Javid Bowen (born 30 March 1993) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

footballer who played as a and er for the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

in the NRL.

Background

Born in

Cairns, Queensland Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Bowen is of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

and

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

descent. He is the nephew of professional rugby league footballers, Matt and Brenton Bowen. Bowen grew up in the small Cape York Aboriginal community of

Hopevale Hope Vale (also known as Hopevale) is a town within the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and a coastal locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and the Shire of Cook, both in Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. I ...

and attended Abergworie College, where he played his junior rugby league.

Playing career

Early career

After completing his schooling, Bowen was signed by the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen Ne ...

, playing for their

SG Ball Cup The S. G. Ball Cup is a junior rugby league football competition played predominantly in New South Wales, between teams made up of players aged under 19. Teams from Canberra and Melbourne (Victoria Thunderbolts) also participate. Prior to the C ...

side in 2011. In early 2012, Bowen returned to Queensland, joining the

and playing for their Under-20s side. He played 30 games between 2012 and 2013, scoring 23 tries and kicking 9 goals for 110 points. In June 2013, his form in the NYC was rewarded with a three-year NRL contract with the North Queensland side, until the end of 2016. In February 2014, Bowen was a member of North Queensland's NRL Auckland Nines winning side, scoring two tries in the tournament. Bowen would spend the rest of the 2014 season playing for North Queensland's

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fou ...

affiliate side, the Northern Pride. In July 2014, Bowen represented the

Queensland Residents The Queensland Residents rugby league team is a representative rugby league team consisting of players who compete in the Intrust Super Cup (Queensland Cup) competition. They currently play an annual fixture against NSW Cup Representative Team, ...

side, scoring a try in their 24-16 win over

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. In September 2014, Bowen was a member of the Northern Pride's Grand Final win over the

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

, scoring two tries. A week later, Bowen scored a hat trick and was named Man of the Match in the inaugural

NRL State Championship The NRL State Championship is a rugby league match contested by the premiers of the two elite second-tier competitions in Australia, the New South Wales Cup and the Queensland Cup. The match has been played as a curtain-raiser to the NRL Grand ...

game, in which the Pride defeated the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrit ...

, 32-28. In his first season at the Pride, Bowen played 23 games and scored 12 tries. In January 2015, Bowen was a member of the QAS Emerging Maroons squad. Later that month, Bowen was selected in the Cowboys' squad for the

2015 NRL Auckland Nines The 2015 NRL Auckland Nines (known as the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines due to sponsorship) was the second NRL Auckland Nines tournament, contested between all sixteen teams of the National Rugby League. The draw was released on 16 September 201 ...

. Bowen once again spent the season playing for the Northern Pride in the Queensland Cup. In May 2015, Bowen was selected for the

side for the second straight year, scoring a try in their 36-32 win over

2016

In Round 5, Bowen made his first grade debut for the

scoring a try in his side's 36-0 win over the St. George Illawarra Dragons. Bowen finished his first of the NRL season with 4 tries in 10 games, which included starting at centre in two of North Queensland's finals games.

2017

Bowen played 13 games in 2017, scoring three tries. Mainly used as a back-up, he spent time playing for the Northern Pride and filling in at wing and centre for the injured

Antonio Winterstein Antonio Winterstein (born 30 May 1988) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played for the North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL. A Samoan international captain, he was a member of the Cowboys' 2015 NRL prem ...

and

Justin O'Neill Justin O'Neill (born 4 April 1991) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL and Australia at international level. He represented the NRL All Stars ...

2018

Due to an injury to regular starter

Kane Linnett Kane Linnett (born 11 January 1989) is a Scotland international rugby league footballer who plays as a or forward for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. He has previously played for the Sydney Roosters and the North Queensland Cowboy ...

, Bowen started the

2018 NRL season The 2018 NRL season was the 111th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 21st season run by the National Rugby League. The main competition, known as the 2018 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra, featured 16 team ...

at centre, playing in North Queensland's first five games. Following a defeat by the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in Round 5, he was sent back to play for the Northern Pride. He would make just one more appearance for the

, in their Round 15 loss to the

. On 11 October, he re-signed with the North Queensland outfit on a one-year deal.

2019

Bowen played just seven games for the North Queensland side in 2019, spending the majority of the season playing for the Northern Pride. For North Queensland, he started six games on the wing and one at centre, scoring two tries. On 13 September 2019, it was announced that he would not be re-signed by the North Queensland side.

2020

Bowen joined the Northern Pride full-time for the 2020 season, captaining the side. He played just one game for the club that year after the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

2021

On 3 February, after undertaking pre-season training with the club, Bowen re-joined the

, signing a one-year deal. In Round 9 of the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

, he made his return to the NRL, starting at centre in a 19–18 win over the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite c ...

. On 26 May, he re-signed with the Cowboys until the end of the 2022 season. On 19 July, Bowen was ruled out for the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

after rupturing his ACL and MCL during the club's Round 18 loss to the

. On 26 October, Bowen announced his retirement from rugby league due to his knee injury.

Achievements and accolades

Individual

* North Queensland Cowboys Rookie of the Year: 2016

Team

* 2014 NRL Auckland Nines:

– Winners

Statistics

NRL

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2021 season''

References

External links

North Queensland Cowboys profileNRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Javid 1993 births Living people Australian people of Māori descent Australian rugby league players Indigenous Australian rugby league players New Zealand Māori rugby league players North Queensland Cowboys players Northern Pride RLFC players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Cairns Rugby league wingers