Matildas Abroad: From the Westfield W-League to the world

The Westfield W-League is a league filled to the brim with emerging and established talent. It is the starting point in the professional careers of some of this country’s best and brightest stars.

These are the players who have spent summer after summer playing against and with some of the world’s best in a competition that has only gotten stronger.

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For many of our Westfield Matildas, the Westfield W-League is a major part in the origin story.

From Kyah Simon capturing hearts, titles and awards in the early 2010s with Sydney FC, to Steph Catley steadily growing into one of the most decorated and successful players and Ellie Carpenter bursting onto the scene as a 16 year old, the league is the setting where they honed their craft before they became some of the best and most exciting players on the planet.

MORE: Westfield Matildas at Home: Made in the Westfield W-League

Up and down the pitch from Lydia Williams in goal to Sam Kerr leading the line, the Westfield W-League has been the place where our Westfield Matildas are made.

A foundation Westfield W-League player with Canberra United, Williams has been the last line of defence for club and country for years. If attacks win games and defences win championships it is little wonder that success has followed Williams.

An abundance of premierships and championships with Canberra and Melbourne City have contributed to her being a mainstay between the sticks for her country too.


A four-time Westfield W-League Goalkeeper of the Year winner, she has gone on to play across the US and Sweden before landing at Arsenal in the FA Women’s Super League.

She’s joined at the Gunners by Caitlin Foord. The wonderkid from the Illawarra started out at the Central Coast Mariners before joining Sydney and, barring a spell at Perth Glory, never looked back.

A baby-faced defender, Foord would win a premiership with Sydney FC before having a breakout tournament at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup – becoming the first winner of the Best Young Player award.

More silverware followed and a move further up the wing saw Foord continue to star on the biggest stages, culminating in her AFC Women’s Player of the Year award in 2016.


Stints in Japan and the US punctuated her years in sky blue and now she’s once again starring but in the red and white of Arsenal.  

Foord’s one half of the dynamic duo that is her and Sam Kerr. The pair have grown up in the national team and playing with and against each other in the Westfield W-League and the National Women's Soccer League. Kerr’s rise to prominence is well documented.

The 15-year-old played for her hometown club for years, winning a premiership and guiding her team to multiple grand finals. A championship during her spell with Sydney FC meant she tasted the ultimate success.

The rise of the Westfield Matildas coincided with Kerr’s rise, the two narratives intertwining. Both demanded the public’s attention with performances that simply couldn’t be ignored.

MORE: Foord, Carpenter and Kerr ranked in 100 best players in the world for 2020

READ: Reliving Sam Kerr's Historic 2017

Kerr would go on to become the Westfield W-League’s all-time leading scorer, claiming two Golden Boot awards and two Julie Dolan medals and an AFC Women’s Player of the Year award. On the international stage, she became the first Australian to score four goals in a FIFA Women’s World Cup match and earned an high profile move to Chelsea.

Another fresh faced teen to announce her arrive was Hayley Raso.  Raso and her famous ribbons have graced Westfield W-League pitches up and down the east coast of Australia.

With pace to burn and a fearlessness to her game, she endeared herself to fans wherever in the world she was. She’s earned titles in Portland and Canberra and premierships in the nation’s capital and Brisbane.


These attacking qualities were crucial in the Olympic qualifying campaign for Tokyo 2020 and they have since helped Everton make it all the way to an FA Cup final.

Emily van Egmond is one of the most well-travelled Westfield Matildas. But in between stints in the NWSL and Germany’s Frauen Bundesliga, she’s more often than not been in the shirt of her hometown club – the Newcastle Jets.

MORE: Matildas Abroad: FA WSL Round 9 talking points

The 2014 Julie Dolan medallist has always been supremely technical and that has made her an indispensable part of midfields for club and country.

Her technical skills have been tested and her most recent season in the W-League with Melbourne City was one of her strongest. A premiership-championship double for club led to a leading role in the Westfield Matildas Olympic qualifiers, and now she is bringing that same dominance to the FA WSL for West Ham.

These are just a couple of the Westfield Matildas who have become the players known and loved today thanks to their exploits in the Westfield W-League.