The CommBank Junior Matildas continued their preparations for the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup Indonesia 2024™ in Cairns, Far North Queensland on the morning of Saturday, 27 April.
Taking some time out of their intensive training schedule, the U17 Women’s National Team held a community coaching session for girls aged 8 – 13 years old from the local Cairns First Nations, refugee and migrant communities.
Held at Endeavour Park, 18 girls from Cape York House for Girls and Centacare Far North Queensland resettlement program joined in the action, with a number of the players new arrivals in Australia from DR Congo and Bhutan.
Twelve players from the CommBank Junior Matildas designed and ran the hour-long coaching session with plenty of smiles and laughter on display.
Victoria's Danella Butrus explained being a part of the coaching session brought her joy as she was able to help girls who were in a similar position as she once was.
"My parents are both from Iraq and we all came here (Victoria) in 2013, it was difficult to learn a second language and go to school trying to make friends, but here I am today," she explained.
"I felt like it was easy to connect with them because I was in their shoes once and I felt like doing things and explaining things to them was really good because it was what I needed when I was younger."
The FV Emerging forward expressed hope that participants from the coaching session would use football as a mechanism to help fit in, similar to her experience when she migrated to Australia.
"(Football) is so important, I cannot stress it enough," Butrus said.
"I am genuinely so happy for them coming out and experiencing new experiences because I know how much football has helped me finding a place to fit in," Butrus explained.
"It just makes me feel genuinely so happy to be able to participate in things like this, everyone had so much fun today and I felt like I was giving back, I would do it again 10 million times over."
The Junior Matildas boasts an impressive six Victorian players with Danella Butrus joining Alice Francou, Ehva Gutszmit, Kiera Meyers, Amelia Tartaglia, and Annabelle Yates in the squad.
Follow all the CommBank Junior Matildas AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup action on Football Australia’s Instagram, Facebook and X social channels.
UPCOMING FIXTURES | AFC U-17 WOMEN’S ASIAN CUP INDONESIA 2024™
China PR v Australia
Date: Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Kick-off: 4.00pm (local) / 6.00pm AEST
Venue: Bali United Training Center, Bali
Australia v Japan
Date: Friday, 10 May 2024
Kick-off: 7.00pm (local) / 9.00pm AEST
Venue: Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium, Bali
Broadcast:
Australia v Thailand
Date: Monday, 13 May 2024
Kick-off: 4.00pm (local) / 6.00pm AEST
Venue: Bali United Training Center, Bali