With the 15th season of the Liberty A-League starting in just under a fortnight, teams are well into their preparations for the longest campaign in the history of the competition. It is also likely to be the most important one since the competition began. Players are looking to showcase their talents and make a final bid for a spot at next year’s Women’s World Cup.
One such player is Perth Glory’s Hana Lowry, who will be pulling on the purple shirt for her fourth season. At 19 years of age, Lowry has 32 league appearances, making her the fifth most-capped player for Glory in their current squad, and she is also the second-highest scorer with four goals to her name. In August Lowry was part of the Young Matildas squad that took part in the U-20 Women’s World Cup and must surely be on the radar for full national honours.
We caught up with Lowry after a training session at Fremantle Oval to get her thoughts on how preparations for the season are going, her experiences at the U-20 World Cup and life in NSW, where she plays her NPLW football. But first of all, we asked Lowry about her early days and first influences.
“My Dad played and so did my brother, so I was just kind of born into football, watched football and I just fell in love with it straight away. My local club was Cockburn City SC and I played with the boys until U13’s and I loved it there.”
Lowry’s big break came when she was invited to trial for the NTC. It was whilst she was there that her coach, Jessine Bonzas, invited her to attend some Perth Glory training sessions.
She paid tribute to the NTC program and felt it was an important stepping stone in the development of young players.
“NTC tries to create as professional an environment as they can, and you start to get a glimpse of what a professional lifestyle is like. You’re training more regularly than you would at club level, and you also have the national championships which are where you can be identified and you might get asked to attend camps etc.”
Lowry’s path to selection for the Junior Matildas followed this route, and she was part of a squad that travelled to Laos for 2019 AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers. They qualified for the finals in Thailand and earned a creditable fourth spot, with Lowry scoring three goals during the tournament. She was also part of a Junior Matildas squad that travelled to the Solomon Islands, and was clearly very proud about being involved in the national set-up.
“It was a dream (being part of the Junior Matildas) and it was something I always wanted since I was really young, and when I got the call up all the hard work had paid off and it was a special moment for me to step on the pitch and represent my country.”
The growing exposure of women’s football has meant that players such as Lowry are now becoming more well-known. She is well on the way to becoming a role model for young players herself, and she spoke about who she looked up to when she was growing up.
“My family were all huge Liverpool fans and we all loved Steven Gerrard and how he played. I loved watching the Premier League and also when the Matildas were on. Watching Sam Kerr and Lisa De Vanna as players from Perth being able to make it sort of made my dreams more realistic.”
With the growing movement of senior Matildas going overseas to play in the European leagues, we asked Lowry if this was something that would inspire more young players.
“Yeah definitely. A few years ago, before Sam made the move to Chelsea, it wasn’t a common thing for female footballers to go over to Europe. But since she has moved you can switch on the television and watch and I think that’s a really big thing for young players, knowing that they can follow those steps.”
Lowry is now a part of the Future Matildas program, having joined it in 2021 when she moved to Sydney, and she now plays her football for Blacktown Spartans in the NSW NPLW. She spoke about the program, offered some thoughts on the possible reasons players in WA are moving to other states, and the differences between the NPLW in NSW and WA.
“Moving interstate across to Sydney was a big step for me, but I love the program. It was a real eye-opener regarding the sort of standards expected and the intensity of the training. You’re training every day and sometimes twice a day. You may be playing twice a week and I think that has really helped me build some more robustness. It’s a great program for players because a lot of the drills are a replica of those used by the Matildas.
“The quality is there in the NPLW in WA, and I really enjoyed playing in the league. The biggest difference playing in Sydney would be there are a lot more W-League players playing in the league. In nearly every team there are half or more of the players who have played W-League.
“Also, Perth is very isolated and being in Sydney you are a lot closer to the Future Matildas program and things like that but, at the same time, the Perth NPL is a great league.”
The highlight of her year so far has undoubtedly been the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica. Lowry shared her experiences about the tournament and provided some insights into where she feels the game needs to grow, in order for our junior sides to become more competitive in the future.
“I had to travel to Mexico on my own because I had COVID a few days before the team flew out (to Costa Rica), which was pretty big for me as I hadn’t travelled on my own internationally.
“The quality of the players was an eye-opener, but even though we didn’t get the results we still competed with teams, especially Spain in the last game where there were glimpses of us being on top and that really proved to ourselves that we can compete with the best young players in the world.
“We were quite surprised by the Costa Ricans who were all in right from the start. We conceded quite early on and they went in with so much confidence with a massive crowd backing them and you could see they had a big belief in themselves and that they could get a result. They were competitive and had some really technically good players. Costa Rica is not a team that many Australian players have played against and it was really good for us to see their style as we’re only used to playing against Asian teams.
“(Playing against the Spanish) it was pretty crazy as they had players playing for Barcelona and those sorts of clubs and we had just been playing for our NPLW clubs.”
Lowry felt that pushing for full-time professionalism would be key to helping bridge the gap between the top national sides and Australia. With the league expanding, she felt that the game was heading in the right direction by providing more consistent professional football for our top players. She had this to say about the future of the league and a possible move overseas to further her career.
“When you look back to what some of the older players were dealing with when they started, you can see how much it has changed and in 10 years’ time if it changes by as much then, you are looking at a really good league and players overseas will look at it and want to be in it.
“I’m really happy here and I love playing in the league and I think eventually a goal of mine would be to go overseas, but right at the moment I’m happy here.”
For the immediate future Lowry is concentrating on the season ahead. She was upbeat about the way things have been going in pre-season and is looking forward to seeing what she and her teammates can achieve, especially as Perth Glory will be able to play genuine home games and have their supporters cheering them on. She was also asked if the 2023 World Cup Finals and a possible Matildas callup were in the back of her mind.
“We’ve retained a lot of key players and we’ve added some really good American attacking players which I think is really exciting, and building on last season when we missed out on finals by goal difference we’re all really eager to push and improve.
“I think (the World Cup) is in the back of the mind of all young players. It’s a big year and anything can happen, but whatever happens, I’m just so excited to be able to witness such a special occasion for Australia.”
