Matildas young gun Stephanie Catley is relishing the chance to step out onto the field in the Olympic Games.
The Matildas went through their group undefeated in the Asian qualifying tournament, overcoming Japan, Vietnam, North Korea and South Korea along the way as well as drawing with China in their final game.
Catley says she is looking forward to the attention they will be receiving in Brazil.
“The Olympics is big and if not a bigger scale of things, the world watches and there all these other sports, so there’s a wide variety of audiences,” Catley said.
“The Olympics is huge and for us to qualify and be at a major tournament is so important because our team is developing so much.
“Every single game we play we seem to be getting better and this group just needed to be at a major tournament and for us to get there is exciting.”
The achievement brought celebrations in the Australian football world, with the Matildas struggling to qualify in the past – not since the 2004 games in Athens.
But now they have got there, and the 22-year-old is adamant they will not be going to Brazil with a soft mentality.
“Staj has come out and said that (go for gold) and he’s been quite bold about it, so he has a lot of belief in us,” she said.
“There’s a lot of belief in the group as well, we believe we can topple some of the best teams in the world and we want to be the best team in the world.
“For him to come out and say we want to win a medal it’s big and bold, but we back him and we think we’re definitely capable of doing it as well.”
Olympic qualification with the Matildas is another in a long line of milestones for Catley this year, who was part of Melbourne City Women’s record-breaking W-League championship success.
“It’s been a big year, moving from Melbourne Victory was a big deal for me as that was the club I grew up at,” she said.
“To be so successful at City and to play with so many amazing players, I feel like I was able to develop my football a lot more.
“That was an incredible year, it was one of my favourite seasons in the W-League, it was so much fun and then to get straight back into national team and be able to do something as big as this, it’s been an incredible year.”
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