SUN’S DIET DILEMMA
BOWES’ TRUE TEST
JELLY and ice cream isn’t the standard pre-season diet of an AFL player but it was not ill-discipline that had Suns young gun Jack Bowes delving into the sweets.
Bowes had his tonsils removed in mid-November after multiple bouts of tonsillitis towards the end of 2017 in a move that had him out of action for two weeks.
“I underestimated the surgery a bit. It knocked me around and I lost a bit of weight,” Bowes said.
“I couldn’t eat much and it was just jelly, ice cream and smoothies when I could.”
Dropping a few kilograms may not have been an issue for others in the AFL who may have indulged a little bit too much in the off-season but for the lightly built Cairns product it was a roadblock in his journey to bulk up in his second year at Gold Coast.
“A big goal of mine this year is to put on as much size as I can to compete with those bigger bodies and it didn’t help when I had to do the surgery,” he said.
Bowes got down to 77kg during his time off but has bounced back to reach 84kg and boast a visibly bigger frame than he did when he first joined the Suns AFL list as a lean 18-year-old 12 months earlier.
Bowes was taken at No.10 at the 2016 AFL draft, arriving through the Suns academy as a much-touted midfielder with a deft of touch beyond his years.
He played 11 games in his debut season, living up to the hype in the earliest stages of his career despite suffering minor injuries and tonsillitis.
Bowes is aware the weight of expectation will grow this year but is confident he can shut out the outside noise and progress to the level he has set for himself.
“Within myself I know where I have got to be and what I need to do to achieve my goals,” Bowes said.
“I’m just going to keep trusting the process and work hard and hopefully the rewards will come.”
Bowes, who will turn 19 on Australia Day on Friday, spent most of his maiden season playing in a new role at halfback but said he could shift in to a more attacking role in 2018 under new coach Stuart Dew.
“I have been training with the midfield group through the pre-season,” Bowes said.
“Hopefully I’ll play a bit more on the wing/midfield/ half-forward rotation but you never know until the practice matches come around. You have to earn your position.
“In the future I see myself playing as a midfielder but there are some great midfielders here at the moment and you have got to work hard for your spot.”