Mount Beauty Medical Centre general practitioner, Dr Jacinta O'Neill, has recently returned from Indonesia after serving as team doctor for Australia's Junior Matildas, as they competed and were victorious in the ASEAN Championships.

The Australian under 17 women’s Junior Matildas won in a tight battle against Thailand in the grand final after beating the host nation, Indonesia in the semis in front of 9000 spectators.

"It was challenging, being away from my family and kids for couple of weeks, but it was important to be able to show them you can do big scary things and great things can come from it," Dr O'Neill said.

"Everything about it was fabulous: being involved in such an elite sport, running onto the pitch with 9000 spectators, cheering not for me, but for the players and building strong therapeutic relationships with the players to get the best out of them.

"It was an amazing experience and I'm looking forward to the next tournament in October, the Asian Cup qualifiers: the next step towards the U17 World Cup in 2026."

Dr O'Neill said she became the team doctor in a round-about way, previously covering sports medicine with other teams.

"These matches piqued my interest in women's football in general, so when the opportunity to cover the women's state-based A-League teams came up, I took it," she said.

"Later, I was tapped on the shoulder for this opportunity and managed to get it which was great.

"In early August we went to pre-camp in Sydney to get to know the team and new the coach, then we flew over to Indonesia to compete in the tournament."

Dr O'Neill is available for sports medicine appointments at the Bright Medical Centre on Mondays.