They took part in training with the kids signed autographs – and took plenty of selfies.
Catley told The Age surprising the kids felt “pretty amazing”.
Some thrilled young soccer players watch the Matildas enter the room.
“I remember being as young as Rosie [one of the children there], and you know, at the time we didn’t have females to look up to. I was looking up to AFL male players as my sporting idols.
“So, the fact that we can walk in a room and they know who we are, and they’re excited to meet us, and they want to be us is very, very special.”
The children were told they had been selected as part of the youth player escort program for next year’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
An excited young fan meets the Matildas.
The program will allow 1500 children aged 6-10 to accompany players onto the pitch at the start of matches across the tournament.
Kerr and Alanna Kennedy greet the young soccer players.
They were informed they would have the opportunity to not only be on television, but that be broadcast to millions of people globally, as they run out with the Australian women’s national team.
Catley said the young fan base is crucial for the Matildas and why the team goes out of its way to stay around and do signings after matches.
“We do it because we know where we’ve come from. And we know we haven’t always had that support,” she said.
“You know, we’ve been in the situation where we’re playing in front of, you know, a couple of 100 people, family and friends, no one coming to support us. Nobody knowing who we are. So where we are now, you know, we usually get around 20,000 people coming to watch us pretty regularly.
“I think we just spend time with the fans because we appreciate them, and we’re never going to take that for granted. And that’s something that I think is really unique about our team, about women’s sport, women’s football in general. So, we love our fans and we’ll never take them for granted.”
