Annie Yates: Former Murray United player selected in Junior Matildas squad

Yates, from Wodonga, flew to Canberra on Monday to join up with the other 29 players for a week-long training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport.

The 15-year-old full-back is joined in the squad by her close friend and former Murray United team-mate Poppy O'Keeffe, as the Junior Matildas gear up for the second round of AFC U17 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers.

"It's a really good opportunity and I'm really excited to be going with some of my best friends," Yates said.

"I've been playing with Poppy O'Keeffe since I was 10 years old so it's exciting to be going with her as well.

"After the nationals tournament last year, I was really determined to get into this squad so I've been training really hard with my club, at school and by myself.

"I love playing football, being with my team-mates and the social side of it."

The draw for the qualifiers takes place on Thursday - eight teams to be drawn in two groups of four - with the games being played from September 16-24.

"It's a feeling of immense pride to see that all the effort she's put in over the years has been rewarded," father Darren Yates said.

"It's something you never expect when they start out playing sport, to reach this sort of level.

"It started with Annie's sister, Amelia, wanting to start miniroos when Annie was six.

"They started at Twin City Wanderers around 2013, I got involved as the co-ordinator back then, and Annie played there for about four years.

"She did the Murray United SAP program at the same time and then she started playing in the Murray United under-12 NPL team.

"She was only 10 or 11 then, so she had the benefit of playing against the best boys from our region and across the state and that was really good for her, as well as Poppy and Amelia."

Yates moved to Melbourne 18 months ago with play with the Victoria National Training Centre (NTC) and study at Rowville Sports Academy.

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"It's been fantastic for the family and for Annie, for football reasons as well as education and meeting new friends, new challenges and new experiences," Darren said.

"Annie is coached at Rowville by Melissa Maizels, the former Melbourne Victory goalkeeper, and she's met so many amazing girls.

"Playing against boys (at Murray) she reached a level where, at 14 years of age, the boys develop so much physically that it made sense to make the move down to Melbourne and she had the opportunity with NTC, which was great.

"It's been a positive move and she's now playing seniors with FV Emerging, which is the NTC senior team.

"She's played most of the minutes for the first nine games of the season and she's doing well."

Yates, whose speed and strength makes her a very effective right-back or left-back, looks back fondly on her time with Murray United.

"It helped a lot, playing with the boys," she said.

"It's such a different game because they're so much stronger and faster.

"I train at school for about 10 hours a week now and after school I train with NTC.

"It's pretty much the state team but we play in the NPLW here in Melbourne.

"Moving down here was pretty hard at first but after a while, I made lots of friends and I'm really enjoying it now.

"The soccer down here is really good as well.

"Being selected in this squad means a lot and I'm really excited to train amongst some of the best girls in Australia."

Rae Dower is the Junior Matildas head coach.

"The depth across the country is exceptional and stronger than it has ever been," Dower said.

"We have a long list of 70+ players, so this camp was always going to be about providing new players with an opportunity."

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