over 3 years. Yes there have been tussles between Lydia Williams and Davey for the number one spot. We’re fortunate to have such cracking keepers.

Davey epitomises courage. She’s strong, fearless, commanding and intimidating. If you’re out of form, as has been suggested, those things don’t change!

If you want clean sheets then Davey is my pick. Young, reliable, committed.

The form that many of us have in our minds is the W-League form but that is 5-6 months old.

There’s so little visibility about what has been going on for the past five months that we couldn’t expect to understand, particularly when the team have played 15 - 20 games against various types of teams.

15 - 20 games, 6 of which were A internationals and essentially no-one has seen the matches. It is arguable that the response to the omissions is a result of the lack of broadcasting and visibility of Matildas matches.

In other nations where the national team is regularly promoted and broadcast there is an incremental assessment by the public. It is the same for the Socceroos.

In essence, the element of surprise is lost as supporters feel a part of the process, they can see the assessment being undertaken by the coach. There are little to no surprises, although that does not stop the debate.

It’s a tough job being a coach and a selector. Every player on the plane deserves to be there and there are always going to be tough decisions about who should be there more.

However, when the players are absolutely gutted and don’t appear to understand the decisions either, then something isn’t quite right in the process.

Are there interim assessments along the way? Not the cuts from 55 players to 32. But feedback to know how you’re tracking? As a player, do you know if you’re tracking fourth in GK standings?

How will the team be impacted by these shock omissions?

And what about the impact to fans in dropping players like Gill and Davey. No it’s not important and yes it’s highly unlikely to affect the Matildas results, but perhaps a lesson on this journey is that if you’re trying to build a brand and develop a market, then you have to work with your fans, your market. Engage them. Involve them. Don’t shut them out and then throw giant curlies at them. It’s disengaging.

It's difficult to argue that Stajcic’s reasoning isn't all very logical but what is being expressed are emotions. The roller coaster of sport.

Perhaps what we’re seeing is a more professional approach to football? It’s tougher. The decisions are harder.

We’re invested and we aren’t going to like all of the decisions but the good news is, even amongst inconsistent and inconclusive results in our lead up, in the words of David Gallop, the Matildas are “better prepared than they’ve ever been“.

The result remains to be seen but we call on all the fans to #unite with the Matildas and support them in what is hopefully their most successful World Cup yet.