Majority of Aussie sports fans would be aware, the AFC Women's Asian Cup is being held on home soil in March 2026. The CommBank Matildas have played their final two friendlies before the tournament kicks off. In these two friendlies, the Matildas got two wins at home over New Zealand's Football Ferns: a 5–0 win on the Central Coast and a 2–0 win in Adelaide as the Ferns farewelled their captain Annalie Longo.

With the Matildas now playing no more matches together as a team until the Asian Cup kicks off, there's one question on everyone's mind: who -when the squad is announced in late February- will (or should) make the squad picked by Joe Montemurro? Only 23 (or possibly 26, as there are rumours it could expand like the men's tournament) players can make it; three of which must be goalkeepers.

Will we keep the older players who are past their prime but have valuable experience, or will we go for younger talents who could see us go further in the future? All in all, there is only one goal for this tournament, to win it. After the country fell in love with the Matildas at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on home soil, it will be truely monumental if we do lift the Asia Cup for just the second time in history.

In this article I give my takes on the 52 players I think could make the final squad. And trust me, it's a hard squad to pick from.

Note: this article is multiple pages long.

Picking the six best goalkeepers is the easiest part of this. It's been made firmly clear that our best three goalies (and likely the three that go to the Asian Cup) are Mackenzie Arnold (our former first-choice keeper), Teagan Micah (our current first-choice keeper) and Jada Whyman (who kept seven clean sheets in the 2025 Damallsvenskan season, coming third in the Golden Glove rankings). But if one gets injured, we need three backups.


Of the three I've chosen, one plays overseas, that being DC Power's Morgan Aquino, while the other two are playing in the A-League Women. One of them is of course Brisbane Roar's Chloe Lincoln, who has established herself as our fourth choice and even has three caps to her name at 20 years old. But my next choice, the "wildcard choice" (as it's the hardest to choose from, having considered many players), will be one familiar to the A-League fans, but not so much for the Eurosnobs or national team-only fans.


Courtney Newbon, the 25-year-old between the sticks for Melbourne Victory, is the reigning Golden Boot winner in the A-League, having kept 11 clean sheets in the 2024–25 regular season for Victory. This season, she's already kept two and is equal first in the rankings. But yet the Tasmanian has never been capped or even called up for Australia on any level (nor has any Tasmanian been called up for the Matildas in many years now).

Note: Matildas caps as of 2 December 2025, age as of 1 March 2026.

We've got a lot of depth in defence, both in centre-backs and full-backs, a strong point in our squad.


We have arguably the best full-back in the world in Ellie Carpenter, who moved between two world-class clubs prior to this season (completing a move from OL Lyonnes to Chelsea). We have another excellent defender in Steph Catley, one of the 2025 Ballon d'Or Féminin nominees who won the UEFA Women's Champions League with Arsenal last season - following a fairytale run in which the Gunners completed an ultimate upset by defeating two time reigning champions Barcelona in Lisbon.


It's also impossible to ignore the wonders that Wini Heatley, Clare Hunt and Courtney Nevin are doing for their clubs. Of course, then there's my personal favourite, Charli Grant, unfortunately sidelined until Christmas. While she is a fan favourite (both for club and country) and has Matildas experience, she's been lacking game time at Tottenham (which is also my WSL club), so a move may be on the cards for her.


And we need to talk about some other young talents in defence: Jess Nash, Jamilla Rankin and Charlize Rule are all playing in Europe and I believe they all deserve a pick. But with such a wealth of young defenders, that means that even if she's experienced and obviously makes this 52-player list, you could even make a case for omitting Alanna Kennedy from the actual squad.


As for the A-League, we've got some good defenders in Alexia Apostolakis, Tash Prior and Tori Tumeth who could potentially make the cut, as well as potentially Kayla Morrison if FIFA finally approves of her change of association request (as she now has Australian dual citizenship but is still counted as an American by FIFA). Another I would be willing to consider is 22-year-old Emma Ilijoski, currently playing for Aberdeen in the SWPL and is eligible for both Australia (her country of birth) and North Macedonia (her country of heritage). We could also steal Deb de la Harpe from Ireland, as the Australian-born defender only has one cap for Ireland and is an Australia youth international.


My final choice is a special one. While I did say I would prefer a talented young squad, maybe, just maybe, we could bring back Aivi Luik for one last time. The 40-year-old centre-back, who won the Damallsvenskan title with Häcken last month, has not yet retired from football, nor has she even officially announced her international retirement. It would be really special if the Matildas did go on to lift the Asian Cup bidding farewell to her.

Note: Matildas caps and goals as of 2 December 2025, age as of 1 March 2026.

We currently have an aging midfield that continuously gets picked and played, but I think we need to move past that and start some younger midfielders over out of form aging players. However, keeping them in case the youngsters get injured isn't a bad idea.


Three of our current midfield, Katrina Gorry, Emily van Egmond and Tameka Yallop, are all over the age of 31. While I'm open to keeping them as reserves in case we have injuries, I'm not sure if the latter two will make the actual 23 or 26-player squad, and the former probably isn't a starter anymore.


Our young midfielders are so talented, so in form and deserve way more credit than they get, both from us and from foreign fans and pundits. Kyra Cooney-Cross, Amy Sayer and Clare Wheeler are all must-picks for the squad. They've all established themselves as class midfielders and regulars for the Matildas squad. Any squad without them feels incomplete, and rightfully so.


But there's another young midfielder it would be disappointing to exclude from the squad: 19-year-old wonderkid Daniela Galić. The former Melbourne City midfielder made the move to Twente in 2023, but the Dutch treble winners failed to give her any meaningful game time at all, which caused her to move to Vittsjö where she's been in the form of her life in the Damallsvenskan, one of Europe's Big Six leagues. Having only signed in January, she's already scored four goals and assisted twice in her 13 Damallsvenskan games, meaning she's made a goal contribution in 46.15% of her league games for the club. If she isn't included in the squad -while she still has multiple cycles left in her at just 19- it'd still be truly disappointing to exclude such a talented player.


As for our other midfielders, we've still got plenty of options. Jacynta Gala looked promising on her debut, and Alex Chidiac may be considered as a reserve. Both of them currently play for mid-table Serie A Femminile clubs (Chidiac for Como and Gala for Sassuolo). Alana Murphy is another that could be considered, playing regularly for 2. Frauen-Bundesliga club Sand (yes, the club is actually called "Sand"), who look likely to be promoted. She even scored her first goal for the club recently.


For the rest of the list, it's worth looking at the A-League Women again. Leah Davidson, Izzy Gomez and Adriana Taranto all already have Matildas caps and would be considered. But this could be the perfect time to introduce two new young talents: Milly Boughton, an English-born Australian under-23 international currently playing at Hibernian (despite having never played in the A-League she's gone through the academies of West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal, in that order), and Indi dos Santos, Sydney FC's young gun who's our reigning Members Player of the Year and Under-23 Player of the Year who's also been capped as a youth international. The only problem: Boughton is lacking game time at Hibs, while dos Santos is close to recovery but still not yet fully recovered from her ACL injury sustained following the end of last season. Another wonderkid that could be considered is Melbourne City's Shelby McMahon, who at just 17 is already a key player for City in the A-League:

Note: Matildas caps and goals as of 2 December 2025, age as of 1 March 2026.

Our forwards are our most well-known players, with our captain Sam Kerr being one of the best strikers of all time and one of Australia's most iconic athletes of all time. Having recovered from her ACL, she'll be ready for anything if (or should I say, when) she's picked for the Asian Cup squad.


Continuing on with famous Matildas, Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso still star for the national team, with Raso having scored in both of the Matildas' victories over the Football Ferns over the last international break.


But one major question everyone's asking is whether Mary Fowler will have recovered in time for the Asian Cup. The star youngster is still recovering from her ACL injury and while there were rumours of her being on track for a November return (and there are videos of her back training again at Man City), it's now December and we still have no more updates. Therefore, her selection is in doubt, because while she is extremely talented, she may not be back in time.


Now for some of the younger talents. Overseas we've got Kahli Johnson, Remy Siemsen, Kaitlyn Torpey and Cortnee Vine all fighting for spots in the Asian Cup squad. Additionally, we have some young talents at home in the A-League as well, such as Sharn Freier (who is back at Brisbane Roar on loan from Wolfsburg), Bryleeh Henry, Grace Kuilamu and Holly McNamara all already capped for the Matildas and would all be under consideration.


This tournament could also be potentially the last time we see veteran and A-League all-time leading goalscorer Michelle Heyman wearing the green and gold. The Canberra United star came out of international retirement to fill in for Sam Kerr during her ACL recovery, but now that Kerr is back chances are she may return to retirement being 37 years old.

Note: Matildas caps and goals as of 2 December 2025, age as of 1 March 2026.

Below is the full 52-player pool that I have compiled for the CommBank Matildas' 2025 AFC Asian Cup squad. Only 23 (or possibly 26) players, including three goalkeepers, can make the final squad.

Note: Matildas caps as of 2 December 2025, age as of 1 March 2026.


Note: free agents are counted in the totals of the leagues they last played in. Loan players are counted for the league they currently play on loan in.


Note: free agents are counted in the totals of the leagues they last played for. Loan players are counted for the club they currently play for.

That concludes my list of the 52 players I think should be in consideration for the Matildas' Asian Cup squad.

In your opinion, who do you think makes the cut? Did I miss any players? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading! I hope you appreciate this as this took multiple hours over the span of two days to write.