Football not everything for Tigers
17 June 2006 Herald Sun
Mike Sheahan
RICHMOND'S four-time premiership ruckman Michael Green, the club's mentor to the Bowden brothers, is full of praise for them as players and people.
``I don't take any credit for anything they do; they're the ones who go out and play,'' Green said this week.
``It's more a friendship thing. We hardly ever discuss footy. They've got a very smart coach and a very good team of coaches.
``It's more family stuff: Joel's study, what Patrick's doing with his life. We've caught up five or six times this year. Me, (my wife) Rita, any of the kids that are around at the time.
``They're well-balanced young men who do not see playing AFL football as the most important issue in their lives.
``They try to apply themselves equally and properly to all the important components in their lives.
``I've got great affection for both boys, as I have for the family.''
Green and Michael Bowden, the father of Joel and Patrick, were teammates in Richmond's 1969 premiership team.
``They come from a family where the parents are driven by a belief in social justice,'' Green said. ``The boys have those same beliefs.''
Green said he was really happy for the younger Bowden.
``Patrick does seem, to use that cliche, to have taken the next step in the past 4-5 weeks,'' he said.
``I can take you to the very game where the penny dropped for me; where you start to believe in yourself.
``He now believes he belongs.''
JOEL BOWDEN ON PATRICK WHEN he was drafted to the Bulldogs, I was disappointed but only because it was a boyhood dream to play together, I guess.
We've always been close because we were the only boys at home for about four years.
I probably did rough him up a bit; I was bigger then. We played heaps of games of one-on-one in the back yard and in the creek bed out the back. We always had a footy.
He's a bit like me, but he's probably more reserved. I might speak up at times; no, not at times, I speak up. I've always tried to get my way.
He's a lot quieter. I know when he gets angry, I know when he's happy. This year he's been very happy.
He's starting to feel competent and almost accepting in himself that he can really match the rest of the people at this level.
It's a really hard game, footy. It's not easy when you've come from another club and you know you've got to make the most of your opportunity.
I've always been confident, maybe over-confident, from a young age. I always thought I could do it; he has been less confident.
If we had an argument, I'd argue until I'd won, or I'd thought I'd won, anyway. Or until we had a fight.
The first time we played together (against Hawthorn in the NAB Cup), I reckon I kicked the ball to him the first two times I got it. That was not because he was my brother. That was because he was there and I saw him, but I probably do see him more vividly than I see someone else.
I enjoyed watching him play for the Bulldogs. I used to get cranky with the other Bulldogs players for not passing it to him. I'd say things like, `He was in the right spot. Why didn't you kick it to him?'.
I'm very happy now he's here. Not only am I enjoying it, but the whole family is enjoying it. We're a Richmond family. I think we'll look back on it and say, `How good was that?'.
(Our brothers) Sean, Rhett and Kane all played for Port Melbourne in '94 or '95. Now they look back on it and say it was great.
We used to see more of each other socially before he came to Richmond. We were having dinner 2-3 times a week. Now we might only have dinner once a week, but we see each other here (at the club) every day.
I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up back in the Northern Territory.
I think we'd like to do something that makes a difference. I certainly think that footy is a great vehicle for making change.
Without an education, basically (I'm still trying to get one) and at 27 years old, I've got a profile that allows me to go into the community and try to implement whatever it is: tackle obesity in schools, try to help the homeless in Melbourne, anything like that.
Yeah, he's my best mate. I don't want to put the other brothers off-side, but he is my closest friend _ other than my wife, Katie, of course.
But he can do things that pee me off. He did something the other day that I thought was the wrong, and I told him. He said, `Yeah, but that's my decision', and that was it.
He's got good people skills, probably has a greater empathy for people than I do. If someone is needy, he'll listen and talk to them whereas I might listen then tell them what they need to do.
He's a good person.
The Adelaide game was a highlight. We won, it was my 200th game and Paddy I had had 40-odd possessions between us. We had a big family dinner in Brunswick St that night; it was just a great event. Great day.
PATRICK BOWDEN ON JOEL TO PLAY football with Joel is fantastic. I think I'll look back on it as one of the greatest things I've done in football.
I was happy at the Bulldogs; I loved the Bulldogs. Those guys were my best mates for six years.
I was going to stay there but when you're not playing senior football, it makes things a little bit harder.
I was my own person there. I said when I was drafted I wanted to create my own little story and I tried to do that and I thought I was going all right, but it all went downhill in 2005. So here I am and I'm happy now.
I liken our relationship on the field to that of Brad Johnson and Rohan Smith. When Johnno gets the ball, Smithy seems to think he's just a little bit more of a chance to get it because they're so close.
When Joel gets the ball, maybe I think to myself, `Well, I'm a little bit more of a chance to get this than if someone else has got the ball', and vice versa.
I'm close to all my brothers in different ways, but I'm probably closer to Joel because I've spent more time with him.
I've lived in Melbourne for six or seven years and for three of those I lived with him, even though I was playing with the Bulldogs.
Most weeks, we have a nice lunch, chat and discuss what we're doing, you know, what's going on his life, what's going on in mine. We don't talk about football very much.
We spent a lot of time together growing up (in Alice Springs).
Watching telly was certainly an entertaining experience, me trying to hold him off in the ad breaks until the show returned.
As soon as the ads started in shows like Friends, Joel would start trying to do `the typewriter' on me (fingers pounding on chest). He used to wrestle me and try to rough me up.
But we've only had two or three real fights in our adult life where we have genuine arguments about something and it's not resolved straight away.
They're resolved pretty quickly; there's never any grudges.
It's very hard to sum up Joel. He's very confident, very passionate, very determined to get his point across. He's always trying to educate teammates, people. He considers himself a broad spectrum person.
I'd say he's a committed family guy who enjoys all aspects of life and wants the best for those who make him happy.
He has a trait my dad has in that he over-explains things.
He explains something to you and thinks you don't understand so he does it again. Sometimes you've got to tap him on the shoulder and tell him you got it the first time.
He thought he was a man when he was about 13 years old. When his first kid comes along soon, I think he will realise what it really means to grow up.
I have a different view on `best friends'. If you're my friend, you're my best friend. I don't grade them. Joel's one of my best friends. He got married a year ago and I was his best man.
As a footballer, he's very committed, very passionate, very driven. He wants to be as good as he can be and he wants to be the best.
He gets the best forward just about every week: Barry Hall, Jonathan Brown, and I'm sure he'll get Warren Tredrea in a couple of weeks.
I've realised how hard it is to play on someone and still get 20-22-25 possessions, which I've done for three weeks; he's managed to do it for three years.
I respect what he does immensely.
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