Gielnik, 23, is in Warrnambool this week to train with boxing coach Rodney Ryan as preparations ramp up for the W-League season.

She was the feature guest at Warrnambool Wolves women’s training at Harris Street Reserve on Monday, taking more than 20 mostly young players through their paces during a 90-minute session.

Gielnik has seven Matildas caps to her name although was not part of Alan Stajcic’s squad which captured the attention of a nation at the World Cup.

But the boost in profile that blazing run delivered has not gone unnoticed by those at the coalface.

Squad members Kyah Simon, Lisa De Vanna and Samantha Kerr have become household names, giving the next generation a new set of idols in the sport.

“That’s so important, young girls can have people to look up to instead of unknown people, unknown faces,” Gielnik said.

“The World Cup shifted women’s football in a very important way ahead of the Olympics next year.”

Gielnik, a personal trainer, said she was keen to add to her international games tally at the Rio Olympics. Her bid for selection starts with helping the Roar to W-League success later this year.

“If I get myself fit enough, you never know what could happen,” she said.

Should that happen, she will have another highlight to add to a career which started with Redlands United and Brisbane’s Cleveland District State High School.

She had basketball aspirations when she was young but caught the eye of former Matildas coach Tom Sermanni while on a school trip to the Australian Institute of Sport. That preceded her joining the Queensland Academy of Sport and led to her first Roar contract, in 2009. She also spent a season with Liverpool in 2012.

“Once I played for the state team (as a junior) I set myself goals – I can’t wait to pull on a Roar jersey. Then it was I can’t wait to pull on a young Matildas jersey.

“Then it was if I’m lucky enough, if I work hard enough, I can’t wait to pull on a Matildas jersey. I never went straight to the top, I had my building blocks.”

Her journey included “a lot of blood, sweat and tears” and has helped shape her advice to others wanting to make a mark in the sport.

“If I could give any of the girls advice, it’s not what you do with the team, it’s the extras that you do outside,” she said.

“All the fine tuning, all the extra skills, all the extra training. The unseen things, that’s what gets you places.”

Gielnik said it was important for W-League players to keep promoting soccer to girls across the country.

“You could say something to a 12 or 13-year-old and that might stick with them forever and give them that edge in their mind that they can make it,” she said.

“If nothing is ever said, they may or may not, but it gives them that little boost and keeps girls playing. That’s important.”