Manchester City Women are currently in Perth for a two-match pre-season tour ahead of the 2024/25 campaign. They will play Leicester City and one of West Ham United or Paris Saint-Germain at HBF Park next week, with both matches available on mancity.com and our official app with CITY+ subscription.
While the team are preparing for the upcoming season, they are also taking time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Western Australia.
Perth Wildlife Park
Taking time away from their busy training schedule, a group set off to the local Caversham Wildlife Park, home to many of Australia’s iconic indigenous species. First up for Kerstin Casparij, Lauren Hemp, Alanna Kennedy, Leila Ouahabi and Jess Park was the chance to hold a koala. Then came a kangaroo feeding session before saying hello to some corellas and a very relaxed wombat. The visit finished with a whistle stop tour of emus, eagles, dingoes, a crocodile and echidnas.
The Baby Turtle Rescue
One of the team's stars, Mary Fowler, has become one of Australia’s biggest sporting superstars in recent years. Both she and defender Alanna Kennedy were crucial to the Matildas reaching the final four of last year’s World Cup in their own country. Having enjoyed some time off in Australia following their Olympics participation this summer, they have simply moved across to Western Australia to meet their team-mates for this pre-season camp. Fowler has already made national news on the trip, rescuing a baby turtle off a path during a walk around a local beauty spot.
Fowler's Thoughts On the Tour
While Fowler hails from Queensland and Kennedy comes from New South Wales, the pair are delighted to show off Australia to their team-mates from Europe and Japan. “I’m delighted that we’re over here for pre-season,” she said. “I never thought I’d come to Australia with City so I’m so excited about playing here and honoured to show off my homeland to these girls. I can’t wait to get them out for some good coffee and for them to see what our sport is like over here. Being on this journey with this team is amazing and I’m just trying to make sure I enjoy every moment.”
Fowler last played in Perth during an international break last October and November, with two matches at HBF Park and one at the Optus Stadium. Over those three Olympics qualifiers, they scored 13 goals without conceding and played in front of bumper crowds across the two grounds. Our attacker is excited to play again in the city. “We’ve always had great crowds with the Matildas in Perth, and there’s so much love for women’s soccer over here, so I know it will be a great atmosphere when we play,” she said. “Hopefully we can entertain the fans, put in the hard work and win some games while making sure we’re ready for the season to come.”
Casparij's View on Australian Football
City are in Western Australia for next week’s Perth international Cup, where we will face Leicester City and one of West Ham United or Paris Saint-Germain. After last summer’s World Cup in the country, where the Matildas reached the final four, Australian women’s football has continued to grow. Casparij is thrilled to see the game spreading around the world. “It’s so exciting to see,” she said. “Especially with big tournaments, we’ve seen it with the Lionesses in the Euros and we’ve seen it in the Netherlands in the Euros. Every time there’s a home tournament, the home team does well and the country gets like infatuated with the sport and it grows so quickly. They’ve been so successful, unfortunately the Olympics wasn’t what they expected but they’ve been so successful the last few years. To see Australia become such a big fan of the Matildas and them being so loved, the stadiums being sold out, it’s just such a nice thing to see. It makes me very happy and hopefully, we’ve got a good crowd for our games.”
City’s two matches in Australia will both be available to watch live on mancity.com and our official app with an active CITY+ subscription. Casparij wants to win both games, but she knows there is more to be gained from the clashes than just a positive result. “Every game you go into you want to win,” she said. “I think it’s good for us to get some good competitive minutes in the legs and I think they’re all good teams so we’ll be looking at the performance. Getting back into our style of play and making sure the new girls can integrate properly so I think there are a lot of aspects to these two games that are very important.”
Hemp's Goals for the Tour
Hemp was a key part of the Lionesses squad that finished runners-up in the 2023 tournament after an impressive run all the way to the final. Now she’s back with City as we undergo a two-match pre-season tour ahead of the 2024/25 campaign. Gareth Taylor’s side will face Leicester City at 11:15 (UK) on Wednesday 28 August at HBF Park in Perth, before playing either West Ham United or Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday 1 September. Both matches will be available to watch globally on mancity.com and our official app with an active CITY+ subscription. Having landed on Wednesday, Hemp is excited to spend almost two weeks experiencing Australian life. “I really enjoyed my time in Australia last year,” said Hemp. “We got to the final and would have liked to have gone one step further but I have so many good memories of being here. We got to play Australia, which was nice because the crowd there was different to any other crowd I’ve witnessed before. Hopefully there will be a lot of them fans coming out to watch us in the upcoming games. To be able to experience the culture and the lifestyle as well was special.”
With just under a week to go until City’s first assignment in the Perth International Football Cup, Hemp is ready to give it her all. While the England winger feels victory against our fellow Barclays Women’s Super League side on Wednesday, she feels there are plenty of other factors that would make the trip a successful one. “You never go into a game not looking to win,” said Hemp. “The win is our priority but it’s all about the performance, working together as a squad, building the connections having not seen each other in a while. A lot of us haven’t played a game in forever, so every chance we get to have minutes in the legs will help us to be ready for the start of the season. Wins here would mean we’re starting as we mean to go on.”
The tour is the first time the vast majority of Gareth Taylor’s squad have been together since the end of last season. We won 15 of our last 16 games in last year’s WSL, eventually being pipped to the title on the final day. Hemp says that frustration has inspired the team to give their all in the hunt for silverware in 2024/25. “I signed for Man City because I want to win trophies and we didn’t do that last season. That has just made us even hungrier to want to win more,” Hemp said. “We’ve got the chance to win four trophies this season but we’ve got to put in the groundwork to be in the best possible position to win trophies. That all starts with getting a good week of prep in.”
It’s been a busy summer at the Club, with six players arriving and six senior players moving on. Most of those have trained with Taylor’s team in the early weeks of pre-season, while Japanese internationals Aoba Fujino and Ayaka Yamashita have trained with their team-mates for the first time upon arrival in Perth. Hemp says this time living together in close quarters will work wonders for their team spirit once the season gets going. “It takes a while to build connections on the pitch and we’ve obviously done that with a few of the new girls,” she stated. “The development girls that have come up and trained with us have done really well in the last few weeks. Us being all together as a squad and spending time as a group will only strengthen that even more. It’s really important. I know we’re going to keep doing that over the next few weeks before the season starts. Meeting up with everyone last night after time apart was really nice, everyone is getting on well and that’s what we’re looking for out of the trip.”
A Farewell to Perth!
Both of City’s matches in Perth will be globally available to watch on mancity.com and our official app with a CITY+ subscription. First we play Leicester City at 11:15 (UK) on Wednesday 28 August, before facing either Paris Saint-Germain or West Ham United on Sunday 1 September. CITY+ is available via an annual subscription of £34.99 a year, saving you £24 on our monthly offering. Choose monthly and pay £4.99 a month with the option to cancel anytime. Official Cityzens and Season Ticket Members can subscribe annually for £30 a year, a saving of £29. SUBSCRIBE TO CITY+
