Victorian Girls showed positive signs for the future at The National Youth Championships in Coffs Harbour.
The Victorian Blue U14 side finished third overall, U16 Blue, unfortunately, lost to Queensland in the Final, while U16 White ended the tournament in seventh place.
Football Victoria Girls Talent Development Manager Annick Fokchak said there were "a lot of positives” to take out of the Championships.
“To finish the way we did not having had a full season until 2022 I think this is a pretty good result,” she said.
“Hopefully some Victorians got looked at and make it through to The Commonwealth Bank Junior Matildas, it is just a matter of who at this point.
“I feel we had plenty of strong performers throughout the tournament, there are lots to look forward to from a Victorian perspective.”
The Victorian U14 side unfortunately missed out on the chance to compete for a spot in the Final after their clash with NSW Metro was washed out.
“The girls were able to regroup and faced off against Capital Football in the third-place play-off on the Friday,” Fokchak explained.
The tense matchup was forced to penalties after the two sides were locked at 1-1 (Tina Huang, Victoria, and Lucy Cameron, Capital Football) at the end of regular time.
Victoria was able to get the better of Capital Football in the shoot-out, winning 4-3.
“The U14s had a great tournament, they should be super proud of themselves,” Fokchak said.
“There were many standouts with Leyla Hussien and Georgia Groidis setting up the play quite well, Amelia Tartaglia was superb in center-back and Keira Sarris was quite composed and steady with the ball through the midfield.
The Victorian Under 16s Blue side was defeated by Queensland Maroon 1-0 in the Final after previously in a very tight contest.
“They went undefeated throughout the whole week leading up to the Final, which is a great achievement,” Fokchak said.
“If they had one more game they may have finished on top overall, l I think they did really well.”
Fokchak said it was a great performance by the entire U16 squad throughout the week.
“They ended up with the most amount of goals in the group which is fantastic,” she said.
“Both coaches were female so that’s also pretty cool.
“Both goalkeepers Sophie Dehne and Charlotte Hrehoresin both had really good, midfielders Eva Kokotis and Clancy Westaway were very influential, while Maia Marinkovic had a great tournament up front in striker.”
Fokchak also wanted to acknowledge the boys' program who provided healthy competition in the lead-up to the competition.
“In preparation for high intensity and loading the girls up to get them ready to play back-to-back games we played a lot of the boy's teams from July onwards,” she said.
“We are very grateful for those lead in games, it helped us greatly during the tournament.”
Football Victoria would also like to congratulate Courtney Van Diesenf on being awarded the U16s Referee of the Tournament.