Jillaroos Team Announced for 2025 FIH Women’s Junior World Cup
Published Mon 27 Oct 2025
The Australian Under-21 women’s side could not be better prepared for the 11th edition of the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup in Chile, as the countdown continues to the pinnacle event - which will, for the first time, feature 24 teams.
For Head Coach Tim Strapp, the Junior World Cup marks his first international tournament at the helm of the Jillaroos and a valuable test of the culture he has built in his debut year in the role.
“Our athletes are in the middle of Hockey One and we’ve definitely been trying to stress that we are Jillaroos first and foremost, which the girls have really embraced,” Strapp said.
“We’ve had plenty of opportunities to progress our game both tactically and technically this year. We had the Junior World Cup qualifier against New Zealand, a four-nations tournament in Europe mid-year which we won, and recently a three-match series against the Indian Under-21 team.
I think the group will be very confident in our abilities given that we’ll have had around 15 international games together this year.”
Selection for the 2025 squad was highly competitive, with several athletes narrowly missing out.
“Selections have been quite challenging,” Strapp admitted. “We’ve had a handful of athletes put their best foot forward this year who have unfortunately missed out. It really shows the depth of talent we have across the group.”
Among those named in the squad are three capped Hockeyroos - Maddi Brooks (44 caps), Karissa van der Wath (4 caps) and Jamie-Lee Surha (3 caps) - who will bring valuable senior international experience to the lineup.
“It always helps having players like that in the squad,” said Strapp. “Maddi Brooks in particular has been part of the Hockeyroos setup for some time and will be very important for our group, along with Jamie-Lee and Karissa, who both earned caps this year.”
One of the standout stories within the newly named squad is that of ACT’s Georgina West, who narrowly missed selection for the last Junior World Cup in 2023.
“It was disappointing to miss out on the last Junior World Cup after being in the Jillaroos squad for a year or two,” said West. “It’s been a goal of mine to work really hard and put my best foot forward for selection this year.”
The upcoming tournament caps off a huge year for West, who made her Australia A debut, won the Under-21 National Championships, claimed Player of the Tournament, and represented the Jillaroos in both the Junior World Cup qualifiers and the Four Nations Tournament in Berlin.
“It’s been a huge year, but one full of learnings and growth. I’m really excited to see what the future brings,” West said. “I’ve loved every second and learned so much from every team I’ve been part of.”
West is relishing being apart of this Jillaroos group in a World Cup year with a promising campaign ahead.
“It’s a pretty amazing group. We’re all trying to be great people while pushing each other to be great players on the pitch,” she said. “I’m really excited to see what we can achieve together in Chile, and winning gold at the Junior World Cup would be incredible.”
The 2025 edition of the pinnacle event of Junior Women’s Hockey will be the Jillaroos 9th appearance, having never tasted the ultimate success with their best finish coming in 1993 and 1997 with silver medals, as well as bronze medals in 2001 and 2016.
The last Jillaroos World Cup campaign came in 2023 where they finished 5th after losing just one game for the whole tournament.
The Jillaroos open their 2025 Junior World Cup campaign against Canada on Wednesday December 3rd at 3:30am AEDT. They’ll then take on Spain and Scotland to close out their pool matches.
The top team at the end of the pool stage progresses to the quarter finals, with the Final to be played on 13th December local time.
Every match of the tournament will be shown on Watch.Hockey.
Jillaroos Squad:
Taylor Brooks (TAS)
Maddison Brooks (TAS)
Summer Greenway (WA)
Georgia Hiskins (WA)
Mihaylia Howell (QLD)
Makayla Jones (NSW)
Madeline Kenny (QLD)
Josie Lawton (VIC)
Samantha Love (VIC)
Camryn Mathison (QLD)
Alyssa Smith (ACT)
Georgie Smithers (ACT)
Evie Stansby (VIC)
Jamie-Lee Surha (QLD)
Caitlyn Templeman (WA)
Karissa van der Wath (QLD)
Georgina West (ACT)
Bianca Zurrer (VIC)
FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup 2025
Santiago, Chile
1-13 December 2025
Schedule and Results
Jillaroos Pool Matches
Jillaroos v Canada
1:30pm local time, 2 December (3:30am AEDT, 3 December)
Jillaroos v Chile
6pm local time, 4 December (8am AEDT, 5 December)
Jillaroos v South Africa
1:30pm local time, 6 December (3:30am AEDT, 7 December)
