Six Queensland players have been selected in the Junior Matildas squad for a training camp held at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra from Monday, 6 August.
14-year-olds Mia Bailey, Jorja Thomson and Charlotte Farmer and 15-year-olds Georgia Beaumont, Kezia Pritchard and Jamilla Rankin have been named by Junior Matildas Head Coach Rae Dower.
Bailey recently competed at the National Youth Championships in Coffs Harbour, where she won Goalkeeper of the Tournament for the Under 14s age group, while the five other players are currently part of the Brisbane Roar FC/Queensland Academy of Sport (BRFC/QAS) program.
Only New South Wales can match the number of players chosen in the 23-player squad.
“On behalf of Football Queensland, I’d like to congratulate the six players going to Canberra for the Junior Matildas training camp,” Football Queensland (FQ) State Technical Director Gabor Ganczer said.
“These players hail from between Cairns to Coolangatta, and with two of our goalkeepers named, the selections show not only the depth of talent across the state, but in different positions on the pitch.”
Next week’s camp at the AIS is the first of three camps preparing for the AFC Under 16 Women’s Championship Qualifiers held in Kyrgyzstan in September.
Australia will face Chinese Taipei, host nation Kyrgyz Republic, Palestine and Indonesia in Group D as 30 teams compete for eight spots in the second round of qualifying.
In addition to the six Queenslanders selected, BRFC/QAS Head Coach David Da Silva has been invited by Junior Matildas staff to the second camp in August as a coaching development opportunity.
The full squad will be released by Football Federation Australia in due course.