Mary Fowler is becoming accustomed to astonished looks from her Manchester City teammates when she advises those heading to this summer’s World Cup to pack woollens and waterproofs. “A lot of the girls are going to Australia and New Zealand with their countries,” says the Matildas striker. “But most of them expect it to be quite warm, so I’m excited to see how they’re going to react when they realise it’s freezing cold.
“Sydney will be chilly but I feel really bad for the girls in New Zealand, the southern hemisphere winter’s going to be freezing there! But, hey, if they’ve lived in England, they’ll survive.”
After an upbringing divided between Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland and France, Fowler has become accustomed to taking assorted weather systems in her stride. After making her debut for Australia at 15 and moving alone to Montpellier a month before turning 17, her poise and maturity make it hard to believe she only celebrated her 20th birthday in February.
“I’d been so used to travelling to different places with my family that going to Montpellier at such a young age was really exciting,” says Fowler. “It was a new adventure. I love visiting new countries, immersing yourself in a culture and trying to speak a different language. I wasn’t scared.
“The environment in Montpellier, the lifestyle, the sunshine, really suited me. It made it easy not to be homesick for Australia. The only time it became hard was during Covid. Being away from family in a country with a different language was tough. I’d learned Dutch at school in the Netherlands but I found French quite challenging.”
Leicester's hopes of Women's Super League survival were handed a big boost as they beat Liverpool 4-0.
A second straight league win took the Foxes off the foot of the table and into 10th, two points clear of Reading who now drop into the relegation place.
Leicester went in front in the 15th minute when Josie Green's effort from just inside the area took a deflection into the bottom left of the net. They benefitted from another deflection just six minutes later as Carrie Jones picked the ball up outside the box and her audacious effort hit a defender to loop over goalkeeper Rachel Laws.
Ashleigh Plumptre extended Leicester's lead just three minutes into the second half with a strong header from a corner before Missy Goodwin wrapped the game up with a stoppage-time header.
The Foxes remained in 10th after Brighton drew 2-2 at Tottenham in Saturday's late fixture, with Beth England striking twice for the hosts.
Elisabeth Terland fired Brighton into the lead, turning the ball in at the near post but England responded instantly for Spurs just minutes later with a header. The Seagulls restored their lead through Lee Geum-min in the second half but England equalised again for Tottenham to salvage a point.
Brighton are level with Leicester on 13 points, two ahead of Reading and one behind Tottenham, who have played a game more than all of their relegation rivals.
Fortunately Fowler was able to draw on the self-sufficiency she developed as a young child in tropical Cairns. When her parents decided the drawbacks of possessing a television set outweighed the advantages, she and her four siblings began devising their own entertainment. When Fowler was not playing on the local beaches, her mother, Nido, who is from Papua New Guinea, and her father Kevin, a Dubliner, encouraged her to pursue enthusiasms for drawing and poetry writing.
She is a talented amateur artist and wordsmith but it is her two-footed gift for football which will concern Ireland when they face Australia in the World Cup’s opening game in Sydney on 20 July. “In another world I could have been representing that side of my heritage,” says Fowler, who, as a teenager, resisted the Football Association of Ireland’s attempts to poach her from Australia’s youth system.
“It’s good to have connections with your roots and I definitely have feelings for Ireland. One of the great things about being in Manchester is that I’m able to visit my Grandad in Dublin.”
Trips to Papua New Guinea are tricker. “I’ve only been once,” says Fowler, whose parents met after her father became an aid worker in the country’s remote Western Highlands. “But it’s a place, and a culture, I’d really love to connect with. Setting up a football academy or a school in Papua New Guinea one day would be exciting.”
For the moment though Manchester is the centre of her world. “I’m enjoying it a lot,” she says. “Training’s good and our team’s super close. Everyone’s made it really easy for me to feel welcome and coming back to an English speaking country has been a refreshing change. By the end in Montpellier, I was getting there with French but it’s nice to go into a cafe or a restaurant and not embarrass yourself by saying the wrong things all the time.”
She is finding Gareth Taylor’s City a similarly challenging footballing finishing school. “Coming here’s been a step up,” says Fowler, who still practises that hard-won French whenever possible. “The way Gareth wants us to play is quite tactical and requires you to think a lot. But once you understand it, it’s actually quite simple.
“My football awareness has grown here. Being surrounded by so many top players at a club with such great staff and facilities has helped me progress.”
With Taylor’s team – at home to Reading on Sunday – second in the WSL and engaged in a four-way title race with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, Fowler is not complaining about having spent much of her first season on the substitutes’ bench. Despite registering an impressive nine goals in 34 senior appearances for Australia, forming a devastating partnership with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr along the way, she accepts full integration into Taylor’s first XI will take time.
“My game’s getting refined,” says a forward who has made 10 WSL appearances and scored her first league goal during last Sunday’s 6-2 demolition of West Ham. “Your faults are far more apparent here because you’re at a much higher level and the players around you demand so much more.
“The things you’re not so good at come to the surface and you’ve got to improve but my game’s getting tidier and I sense City’s staff believe in my potential. In the years to come I hope I can show my value even more to this club. I’m very focused on being here for a long while.”
By the time she returns for pre-season training in September Fowler will have represented her country at a second World Cup. “There’s a lot of belief within the Australia squad,” she says. “But we’ve got to remain humble – and treat every game like a final.”
