Bowen ready to take his chance
JAVID Bowen says it’s time to make up for two “wasted” years and finally stake a permanent claim to the open Cowboys centre position.
The 24–year–old from Hope Vale is expected to replace Kane Linnett for the home Round 1 clash against the Sharks on Friday and said he was keen to take the opportunity for an extended run to cement a starting position.
“I’ve been in the system for a couple of years now so I sort of know what to expect and I guess I’m ready to try to cement a position within the squad and just try to be consistent all across the board,” Bowen said.
“Hopefully, if I get a chance to get a run this weekend I’ll be out there to do my job and it’s just like another game so I’ll be ready for it.”
Despite a solid 23 matches in the past two seasons as a stop–gap injury replacement, he admitted he had potentially taken his place in the NRL for granted — but no more.
“Mentally I guess I’ve been trying to focus, get my head around what I need to do to take that next step and just slowly work through it,” Bowen said. “I just wasted a couple of those earlier years, not having a good crack, so this year I feel mentally a lot better and just ready to rip in.”
Cowboys fans are hoping the centre has fixed his defensive lapses, which the Tigers exploited at times during their trial match at Barlow Park last month.
Bowen said working on reading the opposition and tackling Paul Green’s edge defence system had been a focus of the pre–season and he hoped to show that work against the Sharks in Townsville.
“I’ve been working pretty hard in the off–season, more on the defensive side, just to try to get my head around how we defend and try to better that part of my game,” he said.
The Cowboys have lost Linnett for up to three months due to a pectoral injury suffered in the trial win against the Storm at Suncorp Stadium last month.