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Matildas' McCormick dreams of Olympic gold

First she wanted green and gold. Now Jenna McCormick is simply eyeing gold.

The former AFLW star realised a childhood dream on Saturday when she debuted for the Matildas in their 2-1 victory over Chile in Sydney.

"The sacrifices that I've made to be where I am, (Saturday) just made it all worth it," McCormick said after her debut.

"It's a very, very special day for me and I'm just glad the choices I've made throughout my life have led me to this moment.

"This is the path I'm supposed to be on. And I'm just looking forward to hopefully being involved from now and however long into the future."

The next aim is a second cap when the two nations meet in the second of their two-match series in McCormick's hometown of Adelaide.

It's where McCormick made her W-League debut seven years ago, and where she expected another memorable occasion in front of family and friends.

"To have the game in Adelaide, first (Matildas) one in 12, 13 years, is really great for not only girls like myself - Emma (Checker) and Sarah (Willacy) who are from Adelaide - but the Adelaide football community as well who I know from playing there for so many years," McCormick said.

"I know that they're really excited about having the girls come and play in their hometown and watching the show."

But from there, the 26-year-old has set her sights on getting picked for the Olympic qualifying stage in February and then, hopefully, the Games.

Matildas coach Ante Milicic has just 18 plane tickets for Tokyo.

"I've always put that as my medium-term goal. My short-term goal was right now, achieve this moment, so I'm happy to be able to tick that off," McCormick said.

"Next one is to be at Tokyo. I want to be there so badly.

"It would obviously be amazing to go to an Olympics and represent your country."

Milicic hailed McCormick's debut at Bankwest Stadium, saying the centre-back brought a physical presence to their defence.

"What we ask of our centre-backs with the ball, you need to be brave ... and she was fantastic, and she's been great around the group," Milicic said.

"We're really looking at creating depth, particularly in that department.

"We all know what happened at the World Cup with (Clare Polkinghorne) getting injured in game one, with Laura Alleway getting injured in the pre-camp.

"I think we might just have one there in Jenna. Hopefully, she can reflect on this and build on it and then we can get some consistency."