Mary Fowler knows it’s her time to step up.
And more importantly, the 21-year-old sensation believes he can.
After breaking into national prominence with flashes of brilliance at her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Fowler has developed into the Matildas’ attacking mainstay.
With Sam Kerr on the sidelines, Paris looms as Fowler’s stage to conquer with the creative striker arguably the face of Australia’s most recognizable team.
“The first one was a bit different because I didn’t expect it and it was a childhood dream of mine to go to the Olympics so I was in tears to achieve it,”.
“This time I’m more based on tournaments, football.
I want to go there and I want to win, and I want to help the team as much as I can.
“I feel like I’m able to help more compared to last time when I was more of a bench player.
Coach Tony Gustavsson has made it clear: he wants the ball at Fowler’s feet, whether he’s on the wing, as an attacking midfielder or as a striker.
“That’s part of the growth I had,” Fowler said.
“Before, I might have shied away from that responsibility a little bit.”
“Because if you don’t play, then it’s like, ‘OK, well, you have to take responsibility for not doing what the team needs.’
“I see it a little differently now, if someone puts pressure on you or gives you a little more responsibility in the team, it’s because they believe in you and think you’re actually capable of it.”
“So I take that as a bit of a pat on the back.
“I want to maintain that standard and be consistent and do everything I can to really help the team win and not shy away from it.”
Fowler has come a long way from a kid who grew up playing soccer with her four siblings on the beaches of far north Queensland and talked about wanting to be the best player in the world.
Fights in Montpellier and Manchester help her achieve her goal.
“With the amount of travel I’ve done, growing up and even in my football career, maybe I’m a much more worldly person,” she said.
“In the long term, I probably wouldn’t live in Cairns – it’s too small for me now – but it’s nice to go back and reminisce, see the ground we played on and then think about where I am now.”
“I know what my success would look like for me, and I don’t really care too much about what other people think about how good I should be, or about my potential, or that I should achieve high grades at this point.”
Fowler’s rise has coincided with Matilda catapulting herself into the national spotlight.
But her belief came from finding her feet at Manchester City, where she had to bide her time before breaking into a star-studded starting line-up – and shining.
“It probably came from playing at City and just wanting to be a lot more consistent and being like, ‘I can be a player who can change the game in one moment’ and just believing that for myself – and then going out there and have the consistent performance to back it up,” she said.
“It helped me a lot.”
Fowler hopes that drive can push Australia through group matches against Germany, Zambia and the USA and onto a medal in Paris, after the “terrible feeling” of finishing fourth in Tokyo and at last year’s World Championships.
“Honestly, it’s probably better to go out in the group stage than to come fourth,” she said.
“Because fourth, you’re so close, but then you just didn’t make it from one game.”
“It’s definitely fresh in people’s minds and it’s actually helped us a lot to want to do better this time around.”
