Belinda Bowey sets all-time record with 400th match
Belinda Bowey has had many special moments in her 400 game career including a match on MCG in 2004 and a comeback to footy after a playing ban in Under 14’s.
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When Belinda Bowey walks off the field on Saturday, she will have achieved something no one has ever done in the history of the game.
She will be the first female footballer to have reached the 400 game milestone.
You probably ask, how did she do it?
Well, like many, Bowey was asked to stop playing football in her early teens.
At 14, she had to find an alternative because she ‘couldn’t play with the boys anymore’.
It left her disappointed.
“That was pretty disappointing because they were all my mates and when I was playing in that age group, the boys always made sure they took care of me,” Bowey said.
“No other opposition player was allowed to rough me up or anything, it was like I had 17 other brothers on the field.
“To then be told that I wasn’t allowed to play football with them anymore was pretty devastating.”
Times have changed for the better but Bowey was one of many who played their favourite sport the hard way.
Luckily she had a twin brother, Matt and an older brother, Brett to play footy with.
Bowey would be with them all the time playing footy in the backyard at home.
She was playing with twin Matt for the St Kilda Sharks until she was forced to stop at age 14.
Her older brother Brett went on to play 85 games for St Kilda in the VFL/AFL between 1988 and 1994.
Fast forward to 2022 and thousands of females are now getting the opportunity to play the sport.
When Bowey was told to stop, her passion for the game didn’t move her too far away from the sport.
She described it well.
“It was either, don’t play and boundary umpire or don’t be involved at all and I obviously wanted to stay involved [so I did boundary umpiring],” she said.
Bowey stayed involved for the next couple of seasons tossing the ball over her head for the boys she used to play with, including her twin brother Matt.
The boundary umpiring duties ended after a couple of years however when she received a special phone call at age 17.
It was her old coach who gave her some good news.
Bowey was pumped.
“When my previous coach rang me and said ‘we‘re starting a women’s team down at St Kilda, do you want to come down and play?’, I was like absolutely, straight in the car and down there,” she said.
“I have played every year since and I still love it.”
St Kilda City started their women’s team in 1992 affording Bowey her love of footy.
Bowey has now played the game for 30 years.
She spent 25 years at St Kilda Sharks, a season coaching and playing at Keysborough and now she is at Port Melbourne Colts, playing and coaching the Masters team.
Bowey would often put her hand up to play in teams that were short throughout her career.
She would get into trouble from her senior’s coach on some days for playing in the reserves game earlier in the day.
For the Port Melbourne Colts, she would often double up playing two games a weekend across the open age seniors and Masters’ over 35’s team.
Bowey said she loved the game for the release it provided her from the outside world.
“At training, you could arrive in the worst mood, you’ve had a bad day or something has happened, but when you get to training or a game, all of those worries wash away,” she said.
“You don’t even think about it when you’re running around because all you think about is getting the ball or getting the drill right.
“It’s like a release where you don’t have to worry about anything else that is going on in your life. You can just worry about getting that next tackle or handballing to your teammate.
“So it’s just a great release, and to get it a couple of times a week is just what you need.”
Bowey thanked all those who get involved in sporting clubs which has made it possible for her to play.
“A lot of people say, ‘oh I don’t know how you do it, how you play so many games’, but what people don’t understand is it’s all about the people behind the scenes that make it possible for us to keep playing.” she said.
“I might turn up every week and put my boots on and play but there’s also people that are behind the scenes that are our trainers, coaches, water runners, umpires, canteen ladies and all the administration behind the club that make it possible for us to keep playing.
“Without those people we couldn’t play.
“It’s really come down to everyone else that’s made it possible for me to hit this milestone.”
Bowey recalled the best moment of her footy career when she got to play on the hallowed turf of the MCG in 2004.
She was player-coach of St Kilda Sharks’ reserves team at the time.
Melbourne University, who were in the same competition, had won a prize for being the leading club in donating blood across the state.
That prize was a game on the MCG.
Because Melbourne University’s seniors had already played on the MCG earlier in the season, they gave it to their Reserves to play on the ‘G.
The Sharks were the lucky ones to be fixtured to play against Melbourne University that day.
“To get a chance to get a home and away game on the MCG was extraordinary,” Bowey said.
“Something that you would never ever forget.”
Bowey highlighted a special moment when the players experienced a big electronic scoreboard for the first time.
“They recorded our last quarter because we were a curtain raiser to an AFL game and a lot of the time, we got caught watching the scoreboard rather than actually playing because we’d watch the replay when we were back in the centre.
“I know that we did miss one of the ball ups because the rucks were too busy watching the replay,” she laughed.
As player-coach of the side, Bowey remembered the disbelief in her team when announcing that they would be playing on the ‘G.
“Even just telling the girls at training the week before that our game had changed locations and we were playing on the MCG, a lot of them just didn’t believe me,” she said.
“They thought I was making it up and I was like ‘no serious, we’re playing football on the MCG.’
“So we made sure we got there really early just to soak up the atmosphere and see how amazing it was.
“It was one of those experiences as a female footballer that you never think you’d get and we got the opportunity to play a game and we just made the most of it.
“We just loved it. It was unbelievable.”
Bowey remembered the sounds of the crowd which had built up by the end of their curtain raiser for the AFL match.
“One of my mates kicked an absolutely extraordinary goal and I remember watching the replay and all these people, who we didn’t even know, jumped up in celebration.
“Even that was amazing. There were people celebrating us who had no idea who we were.
“They were just cheering for us, that was again another amazing experience.
“They just loved what we were doing out there.”
Bowey thanked Melbourne University for the once in a lifetime opportunity.
It marked a special season for Bowey’s Sharks who went on to win the grand final that season.
The history doesn’t stop there. Bowey now has a nephew running around on the ‘G these days.
That’s Melbourne’s Jake Bowey who won a premiership last year in his first season in the AFL.
Bowey is excited about the future of women’s football.
“To see that so many people and clubs are getting involved in women and girls football is tremendous.
“And the talent that is coming out and what you’re going to see in the next five, 10 years is really going to make people stand up and take even more notice of the women playing football.
“There’s some amazing talent still to come. They are getting better every year.”
Bowey will play for the Port Melbourne Colts in the AFL Masters Vic Metro Football League for her 400th game.
The match begins at 2pm this Saturday, July 9 at JL Murphy Reserve in Port Melbourne.
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