Junior Matildas head coach Rae Dower impressed on visit to Perth
Football Australia Women’s Technical Advisor and Junior Matildas Head Coach Rae Dower visited Perth on Friday to cast her eye over the next crop of West Australian talent.
Dower attended two talent identification matches for girls born in 2007 and 2008.
These Gold Fields State Team hopefuls are bidding to represent WA at the National Youth Championships later in the year. And on the evidence of a rainy winter night at South Perth United’s Challenger Reserve, the signs are positive.
“It was good, high quality, high intensity football despite the weather. Highly spirited contests between players who usually play together,” Dower said. “Thanks to Football West’s Gareth Naven for pulling these games together at short notice.
“To have that many kids, 50 kids of high quality, goes to show the depth of players you have in Perth. Whoever makes the final squads for the National Youth Championships, WA will have highly competitive teams.”
Dower added: “The next group of Junior Matidlas [Australia U17s] are the players born in 07, 08 and 09. We have not seen a lot of those born in 07, the current Under 15s. They go up and down in their development, so we want to keep tabs on them, have more visits around the country, and also see them at the National Youth Championships when the best meets the best.”
As well as the players, Dower says she wants to open the door for more female coaches to get involved with the national set-up. On Friday, past and present Hyundai NTC coaches Faye Chambers, Sam Geddes and Courtney Owen were among those involved involved.
“There are a lot of opportunities for high-potential young coaches,” she said. “This could be in coaching, of course, or maybe it could mean we get them in as an analyst where they can develop their skills and we give them some additional motivation.
“WA has a good crop of enthusiastic young coaches, as well as [Fremantle City player] Mikayla Lyons as a Junior Matildas sports scientist.”
This week Dower and her team will host another Junior Matildas camp at the University of Wollongong to assess Junior Matildas candidates. Three West Australians, NTC duo Lilly Bailey and Georgia Cassidy plus Subiaco’s Zara Board, are involved. Meanwhile Hana Lowry, a former Junior Matilda, yesterday represented the Young Matildas [Australia U20s] in their 2-1 loss to New Zealand in Auckland.
“This is the third Junior Matildas camp this year. At the end of it we will look to name a squad for the AFF [Asean Football Federation] U17 Championships in Indonesia,” Dower said.
“The WA girls coming through have a lot of players they can look up to. There’s obviously a good role model in Sam Kerr, and then there are players like Hana Lowry, Leticia McKenna, Miranda Templeman who have come through. There’s also the likes of [Fremantle City’s] Natasha Rigby, who is a great leader of a young team.
“Georgia Cassidy in that same mould as Hana … tall, left footed midfielder, creative. She has a lot of potential.”
With Perth as one of the hosting cities for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the State Football Centre at Queens Park opening next year, is there a chance a future camp could be held in WA?
“We are amenable to getting around the country,” Dower said.
“Of course, there are things that have to be taken into consideration. Cost is a big factor, flights and accommodation, and if we can find a suitable venue. We also know the bulk of players are on the east coast. But we want to spread the love of football so nothing is out of the question.”
Football West Football Development Officer Dan Evans said: “It was good for Football West to have Rae come to WA to have a close look at the young players we have coming through. These matches are important as it gives our talented girls the chance to make an impression.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with Football Australia and having more of these games in the future.”
- Football West would like to acknowledge Gold Fields as the name sponsor of all of our State teams.