Jack Bowes will enjoy the biggest day of his life on Saturday on the same turf as his great uncle was the ‘visiting villain’ in one of Australian sport’s most famous moments.
Bowes, set to play for Geelong against Brisbane in the 2025 Toyota AFL Grand Final in front of more than 100,000 people at the MCG, will play his 143rd game and his fifth final.
The 27-year-old midfielder, born in Cairns and traded from the Gold Coast SUNS to Geelong, will be the first player from the football capital of North Queensland to play in a Grand Final.
But he won’t be the first member of his family to find himself in the MCG sporting spotlight.
On 30 December 1932 his great uncle Bill Bowes, an English fast bowler, clean bowled Don Bradman first ball in the second Test of the famous “Bodyline” series of 1932-33.
This obscure and largely unknown fact is listed in Bowes’ profile on Wikipedia. It seemed too far-fetched to be true but was confirmed by people close to him.
William Eric Bowes, born on 25 July 1908, played 15 Tests for England from 1932-46. He took 68 wickets at a creditable average of 22.3
The son of a Yorkshire railway worker John Bowes, he was a late selection for England’s 1932-33 tour of Australia and New Zealand, added to the tour party just three days before the ship sailed.
He was not selected for the First Test of the series in Sydney when Bradman was left out of the Australian side on medical advice after a string of low scores against the short-pitched England bowling in lead-up matches.
England won the First Test by an innings as the legendary Harold Larwood took five wickets in each innings, before Bowes replaced left-arm orthodox spinner Hedley Verity in the 2nd Test for his Test debut.
Australia captain Bill Woodfull won the toss and batted. Woodfull opened with Jack Fingleton as Larwood and Bill Voce took the new ball for England. Gubby Allen bowled first change and took the first wicket when he bowled Woodfull (10). It was 1-29.
Wally Hammond bowled second change and Bowes was the third-change bowler.
Allen bowled Australian #3 Leo O’Brien (making his Test debut) to make it 2-67.
This brought Bradman to the crease. He got a short one from Bowes first ball. It didn’t bounce as much as he’d expected and, to the astonishment of the silent crowd, a bottom edge sent the ball crashing into his stumps.
Bradman was Bowes’ first Test wicket and his only wicket in the Test match. His first innings figures read 19-2-50-1, and in the second innings he returned 4-0-20-0.
Post-career Bowes later joined the British Army as a gunnery officer in World War Two. He served in North Africa until he was among 30,000 Allied troops captured after the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, and spent three years in Italian and German prisoner-of-war camps.
He continued playing for two seasons after the war but, having lost four stone as a POW, could only bowl at medium pace. After he retired from playing, he became a coach with Yorkshire and worked for The Yorkshire Post as a cricket writer.
He died on 4 September 1987 aged 79 in Otley, West Yorkshire – 11 years before Jack Bowes was born.
There won’t be quite the same public focus on young Jack, and it won’t be Bowes’ first appearance at the MCG on grand final day, but it will be the biggest moment in a career of the Cairns-born Cats 142-gamer, who attended St.Augustine’s College in Cairns, and played football with the Manunda Hawks and later the Cairns Saints.
A local standout, he joined the Suns Academy at 13, made his senior debut with the Saints at 16 in 2014, and played in a losing Cairns League grand final that year.
He relocated to the Gold Coast in 2015 to increase his AFL draft prospects, playing with Surfers Paradise and the Suns Reserves in the NEAFL and finishing his schooling at All Saints Anglican College, which has a long and glorious connection with prominent sports people.
In 2015 he represented the AFL Academy in the AFL grand final curtain-raiser, and in 2016 captained the Queensland Under 18 side, winning the Hunter Harrison Medal as the best played in division two at the Australian Championships.
He captained the Allies in the division one championships, and was chosen in an All-Australian Under 18 side that included Brisbane grand final opponent Hugh McCluggage and a host of AFL stars, including Essendon’s Andrew McGrath, Collingwood’s Harry Perryman, Hawthorn’s Josh Battle, Richmond’s Tim Taranto, Bulldogs’ Tim English and West Coast’s Jack Graham.
He was drafted by the SUNS at Pick No.10 in the 2016 National Draft after the club matched a bid from the Sydney Swans, and debuted under coach Rodney Eade in Round 1 2017 with Ben Ainsworth as Jarrod Witts, Jarryd Lyons, Michael Barlow and Pearce Hanley played their first game for the Suns.
In six years at the SUNS he played 83 games - 11-16-15-17-19-5 year by year.
Bowes, who had worn jumper #29 and #3 at the Gold Coast, inherited the #12 at Geelong which had been worn by fellow Queenslander Wylie Buzza, now playing at Southport in the VFL, in 2017-18.
He missed the first round of his first season at Geelong in 2023 through injury, but has played 59 games since then, including two finals in 2024, and two finals in 2025, and has been a valuable member of coach Chris Scott’s always varied player rotation.
In Round 18 last year, in front of 73,435 at the MCG, he polled three Brownlow Medal votes against Collingwood – his first in the medal – but oddly he’s gone 0-2 against the Suns since switching to the blue and white hoops despite the fact the Suns have never beaten Geelong in Geelong.
Bowes will fly the flag on grand final day for a Cairns’ AFL contingent which has included Charlie Dixon, Jarrod Harbrow, Alex Davies, Troy Clarke, Courtenay Dempsey, Mark West, Che Cockatoo-Collins and twin brothers David and Donald, Rex Liddy, Jason Roe, Sam Michael and Jacob Heron.
He will become the second Queenslander to play for Geelong in an AFL grand final after 73-game ex-Southport defender/ruckman Steven Handley, who played in the losses of 1994-95.
He’ll be one out for the Cats against nine Queenslanders in the Brisbane side, and will join a Grand Final Honour Roll that includes 32 Queenslanders to the end of 2024.
5 – Jason Dunstall (Haw)
4 – Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis, Clark Keating, Mal Michael (Bris), Dale Hale (Haw)
3 – Marcus Ashcroft, Robert Copeland (Bris), Charlie Cameron (Adel/Bris), Nick Riewoldt, Sam Gilbert (StK)
2 – Dayne Zorko, Jaspa Fletcher, Eric Hipwood (Bris), Dayne Beams (Coll), Steven Handley (Geel), Kurt Tippett (Syd)
1 – Gavin Crosisca, Josh Thomas (Coll), Frank Dunell (Ess), Will Ashcroft, Keidean Coleman, Jack Payne, Jamie Charman (Bris), Tom Hickey (Syd), Warren Jones (Carl), Aaron Keating (Adel), Stephen Lawrence, Brent Renouf, Michael Osborne (Haw), Lee Spurr (Frem), Sam Reid (GWS).
