30 female football players have taken part in an Elite Match in Canberra, as part of a talent identification process with Football Australia’s Women’s Technical Advisor and Head Coach of the Women’s U17’s team, Rae Dower.
Together with Football Australia and Capital Football, female players born in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were invited, seeing 25 players from the ACT and five from regional New South Wales involved.
“We’ve travelled around the entire country in this last 6 months, we’ve watched games in every state and this kind of brings our first roadshow to an end,” Rae Dower said.
“We’ve done this a few times over the last couple of years but what I think is really important is giving players an opportunity to play in their own backyard as well, where they feel really comfortable and where there’s familiar surroundings and they can play in front of family and friends.”
“The more opportunities that we can give players across the entire country, the better picture we can get of the talent.”
The Elite Match was held at Hawker Playing Fields with 30 young players
Canberra United Academy coach Vicki Linton who was also in attendance, said to have national team eyes on the players in this environment was a great opportunity.
“It’s a great initiative from Football Australia and it’s great to have Rae back down here,” she said.
“For the numbers that the ACT has, they’ve always produced quality players and so it’s exciting to be able to be here and see some of the younger ones do that and start to see how they come through over the years.”
Dower equally impressed by the huge talent pool of Australia’s youth, particularly when considering what the future may hold for them.
“With a home World Cup in two years, it’s really exciting to see that there’s players across the country now that we’re seeing in these elite games that could potentially represent Australia at a FIFA Women’s World Cup.”