THAT WINNING FEELING
Only Cats player to taste glory wants mates to share joy
CATS forward Matthew Fowler is the only player at Broadbeach with a senior premiership to their name but that may change tomorrow.
Fowler won the 2013 Western Australian Football League with West Perth before going on to win the flag with the reserves a year later.
The 27-year-old lost the 2015 WAFL senior grand final with the same team and has featured in four grand finals in the past six years.
It’s a valuable bit of experience for a Cats team about to play in the club’s first senior grand final in 22 years.
“I’m the lucky omen and I want to keep it that way,” Fowler said.
“The group we have at the moment is very driven by the success of the year and everyone gelling together. We have a very tight-knit team.”
Fowler has been the QAFL leading goalkicker in 2018 with 64 goals from 19 games.
Broadbeach will go into the game as underdogs, having lost to Palm Beach Currumbin in all three showdowns this year by margins of 21, 18 and, most recently, 26 in the semi-finals.
It’s a situation that only makes Fowler even more confident the Cats can cause an upset at Leyshon Park.
“In every grand final I have been in we have been the underdogs,” Fowler said.
“In 2013 we played against the West Coast Eagles feeder side so they had all West Coast (AFL) players playing for them.
“We were going at about $6 odds and they were $1.10 but we won by 49 points. Anything can happen.”
The two clubs play contrasting styles of football, with the Lions dominating the 2018 season with their big bodied midfielders and key position players while it’s Broadbeach’s outside run that has propelled them to the grand final.
“They are a big-bodied midfield and we’re really quick on the outside,” Fowler said.
“If we bring our A-grade pressure and try and make them fumble on the inside, hopefully we can get it to the outside to our fast guys and away we go.”