The CommBank Emerging Matildas Championships (EMC) will begin at the Home of the Matildas on Friday, a tournament in which you will be watching "future Matildas" in action.
The tournament, previously known as the National Youth Championships, is the centrepiece of talent identification and a key part of Australian football's development pathway. According to Michael Cooper, coach of Australia's Under-17s national side, future stars will be unearthed throughout the competition that runs until Wednesday.
"It's huge," Australia's under-17s coach Michael Cooper said.
"It's the biggest event that we have. It's the biggest opportunity for the players to play against the best in the country. The states, the players, the parents even, I think they see it as a really big occasion.
"It's hugely exciting and that's why we invest a lot to go there and talent ID the players in that environment… it's a big, big event for us.
"We also appreciate that not everyone will be (identified) from this event. Some players might be injured, some players might miss it for a certain reason and we have to look further and beyond.
"Over the last few years, the players of the tournament have gone on to the A-League, progressed on to Under-20s. Even the Matildas now, they played in the old Nationals.
"The reality is next week we're going to see some future Matildas, which is exciting."
You only need to sample the cohort Cooper is taking to China for the U17 Women's Asian Cup, or the under-20s side who are now playing in Thailand, for proof of that. Twenty of Cooper's squad played in last year's Emerging Championships. In the Young Matildas, Skye Halmarick has been making headlines for her hat-trick against India - she was at the 2024 under-16 EMC, alongside Amelia Bennett, Tiana Fuller and goalkeeper of the tournament, Ilona Melegh.
Amelia Cassar and Sienna Dale, players of the tournament in 2024 and 2023, are both in Alex Epakis' squad.
One high profile example of the gems we might discover this week is Willa Pearson, the effervescent Sydney FC young gun who broke Sam Kerr's record for being the youngest goalscorer in A-League Women's history at 15 years and 51 days.
Pearson, who recently inked a two-year contract extension with Sydney FC, was one of the breakthrough performers just last year.
"With A-League clubs investing more in youth development, there's more A-League presence at these tournaments," Cooper explained.
"There's more interest around the players and getting to know them younger.
"Willa's a great example. She had a great EMC tournament, but she also played up an age group. And from there, she obviously went into A-League, coming to us and doing well.
"She's a good example, but there are many others. From last year, we've given 41 players a Junior Matildas game that attended at EMC, but also in the current squad that we're taking to China, 20 out of the 23 were at the EMC.
"Realistically the pathway for a lot of the players involved playing at the EMC."
The tournament takes place from Friday to Wednesday, with pre-tournament testing taking place on Thursday, part of the elite environment being created. Last year, Western Australia's Sakura Leong turned heads with her metrics and had already caught attention before the football even started.
For many, this will be their first tournament experience away from home, mimicking some of the pressures they will face if they graduate onto national teams.
The week is a hive of activity; alongside football, there are workshops for parents, coaches and players on topics like wellbeing, working with agents and nutrition.
The competition is split into three groups in each age group, with representatives from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Northern NSW, Football West, NSW Regional, Victoria, South Australia, Capital Football, as well as an indigenous XI named after Charles Perkins, as Football Australia looks to expand opportunities and exposure for First Nations talent, and a team from Vietnam.
Cooper added: "It's a really good opportunity for us to talent ID and it's obviously the highest level comp.
"This is an opportunity for them to perform against same age girls, which I think is really important because obviously that's the tournament experience that we have when we go away. It replicates a little bit what we experience when we're away. Obviously they have to be in hotel, be away from home, play games back to back.
"It's a really good opportunity for us to see players in that environment.
"Most of the girls nationally will play up an age group. Some will flourish, some will show resilience, some will show physical capacity, and then others will show potential for the future.
"We come out of the EMC with a monitoring list of players and some will be short-term selections, some will be medium (term)."
Being an under-17s national side coach isn't just a big responsibility - it is a complicated one. Players are only in camp for short periods of time, and also in a developmental phase of their careers. Most of their time is spent across the country with their Member Federations, and increasingly, A-League clubs.
Importantly, Cooper said, communication and integration is high across the network, and becoming even more coordinated since Joe Montemurro's arrival at Football Australia.
He continued: "It's the perfect place to continue to work and build relationships with all the staff and the member federations that work with these players because, essentially, they do a lot of the development for us because we don't get much time when we're in camp together.
"The more we can work with the staff and each member federation, share what we look for, what we do, how we want to play football... Not just for the Junior Matildas but also with Joe Montemurro for the seniors, how he wants to play football and what the top level of the game needs, then we can help the coaches and the staff be aware of that and hopefully focus on a few things development wise for the future."
With 20 games a day across a packed week of fixtures, 27 teams and close to 700 players, how does the scouting actually work?
"We have what's called TDS - Talent Development Scheme, a FIFA-funded initiative that allows us to travel around each state and conduct training games.
"That then allows us to be aware of the players, and then we go to EMC to zoom in on those players and see how they cope in that environment.
"However, we always want to be surprised.
"We always want players to jump out that we're not aware of, because development's not one straight line. Last year a couple of players did that and they are still with us now in the Junior Matildas.
"But also, some players we're already aware of and we (have) got high hopes for them. But, if they don't perform well at EMC, it's not the be all and end all. We just keep monitoring the potential and continue to give them many, many opportunities."
Seven Junior Matildas' staff along with Member Federation staff monitor the matches before regrouping nightly to round out their observations.
The scouting doesn't end there, either.
Cooper says he rewatched last year's knockout matches three or four times to make sure nothing was missed.
The opportunity for these players is real.
Last year, Izabela Rako, Kiera Sarris, Dali Burchmore, Leila Hussein, Maive Nicholas, Elise Oppedisano, Freida Karaberis, Charlotte Bradshaw, Anabel Croll and Hayley Muir all tasted success at the ASEAN Under-16s Girls' Championships in August, after participating in the EMCs.
Clare Corbett is another 2025 star who Sydney FC have blooded, while Kaya Jugovic celebrated her senior league debut with Melbourne City in January.
In total, 13 youngsters have picked up contracts from last year's tournament.
Aeryn Tarrant, now with Melbourne Victory, was a star of the under-16s, player of the tournament and MVP of the final, won thanks to Alexis Pantazopoulos' strike for Victoria.
NSW was the under-15s victor, whose star Freida Karaberis has gone on to sign for Western Sydney.
Many of the 2025 Team of the Tournament from the under-15s will feature again over the next week as under-16s, including Zoe Reader, Tessa Young, Madison Gabilla, Charlotte Lowrie, Matilda Fleming, Mackenzie Preston-Poole, Holly Tweedale and Junior Matildas call-up Harper Peel. 2025 stars Mary Dal Broi and Jada Taylor have been called up by the Junior Matildas while Zoe Dumont is recuperating from an ACL injury.
Who will be the 2026 breakout star? We'll find out over the next week.
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
CommBank Emerging Matildas Championships (Girls U15 & U16)
Dates: 9 – 15 April 2026
Location: Home of the Matildas, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria
HOW TO WATCH
KommunityTV is your destination for exclusive live streams of the 2026 CommBank Emerging Championships with News Corp full digital subscribers having exclusive access to watch the action.
Every match will be available to watch live and on demand. Live streams of all fields will be available for each day of the tournament, with replays posted at the end of each day.
FIXTURES & RESULTS
The Tournament Hub has all the competitions and results while the Tournament Guide features all the groups, fixtures and key information.
This article was originally published on football360.com.au
