When Bridget Tolland, a 16-year-old footballer from Castlemaine Goldfields Football Club, heard her mother call out to her she got worried.
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"She said, 'I got an email about you.' And I was like, oh god - what have I done," Ms Tolland said.
"Mum said, 'oh no, you've been selected for this thing'. So that was pretty exciting."
The "thing" in question will see Ms Tolland, along with six other Castlemaine Goldfields own "Matildas" bear a yet-to-be-decided flag at an upcoming Melbourne game for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Castlemaine Goldfields won the chance to represent their club through Football Australia Game Changer, a development program which aims to support and empower clubs to promote inclusivity and reach a 50/50 gender player split.
Fellow flag bearer Maija Bendrups hopes walking out on the field will show other young female footballers "you can do it too".
The 13-year-old, an under-14 Matilda at Castlemaine Goldfields Football Club, started to kick the black-and-white ball around at age four to copy her brother, but has since moved past the shadow of her sibling.
"I thought [my brother] was so cool so I started to do it," Ms Bendrups said.
"But I've done it ever since because I love it."
The news Ms Bendrups would be stepping in to bear a flag on the world stage took the young player aback.
"When I heard I was speechless, I was on the verge of tears," Ms Bendrups said.
'If you build it they will come'.
For many of the Castlemaine's young players, the opportunity to walk out on a world cup field represents a quantum leap for a club where a junior girls team did not exist six years ago.
"When I started at the club, there was no girls program, only a small side program for little kids," club committee member Veronica Budnikas said.
"Girls were welcome to play in the boys competition, but they didn't wanna do that."
Now, a product of an "active community and a very dedicated committee", the club boasts a slew of under-18 girls junior teams and a women's senior team.
Ms Budnikas said the high interest in girl's teams should not come as a surprise, and the club's success came down to fostering an inclusive, welcoming space.
"Women and girls like to play football," she said.
"And once you've got the space to be involved rather than being shut down, or told 'you're not good enough', well ... if you build it they will come."
Castlemaine Goldfields' under-14 players Maija Bendrups, Rilla Faircloth, Eva Bird, and Isabelle Hubbert, under-16 player Isabella Lizzul, and senior women's team Bridget Tolland will bear the flag with adult chaperones Veronica Budnikas and Sarah McComb at the Round of 16 Knock Out game on Sunday, August 16 in Melbourne.
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