When Mary Fowler stepped up to take a penalty on Saturday, the Matildas’ quarter-final was on a knife-edge, with France holding a slight advantage. Fowler was taking Australia’s fourth penalty – had she missed, the French would take a critical advantage into the final pair of attempts.
The pressure on the shoulders of the 20-year-old could not have been greater, in her first shootout in competitive football. Fowler walked slowly to the mark and stared down France goalkeeper Solène Durand. She bounced the ball like a basketballer, once, twice. The Manchester City player walked a few steps backwards before pausing to draw in a deep breath. She exhaled – this was it. A step forward, then another – almost prancing. And then she smashed the ball low and hard towards the left corner. Durand went the wrong way, but she never had any chance. It was a perfect penalty.
The kick epitomised Fowler’s maturity, which belies her youth as the youngest member of this Matildas squad. “Mary Fowler is not even a child,” laughed captain and sometimes striker partner Sam Kerr after the match. “She’s one of the most amazing players in our team. She’s 20 years old, she has a head on her like she’s 30, and been around for 100 years.”
The plaudits flowed from coach Tony Gustavsson too. “She plays beyond her years in terms of maturity,” he said. “She understands her defending role, she can spin on a dime in terms of her technique, talking about entertainment her technical skills are just one of a kind.”
Fowler was born in Cairns, in Australia’s far north, to an Irish father and a Papua New Guinean mother. She is the second oldest of five football-mad siblings – her brother Caoimhin and sister Ciara have both trained with the Irish youth national team. For a time there were fears Fowler might opt for Ireland too – at one stage she withdrew from a Matildas squad on the eve of what had been expected to be her debut – but Australia’s persistence paid off when Fowler made her first appearance for the Matildas at just 15.
Fowler’s heritage is important to her – her Instagram biography contains three flags: Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland. Her mother Nido’s home village, Kira Kira, near the capital, Port Moresby, has hung up banners in Fowler’s honour and held viewing parties throughout the World Cup. “Touches my heart…so proud to be Papuan,” Fowler posted recently together with images of the local support.
The attacking prodigy was called up for the Matildas for the 2019 World Cup at the age of 16 – the youngest player on the squad. But a hamstring injury and the team’s exit in the opening knockout match prevented Fowler from making her tournament debut.
But even if Fowler did not get any minutes in France, the World Cup was an important learning experience for the raw talent. It allowed her to experience the magnitude of the moment without any pressure, to learn the ropes of the national team when she had just a handful of caps to her name.
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Four years later, Fowler entered this home World Cup as a critical member of the Matildas squad – whether starting alongside captain Sam Kerr, or coming off the bench as an impact substitute. While club minutes with Manchester City were sporadic in the lead-up to the tournament, Fowler has risen to the occasion in Kerr’s calf injury-induced absence.
Her poise in taking the penalty against France was one example; her pass to Caitlin Foord against Denmark in the round of 16, which resulted in the opening goal, another. With Foord on the break down the left hand side, and six Denmark players between them, Fowler sent an inch-perfect pass into the path of her teammate. An image of the pass as it left Fowler’s boot went viral on social media – it was such an implausible moment, unpicking the lock of the Danish defence in one swift through-ball. It was peak Fowler, the creative maestro at work.
Fowler’s work is not done yet. On Wednesday the Matildas face England in the semi-final. It is unknown territory for the team – the furthest the team have ever gone at the World Cup. At Stadium Australia, Fowler will take on a number of her club teammates, including defensive stalwart Alex Greenwood and attacking opposite number Lauren Hemp. Fowler will again be a critical part of the Matildas’ forward-line; she starred against France and had multiple opportunities to win the game in regulation time, but will need to be more clinical against the Lionesses if Australia are to reach the final.
Just 20, already participating in her second World Cup, Fowler has a long career ahead of her for club and country. But after her star turn against France, Gustavsson offered a word of caution. “Mary has a bright future,” he said. “But also I think we need to be very careful of putting too much pressure on her now. She’s a young player – she should just play freely, do her thing, just be Mary Fowler to 100%. And I think we all love it when she is.”