Mooney has more good days than bad, and there are few players more suited to rescuing a side from 76-7 in a World Cup match, as was the case against Pakistan this month.
“It was a bit dire, wasn’t it?” says Mooney. “You go into games having a bit of a plan, an idea of how it’s going to pan out and that certainly wasn’t on my bingo card when I woke up.
“I thrive in those situations, wanting to be the person that can change the outcome of the game and I enjoy the problem-solving side of it, having to adjust and adapt as the game goes on.”
If there’s one message that consistently surrounds this remarkable Australian side, it’s the need for relentless hard work. Mooney epitomises this attitude.
In the third T20 international of Australia’s 16-0 win in the 2025 Women’s Ashes, the Queenslander ran 54 of her 94 runs during a match-winning innings. No Australian player had previously scored as many in a T20 with non-boundary runs.
“I probably didn’t really understand what it took to play at the elite level until I left home,” she said. “And there’s one thing about knowing what it takes but there’s another thing about learning how to work hard and be uncomfortable.”
Time and again, Australian players are quietly pushing themselves to the limit.
“There’s a real sense of pride with the way we work,” Mooney says, “and people not having to be told that they have to go for a run or go to the gym, everyone just does it because they know how important it is.”
Even though you don’t get the impression Mooney would ever put in less than everything, she knows to be successful is to be relentless: “You know that if you let your guard down slightly, it doesn’t take much for someone who’s playing really well in domestic cricket to take your spot.”
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