Women’s World Cup: This 20-year-old is now the most important Matilda

Mary Fowler needs to do a Sam Kerr for the Matildas. She’s only 20. Too much to ask of her, too soon?

Mary Fowler in the match against Ireland wearing her trademark gloves Picture: Getty Images

Mary Fowler wears the sort of gloves your daughter insists upon when it’s viciously cold in the middle of winter and her team’s been given the brutal kick-off time of 8am on Sunday.

Fowler has forever been the youngest Matilda and spared any real responsibility but those carefree days are over. Time for a prodigiously gifted young footballer to ditch her own kid gloves.

I’m not talking about the black ones she wears in matches. They’re as interesting as her. What’s going on there? They’d suit a formal gown and a night at the theatre. If the bloke dressed like Jeeves who carries the World Cup trophy to the final is unavailable or cannot find his own mitts, call her up.

When she was thrown into the deep end against Ireland after a tearstained Sam Kerr was ruled out, I thought the 20-year-old was so flustered she’d forgotten to remove her hand-warmers. What she really needed was earmuffs – Irish supporters abused her for choosing to represent Australia despite her roots making her eligible for Na Cailíní I Nglas (The Girls In Green). International soccer teams love a nickname.

Fowler played well. Did yourself proud, Mary. And yet the explosive arrivals of the tournament’s big guns on the weekend, the thunderous wins of the United States and Spain looked a class above the Matildas. They’re as good as anyone when Kerr is playing, but she‘s not, which means Fowler needs to dominate from this day forward if the feel-good Australians are fair dinkum about actually winning the tournament.

The Cairns-born 20-year-old dabbles in a bit of art – a bit of clay-work, a bit of sculpture, a bit of painting – and the Matildas’ wobbling aspirations are now in her hands.

“It’s an amazing opportunity and one I don’t want to waste,” she says.

What can she create? She has sufficient raw natural ability to hurry up and fire up. To whip up something special. Some of her touches are golden. Her feel for a game is divine. She’s a beautiful athlete, a natural. Breaks the mould for players of her age.

Until now, though, she’s done only occasionally what Kerr does consistently. A few balls floated tantalisingly across the Irish goal. Kerr would have pounced on them. Fowler needs to do the same. The risk is that too much burden is falling on her, too soon.

“The next big thing,” is Kerr’s description of Fowler. She needs to be the right-now thing. The current thing. Because the thing is, it’s impossible to win a World Cup without a striker scoring as often as Australians are looking up the tournament’s matches and asking, why isn’t this on Channel 7?

She was going to tip-toe through the tournament, all care and kid gloves and no undue pressure, coming on late in matches to cause merry hell against tired defenders, but now she’s front and centre for the Matildas, playing front and centre for the Matildas against Nigeria at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night.

All eyes are on Fowler after Kerr’s injury howler. “I don’t see a bunch of people trying to make me into a certain kind of person,” says the Cairns-born striker.

“Instead, I see individuals who have high expectations for me. And to be regarded in that light is a blessing.”

Fowler was 15 when she debuted for the Matildas. Ex-coach Alen Stajcic said she “probably has the most weapons I‘ve seen from a young player her age in women’s football”. And he’d seen Kerr. Perhaps the gloves acknowledge the need to get her hands dirty. In truth, she started wearing them on frigid days representing Manchester City. She simply likes the way they feel.

She’s grown up with high expectations. “There’s definitely times when it has gotten to me and you feel the pressure, but I just see myself as an ordinary girl. I want to do things just as every other girl my age is doing,” she tells Who Magazine. “And as much as I love football and I’m 100 per cent focused on that, I’m also really into other things outside of football. And I think that kind of balances things out for me. I’m playing on the weekend, but it’s still what I’d be doing if I was just playing locally. It’s just playing at a high level and it’s just football. It’s just two teams running and kicking the ball at the back of the net, like. It’s not a big deal.”

Perhaps Kerr will return from her calf injury. Perhaps not. Fowler has lived overseas for most of her teen years, playing in France and England, growing up fast away from home and family, and the maturing process as a footballer is going into fast-forward. She’s nine years behind Kerr as an evolving human and athlete. She’s going to be a heck of a player some day. The Matildas desperately need some day to be the coming days.

“Being able to see the amount of opportunity that I have around me, I think that kind of just shows me how lucky I am to be here,” she says. “And I’m super grateful for that. That takes away the pressure for me because I’m just like, you know, I’m here. I’m this age. I have so much ahead of me and I don’t need to get bogged down by what other people are saying.”

Fowler’s father is from Ireland. Her mother is from Papua New Guinea. She’s a bright-eyed, chatty, engaging woman. A bit of an old soul. She either didn’t hear the flak she was getting from aggro Irish fans in Sydney or she didn’t care. In her favour is the fact she’s not shy.

She made a good start against the Irish but if Kerr remains absent and the Matildas really do want to win the World Cup, she needs to become great. Fast.

The gloves will stay. Kid-hood has to go. “It sends chills through my body,” Fowler says of the full houses watching the Matildas. “It’s crazy. I feel like if you look straight, you’re fine, then if you look up, there’s just more and more people and you’re like, wow. It’s mad. It’s very special. Honestly. It’s a huge honour to be able to wear the jersey. No matter what role I get, coming off the bench or coming on as a starter, I feel like you just want to give your all to this team. Bring good energy. We all do that. It’s an amazing opportunity and one I don’t want to waste.”