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

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

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 city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

Background

Born in

Cairns, Queensland Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after Sir William Welling ...

, Bowen is of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

and Māori descent. He is the nephew of professional rugby league footballers,

Matt Matt may refer to: *Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) *Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...

and Brenton Bowen. Bowen grew up in the small Cape York Aboriginal community of Hopevale 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 Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

, playing for their SG Ball Cup 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, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

affiliate side, the Northern Pride. In July 2014, Bowen represented the Queensland Residents side, scoring a try in their 24-16 win over

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. In September 2014, Bowen was a member of the Northern Pride's Grand Final win over the Easts Tigers, scoring two tries. A week later, Bowen scored a hat trick and was named Man of the Match in the inaugural NRL State Championship game, in which the Pride defeated the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

, 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. Bowen once again spent the season playing for the Northern Pride in the Queensland Cup. In May 2015, Bowen was selected for the Queensland Residents 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 and Justin O'Neill.

2018

Due to an injury to regular starter

Kane Linnett Kane Linnett (born 11 January 1989) is a retired Scotland international rugby league footballer, who plays as a or forward for Sarina Crocodiles in the Mackay & District Rugby League. He has previously played for the Sydney Roosters and th ...

, 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 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 the Aucklan ...

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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

. 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

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 21st-century Indigenous Australian people New Zealand Māori rugby league players North Queensland Cowboys players Northern Pride RLFC players Queensland Residents rugby league team players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Cairns Rugby league wingers 21st-century Australian sportsmen