FOWLER’S KEEN TO COME HOME
MATILDAS star Mary Fowler cannot wait for the opportunity to represent her country in her own backyard when the national team plays in Townsville next month.
The Cairns junior, who spent some of her younger days at clubs such as Saints and Leichhardt in Far North Queensland, is expected to be named in Tony Gustavsson’s squad for the national team’s historic clash with New Zealand at Queensland Country bank Stadium on April 8.
And Fowler, who plays for French club Montpellier, can’t wait for a return to the region – and not just for the clash with the Kiwis.
“I never would’ve thought I could have this opportunity,” Fowler said.
“Being so close to home means my family can come and watch, and I haven’t seen my family in so long.
“My mum and my younger sister, I haven’t seen for about three years, so I’m really excited to be able to firstly see them, but for them to be able to see me play for Australia is awesome.
“I’m really lucky and grateful for this chance, but I’m really looking forward to seeing my family.
“It’s amazing to be able to have another opportunity to represent your country.
“I’m always grateful for that, I never take any camp for granted because it’s a really big opportunity that not everyone gets to experience.”
This will be the Matildas’ first game since they were eliminated in the Asian Cup quarterfinals by South Korea.
For a tournament which promised so much, and which started with a blowout 18-0 demolition of Indonesia, it ended up being a failure courtesy of a 1-0 loss which sent the Matildas home much earlier than expected.
It was an intense learning experience for Fowler, who was part of the squad which just months earlier finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Firstly, tournaments are really different to just having friendly matches,” Fowler said.
“Going from being in camps where there’s just friendly matches, then all of a sudden switching to tournament mode, I think it’s something that takes a bit more experience to get used to. Where you end up in a situation where you have a match where, if you lose, you end up on a flight home the next day.
“For me, it was more just a preparation thing.
“Every game is like a grand final, and for me and maybe a few others, maybe it didn’t occur to us that way.
“I’m grateful for every opportunity I get to improve myself as a player, and as a person, and having made these mistakes I’m able to improve on them and become better.”
The friendly will be the first football fixture to be played at world-class QCB Stadium since it opened.