Bowden Inc
AFL Record
Round 4
April 20-22, 2007
By Peter Ryan.
It's been a long journey from Alice Springs where they spent many an afternoon watching their father Michael play, but the Bowden brothers - Joel and Patrick - are very much settled at Richmond, both on and off the field.
Let's get this straight from the start: Richmond's Bowden brothers, despite their on-field reputation, are no more or less laconic than any other person. We're sitting in their cafe, Birdie Num Nums, on Nicholson Street, North Carlton. It's a down-to-earth place they have just opened with John Rerakis and his wife, Susie - former owners of Fitzroy's Pireaus Blues restaurant and longtime sponsors of Joel. It's morning and the stream of young mums are coming in to have coffee while their young children play in the sandpit out the back.
Joel, a 28-year-old with 216 games behind him, has brought forward the appointment slightly so he can duck home to look after his seven-month old baby, Alice. He does not stop when he enters the place, grabbing a coffee cup, his broad grin spreading as he says hello to familiar faces, a quick chat with Rerakis, and then he's ready to talk.
Patrick, his younger brother by three years with 74 games experience, who crossed from the Bulldogs to Richmond at the start of 2006, and is still trying to establish himself as a permanent fixture in AFL football, joins us too.
For both players, the cafe is an outside interest that they hope will teach them plenty for life post footy Pat sums up the level of their involvement best "Fortunately, we don't work the hours these guys John and Susie work. We just play football and come in here at times to help out"
My main interest for interviewing the brothers is football. It's not a topic the Bowdens spend hours discussing. Nothing should be read into that; it just isn't their way. When they were at different clubs, the two never spoke football. Now, with both at Richmond, they speak about the game they love playing a bit more but not much still. "It doesn't occupy every minute of our day," Patrick says.
Both grew up in Alice Springs spending Sundays playing and watching the game that occupies much of their time now. At 9am they would be at the ground, manning the scoreboard when they weren't playing. After the matches finished at 5.30pm,joel says they would leave the ground for mass before heading home.
Joel has fond memories of the pre-match routine adhered to by his dad, former Richmond premiership player Michael Bowden. "Dad would turn up a couple of hours before the game with an old orange juice bottle with about 200ml of water and about five scoops of Sustagen in it. It was the most gluggy and, at the time, most repulsive drink you could possibly muster. He would throw it up to me in the scoreboard and say drink that. I still drink Sustagen before the game now"
The television coverage of the AFL in central Australia was limited, so they only caught snippets of the action. Patrick, who admits he hasn't got any grasp on football history - "I don't know ex-players or who won the '84 Grand Final. I couldn't tell you" - remembers following Richmond when the Tigers line up was full of long-haired players such as Wayne Campbell, Ben Harrison, Nick Daffy and Matthew Richardson.
Joel knew the West Coast Eagles players better than any other team, fondly recalling Peter Sumich's "crooked left foot".
As Joel says, you don't have to watch the AFL to love playing footy. The footy clubs he was involved in then carried attributes that still appeal today. ''It's interesting because the footy clubs we grew up with in Alice Springs, the Wests Football Club and the Rovers Football Club, are completely different to the Richmond Football Club today. The football club today is professional; you see each other every day. However, there is still that culture and nature that (existed) when we were in Alice Springs: the jovial, fun times we had at those football clubs are exactly the same at Richmond. It's just that the professionalism and time spent there is completely different."
Playing in defence, Joel has won two best and fairests and, in the past two seasons, been named All-Australian. He is an elite talent who has played half-forward, midfield and now, in defence, but he is finding he has to work harder to keep his standards high.
"I love playing footy but it's getting to the stage where training is hard for me. When I first started playing, it wasn't hard it was all just good fun. Now that I'm getting a bit older, I know that I have to train hard, I have to train well to make me feel like I can play well"
With a wry grin, he admits the game is getting quicker, is a bit more intense, and yes, he is getting older, but his motivation remains strong.
"I want to do well. I want to bring success to me personally in the way that I play and the way I conduct myself, and also success to the team in the way that we play and the way we conduct ourselves."
Renowned for his ability to read the play and kick-in off his normally trusty left foot, Bowden has become one of the best attacking defeJ1ders in the game. Although statistics show his opponents often kick more goals on him than the average key defender, his ability to start a goalscoring attack with his clearance from the defensive 50 is not matched.
Bowden says reading the play is all about confidence, in himself and his place in the team. "I think everyone knows how to (read the play). It's whether or not you have the confidence to leave your man. That's one of the things I'm more confident at doing. Now I've established myself in the team, if I make a mistake backing myself, I don't feel the weight of the coach's box fall on top of me. I go 'all right, no problem, made a mistake, I'll get the next one'."
Patrick credits coach Terry Wallace's enormous faith in him, and the year (2005) he spent under Bulldogs' coach Rodney Eade, with his improvement.
His mini-goal when he reached Richmond after six years and 50 games at Whitten Oval was to play the first game, then be part of a winning environment. He hadn't missed a game until last Friday and he believes the winning will come to Tigerland.
"Last year, all of my development came between my ears. It was definitely more of a mental thing than a physical thing. The year I spent at the Bulldogs with Rodney Eade really taught me a lot, even though I wasn't playing in the senior side; how to play and what to do in an AFL game. It's more thinking than football. You have to run your backside off and be hard at the football to get the football but you also have to think about what you're doing, where to run and how to run and where to be at the right times."
For Joel, a few years of promising football came before he received recognition from the wider football community. Interestingly, he doesn't see
his work since moving to defence in 2004 - he received his individual honours after this move - as when he has played his best football. "I personally think my best footy was in 2000-2001, playing on-ball and getting tagged but still being able to break the tag and be influential. In 2001, we made the preliminary final and I was quite excited and pleased with my form because one, we were winning, and, two, I was contributing, plus I was getting sat on a lot of a time."
Its an interesting call, given the widely held belief about his career. But Joel appears to be a person who will challenge perceptions, and not just for
the sake of it. In football clubs, that has occasionally caused him drama. "I've hit a few walls and butted a few heads," he says.
Patrick reveals that Joel doesn't like being told what to do. "He's a thing called an enforcer. He likes being the one in charge, giving orders. He's not exactly the one that takes orders very well." Those who know Joel outside of football reckon his propensity to sometimes call a spade an excavator indicates that for all his great qualities, he's not perfect.
Joel says having three older brothers meant he had to work hard to get his own way. "It’s probably been ingrained into me to be very strong and independent." Patrick believes his brother's strong will and character is helpful to building teams. "You need those pushers at footy clubs and you need followers: If you don't have them, you won't have a good leadership group."
According to Joel, Richmond now has a real vision and purpose. Both say the culture accepts different personalities and ways of preparing best for football. The group has worked on establishing feedback channels that move up and down and sideways. The club has even done personality profiles so individuals understand why their teammates are like they are. It allows people to focus on the objective: winning games says Joel.
"The greatest commodity a footy club has at anyone time, in my opinion, is the 22 blokes it puts on the field. If those 22 blokes are enthusiastic, happy, have trained well, have prepared well and have got ability, well, all of a sudden, you're going to win more games than you lose."
The Bowdens
Michael Bowden
1967-1971
59 games
1969 premiership team
Sean Bowden
1990-1991
6 games
Joel Bowden
1996-
216 games, 152 goals
Patrick Bowden
2001-
74 games, 69 goals
141 current AFL players have either a brother, father or grandfather who have played AFL football.
