Joel Francis Bowden (born 21 June 1978) is an Australian politician, former union leader and former professional
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
er. He was elected to the
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method fo ...
at the
2020 Johnston by-election, representing the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
(ALP). He previously played professional football for the
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...
in the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(AFL) from 1996 to 2009.
Early life
Bowden was born at the Mildura Base Hospital in
Mildura, Victoria
Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area had ...
to mother Judy and father
Michael Bowden (a
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...
premiership player),
[Territory Story](_blank)
By Leon Loganathan & Peter Gowers one of four biological brothers (including older brother
Sean Bowden
Sean Bowden (born 22 September 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer, later a lawyer. He played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and Port Melbourne in the Victorian Football Association in 1990 a ...
and younger brother
Patrick Bowden
Patrick Bowden (born 4 August 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.
Football career Western Bulldogs
In the 1999 National AFL Draft, Bowden was a fourth-round selection (no. 58 overall) to the Wes ...
) he was part of a football dynasty.
Bowden's family moved to the remote South Australian community of
Ernabella
Pukatja (formerly Ernabella) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Pipalyatjara, Fregon/Kaltjiti, ...
in the 1980s as a very young boy where his father Michael was a community advisor. He spent a couple of years playing with indigenous children in the area. The family returned to Mildura for a few years before returning to
Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
in 1987 where Michael became a teacher and where Joel completed his schooling from the age of 9.
Joel played for the Northern Territory Schoolboys in 1993. He was named in the All-Australian Schoolboy’s team and won the J.L Williams Medal as best player. In 1994 he once again represented the Northern Territory. In addition to football, Bowden represented the Northern Territory twice in
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
at under 17 level.
AFL career
Bowden was drafted at the end of the
1995 AFL season
The 1995 AFL season was the 99th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989.
The league expanded to s ...
under a father-son selection.
In 2006, Bowden was among the leading possession getters in the
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
, and had the most possessions shared between any two players with his brother
Patrick Patrick may refer to:
* Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
* Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
. He played his 200th AFL game in round 8 against , gathering 34 possessions as the Tigers upset the then-ladder-leading Crows by three points just a week after suffering a 118-point loss to the
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
.
In round 16, 2008, Bowden was at the centre of a major controversy regarding rushed behinds. With Richmond up by 6 points against Essendon with less than a minute left, Bowden proceeded to wipe the remaining time off the clock by
rushing 2 behinds from the kick out. These tactics which caused an uproar with many calling for the current rules to be changed; football journalist
Mike Sheahan
Michael Sheahan (born 4 March 1947) is an Australian journalist who specialises in Australian rules football. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the ''Herald Sun'' for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the ...
even likened it to the infamous
Trevor Chappell underarm delivery incident. He played his last game against
Collingwood in Round 20, 2009, who defeated Richmond by 93 points.
Statistics
:
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 5 , , 4 , , 3 , , 17 , , 14 , , 31 , , 7 , , 3 , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , , 3.4 , , 2.8 , , 6.2 , , 1.4 , , 0.6
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 13 , , 21 , , 9 , , 146 , , 75 , , 221 , , 51 , , 21 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 11.2 , , 5.8 , , 17.0 , , 3.9 , , 1.6
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 18 , , 17 , , 19 , , 178 , , 131 , , 309 , , 72 , , 36 , , 0.9 , , 1.1 , , 9.9 , , 7.3 , , 17.2 , , 4.0 , , 2.0
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 15 , , 11 , , 238 , , 183 , , 421 , , 82 , , 38 , , 0.7 , , 0.5 , , 10.8 , , 8.3 , , 19.1 , , 3.7 , , 1.7
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 19 , , 14 , , 293 , , 203 , , 496 , , 124 , , 51 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 13.3 , , 9.2 , , 22.5 , , 5.6 , , 2.3
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 25 , , 26 , , 22 , , 381 , , 210 , , 591 , , 149 , , 51 , , 1.0 , , 0.9 , , 15.2 , , 8.4 , , 23.6 , , 6.0 , , 2.0
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 18 , , 17 , , 334 , , 171 , , 505 , , 125 , , 63 , , 0.8 , , 0.8 , , 15.2 , , 7.8 , , 23.0 , , 5.7 , , 2.9
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 12 , , 9 , , 300 , , 181 , , 481 , , 128 , , 74 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 13.6 , , 8.2 , , 21.9 , , 5.8 , , 3.4
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 21 , , 9 , , 6 , , 345 , , 177 , , 522 , , 128 , , 51 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 16.4 , , 8.4 , , 24.9 , , 6.1 , , 2.4
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 7 , , 5 , , 324 , , 188 , , 512 , , 131 , , 38 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 14.7 , , 8.5 , , 23.3 , , 6.0 , , 1.7
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 21 , , 3 , , 0 , , 326 , , 169 , , 495 , , 133 , , 37 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 15.5 , , 8.0 , , 23.6 , , 6.3 , , 1.8
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 22 , , 3 , , 2 , , 329 , , 220 , , 549 , , 179 , , 38 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 15.0 , , 10.0 , , 25.0 , , 8.1 , , 1.7
, - style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 18 , , 17 , , 6 , , 259 , , 153 , , 412 , , 153 , , 39 , , 0.9 , , 0.3 , , 14.4 , , 8.5 , , 22.9 , , 8.5 , , 2.2
, -
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, style="text-align:center;",
, 11 , , 12 , , 3 , , 1 , , 195 , , 101 , , 296 , , 84 , , 20 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 16.3 , , 8.4 , , 24.7 , , 7.0 , , 1.7
, - class="sortbottom"
! colspan=3, Career
! 265
! 174
! 124
! 3665
! 2176
! 5841
! 1546
! 560
! 0.7
! 0.5
! 13.8
! 8.2
! 22.0
! 5.8
! 2.1
Achievements and honours
*
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
Best and Fairest
In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...
2004, 2005
*
All-Australian
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...
2005, 2006
*
International Rules
International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed ...
2004
*
100 Tiger Treasures "''Goal of the Century''" Nominee (2008)
Unions NT
In 2018, Bowden was appointed general secretary of Unions NT, the peak body for the labour movement in the Northern Territory.
Politics
In February 2020, Bowden ran for and won the
2020 Johnston by-election to the
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method fo ...
.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Joel
1978 births
Living people
Richmond Football Club players
All-Australians (AFL)
Jack Dyer Medal winners
Australian rules footballers from the Northern Territory
Allies State of Origin players
Australia international rules football team players
Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
21st-century Australian politicians
People from Alice Springs