The Matildas will play at Optus Stadium in Perth in October

Only the biggest venues in Australia can now accommodate the Matildas with a key Olympic qualifier moved to meet demand.

Huge demand to see the Matildas and superstar skipper Sam Kerr in her home town have prompted Football Australia to move one of three Olympic qualifiers in Perth to the 60,000 seat Optus Stadium.

The Australian team will play the Philippines at 3pm on Sunday October 29 at the biggest venue in the state after the game was originally scheduled for the 20,000 seat HBF Park.

It means an extra 40,000 people will be able to see the Matildas, and Kerr, in action with a spot in Paris up for grabs.

The venue shift comes after the Matildas opening World Cup clash against Ireland was moved to Stadium Australia were a sell-out crowd of 75,784 fans watched the home team win 1-0.

Football Australia boss James Johnson said the World Cup demonstrated the “drawing power” of the Matildas with almost 450,000 fans attending matches including the send-off match against France and their tournament fixtures.

“The Matildas are one of the strongest sporting brands in the country, and it has become strongly evident that passionate support for this iconic team continues to grow and, for the second time in 12 months, because of the popularity of the CommBank Matildas, we need to relocate to a venue with a higher capacity to accommodate the demand,” Johnson said.

The Matildas will play at Optus Stadium in October (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images )

“We thank Premier Roger Cook, the Western Australian Government and Tourism Western Australia for their co-operation in ensuring a significantly greater number of fans can not only watch the team live, but also be a part of the journey towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

The match will be the first for the Matildas in Perth since 2018 – when they played Thailand in a friendly in the lead up to the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

For local hero Kerr it’s a career highlight to be able to take her team to the biggest venue the state has to offer.

“I’m sure the Perth people will be out in force to watch the Matildas,” Kerr said.

“It’s been a while and we get three games so we‘re really lucky.

“I can‘t wait to go back there and play in front of friends, family, and then all the West Australians that didn’t get the Tillis over there.”

The Matildas other Olympic qualifiers will be against Chinese Taipei and IR Iran and will remain at HBF Park, played from October 26 to November 1.