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.