Ex-Canberra United star Grace Gill to be voice of 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Gill is full of "anxious excitement" as she's set to be the voice of the World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand, as part of Seven's commentary team for the tournament.

The midfielder retired in 2016 and has spent the last seven years transitioning from player to a commentator.

Learning as she went, Gill graduated from pundit to play-by-play caller and in the past two years she's managed to make it a full-time gig, covering both the men's and women's game in Australia.

But this is a massive step up from the NPL and A-Leagues, and it's an opportunity she's grabbing with both hands.

"It's been quite an incredible journey," she told The Canberra Times.

"Working on the Women's World Cup has been a goal of mine for some time now.

"I've worked across the A-League Men and Women but this World Cup is the largest-scale event I've been involved with."

Gill will do co-commentary with David Basheer and is excited to add a female voice to the world game, which traditionally boasts few women callers.

It's an issue that Gill is passionate about blazing a trail in.

"It's so important for free-to-air television that anyone watching the Matildas can hear a woman's voice on the coverage," Gill said.

"I want that to become the norm and not groundbreaking.

"This tournament will be that and here onwards it will very much be standardised that there's a female lead or co-caller."

Alongside her as part of the Seven coverage will be Mel McLaughlin, Bruce McAvaney, Adam Peacock, Emma Freedman, Elise Kellond-Knight and former Canberra United coach Heather Garriock.

Gill was most eager to rub shoulders with sports commentary legend McAvaney.

"To work alongside someone like Bruce is pretty special," she said.

"He's been a soundtrack to many of our sporting childhoods. It's been lovely meeting him and tapping into that knowledge and experience he has."

From now until the Matildas' home opener on July 20 against the Republic of Ireland in Sydney, Gill will be cramming information about every team, coach and club performance surrounding the World Cup to add depth to her commentary.

She also plans to prepare some phrases to ready herself to be the endlessly replayed soundtrack to iconic scenes that World Cups inevitably produce.

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"I'd definitely like to give some thought to what a big moment might sound like," Gill said.

"But some of those moments really just come instinctively, whether it's just the thrill of a goal, or a save or the roar of a stadium, you've got to be able to feel that."

The tournament also presents a rare opportunity for Capital Football media manager Russ Gibbs, who has been selected as part of the in-stadium audio descriptive commentary team for vision-impaired supporters at the World Cup.

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