New year, new names as the Matildas head into a new cycle

A new cycle begins for the Matildas and, with a view to building squad depth for the 2019 World Cup, Matildas head coach Alen Stajcic has called up a 25 player squad for 2017.

The squad includes three uncapped teenagers who impressed during the 2016/17 W-League season; Canberra United midfielder and Young Matildas captain Grace Maher, 15 year old Melbourne City FC midfielder Jacynta Galabadaarachchi and Western Sydney Wanderers FC goalkeeper Jada Mathyssen-Whyman.

The Junior and Young Matildas players are joined by their national teammates and senior capped players Alex Chidiac and Ellie Carpenter.

“We are now heading into a new four year cycle. The last cycle ended after the Rio Olympics so this is the beginning of a new cycle up until after the Tokyo Games, so we’re looking at what kind of team we can take to qualify for the major tournaments, starting with the Asian Cup next year,” said Stajcic.

“It’s about having a squad that can peak in these tournaments.”

The training squad also sees the return of several previously capped Matildas including Canberra United's Hayley Raso and defenders Teigen Allen and Gema Simon.

“For the majority it is about what they showed in the W-League but others have done well at Young Matildas camps and in the Under 17 national team, so it could have been on any major arena that we watched them play on,” said Stajcic.

“They’re players we think have the potential to be really good international footballers.

“The biggest objective of this camp and one of the major factors in the squad we’ve selected is building the depth of the team and increasing the competition within the team and giving more players the experience of being in a Matildas camp and playing senior international football."

Meanwhile defenders Emma Checker and Amy Harrison re-join the camp after returning to the W-League this season after lengthy recoveries for ACL injuries.  A couple of noticeable absentees from the squad are World Cup and Olympics representatives Laura Alleway, Larissa Crummer and Tameka Butt as well as W-League Golden Boot winner Ashleigh Sykes. The absentees are due to a mixture of injury, form and reluctance to return to the national team set up.

The camp at the AIS will be followed by a second training camp in Sydney’s west from 20-22 February ahead of the Matildas’ participation in the Algarve Cup in Portugal.

The squad of 25 players will be reduced at the end of the training camps to a squad of 18 – 20 players who will be joined by Elise Kellond-Knight and Emily van Egmond at the Algarve Cup in Portugal.

Former Matilda Heather Garriock will join current Assistant Coach Gary van Egmond in an assistant role to Stajcic for the two training camps and the Algarve Cup.

Garriock is the first of a number of aspiring female coaches that will be given the opportunity to be part of the Matildas’ coaching staff on a rotational basis.

“Heather is one of the coaches but we’ll also have Mel Andreatta and Leah Blayney to start off the process of engaging more females in our national team environment,” said Stajcic.

“It’s a process of upskilling these high quality people with more experience at the highest level working with the top players in the country.”

The Matildas will participate in the Algarve Cup from 1 – 8 March 2017 taking on Sweden, Netherlands and China.