Nine months ago, Cortnee Vine was standing on a grassy clifftop in Sydney's eastern suburbs, shielding her eyes from the sun as a helicopter slowly lowered a giant football onto a plinth set up to celebrate the upcoming Women's World Cup.

Later that morning, she sat on a panel alongside some of the biggest names in Australian sport such as Ian Thorpe and Jess Fox. She mingled with media, brand ambassadors, and VIP guests. She juggled the brand new "OCEAUNZ" ball in front of cameras that would beam her image around the world.

But the whole experience felt bizarre. Awkward. Like it was happening to someone else.

"I was like, 'Holy crap, what is going on? Why am I here?'" she told the ABC afterwards.

"These big media events in the build-up to the World Cup … being there with some amazing athletes who have done so much.

"I do feel like an impostor when I'm at these things. I'm like, 'Am I meant to be here?' I even feel that way in the Matildas. I have to put on a brave face, that's for sure."

She hadn't been selected for the final squad yet — that would come a little later on, in early July — but as one of the only players based in Australia, she quickly became one of the team's most visible representatives on home soil as preparations for the tournament ramped up.

"That's been the whole last year, to be honest, going to those events … it hasn't really hit me yet that I'm in this position where I've got the opportunity to represent my country now," she said.

"I'm playing with some of the best players in the world, players I've been watching in the Matildas for years. And now I get to go and train with them. It's surreal."

That bewilderment has only intensified in the two months since the World Cup proper, where Vine became a household name after scoring the winning penalty for the Matildas against France in the quarterfinal.

Now, she can barely go out in public without being recognised.

"It's honestly just been crazy, the zero to 100," she said. "I walk down the street and people are like, 'Oh my God, are you who I think you are?'.

"Like, you see the numbers of how many people watched that moment, but you don't register that they're all individual people that watched that moment … I [didn't] realise how many people were watching until I came out of that bubble.

"Last week, I went to Tangalooma Island just to do a bit of an appearance, got helicoptered back to Brisbane Airport, then flew back to training. Oh, and that morning, I was playing cricket with the prime minister.

"So that was, yeah … that was a crazy two days."