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

premiership player),Territory Story
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

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