Joel Bowden plays his 250th match for the Tigers on Sunday.
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JOEL Bowden will become just the 12th Richmond player in the Club’s 100-year VFL/AFL history to reach the 250-game milestone when he lines up against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
All-up, the 30-year-old has played 249 out of a possible 269 games since making his debut for the Tigers in Round 17 of the 1996 season against Hawthorn at Princes Park, which highlights his remarkable durability over the journey.
After being sidelined for several weeks with shoulder problems very early in his career, Bowden has not missed a match through injury for the past 10 years!
He was dropped to Richmond’s VFL affiliate, the Coburg Tigers, just a few weeks into the 2004 season for one game; was suspended for one match in the 2006 season; and then spent a month back at Coburg early on this season.
Up until his Round 4 omission this year, he’d appeared in 218 of Richmond’s previous 220 games – an amazing statistic for a player at the game’s highest level.
Bowden has combined that durability with versatility, and a clever football brain, to become such an integral member of the Tigers’ line-up for the past decade.
That versatility has seen him used in a variety of positions, such as wing, half-forward, half-back, back pocket, full-back, centre half-back, half-forward, ruck-rover, centre half-forward and full-forward.
In fact, upon reflection, tap ruckman is virtually the only role Bowden hasn’t filled throughout his 249-game league career at Tigerland!
The dual Jack Dyer Medallist and two-time All-Australian representative has averaged 21.8 disposals per game and 5.7 marks per game, and with his 166 goals, he’s ranked 29th on the Club’s all-time goalkicking list.
And, as he’s shown several times since returning to the Richmond side this season, despite being in the twilight of his career, he still has the capacity to strongly influence games . . .
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