Highett has high hopes for Sandy Dragon Jake Bowey

He’s quick, a classy kick and evasive. AFL clubs are sizing up Jake Bowey, the son of former St Kilda rover and fan favourite Brett Bowey.

Jake Bowey marking for the Sandringham Dragons.

They were playing a father-kids match at Highett Junior Football Club, and Brett Bowey had a young opponent in his sights.

It was his son, Jake.

Bowey ran in to lay a tackle. Before he could lay a hand on him, Jake was off, showing an evasive step his father employed during his league football career with St Kilda.

“That was the first time I thought he might have something,’’ Brett Bowey recalled.

“I’m going, ‘I’ve got him here’. I didn’t get him. He made me look like a fool.’’

Jake was 12 or 13 at the time. In the years since, and using the grounding that began in Auskick with the Highett juniors at Turner Rd Reserve, he’s developed other layers to his game to go with his snazzy sidestep.

Jake Bowey launches a Dragons attack.

He’s what Sandringham Dragons officials call an “elite’’ kick. He has pace. And he can launch for a mark, as he showed in last year’s Under 17 Futures All Stars match that raised the curtain to the AFL grand final at the MCG.

A few weeks out from the AFL national draft, Bowey junior is being held up as one of the Dragons’ best prospects.

The NAB League season was called off this year owing to COVID-19. Many players missed the chance to advertise their ability.

Bowey had done precisely that last season as a bottom-age player, making 16 appearances for the Dragons and earning lots of glowing notices.

He reserved his best for last, having 22 possessions in that match on grand final day. The mark was a cracker – and quickly Brett Bowey was receiving text messages from friends saying they never saw him take a grab like that.

Jake and Brett Bowey at Highett Reserve last Wednesday.

Bowey was made co-captain of the Dragons for this year. A leadership role was one of his aims; making the All Australian Under 18 team was another.

“I just wanted to play a bit better than last year, I guess,’’ he said.

“Show I can play in different positions, show that I can win the footy as an inside mid or forward, as a shorter type of player (he’s 175cm).’’

He used the COVID-19 lockdown to work on his strength and overall fitness.

Brett Bowey has kept a knowing eye on Jake and his daughter Hannah, 22, since they began at Highett (Hannah is a VFLW aspirant and is recovering from an ACL injury she sustained earlier this year).

He can recall many kick-to-kick sessions with Jake in the front yard and in their street, across the Nepean Hwy from Turner Rd.

“He’s always showed a bit with his ball ability, the hand-eye coordination,’’ Bowey senior said.

Brett Bowey hoofs it on the left for St Kilda.

Jake was four when he started in Auskick. Often playing “up’’ a year and filling in for teams in the higher age divisions, he played almost 200 junior games for Highett.

The club was chuffed when he was selected in the Vic Metro Under 16 team.

Last year he made his senior debut for the Doggies. His second game was against Brett’s old club, St Kilda City, and he just happened to come up against former AFL player Billy Hartung. He said Hartung was strong but he felt he held his own.

“Actually we got told the kid did really well when he played local footy,’’ an AFL recruiter said. “Showed a fair bit.’’

That an AFL club was aware Bowey had a run in local football shows the level of scrutiny applied to league hopefuls.

It wasn’t like that in Brett’s day. There was no draft when he was 18. The clubs scouted their zones and he was in St Kilda’s; he was playing at St Kilda City.

He joined the league Saints in 1988 and in that same season turned out for the Under 19s, the reserves and the seniors, sharing his debut with Robert Harvey.

“Four in the 19s, 13 in the seconds and the last four in the seniors under Darrel Baldock,’’ he said.

“Pretty surreal at the time, for sure. I was 19.’’

Jake Bowey’s kicking skills are considered elite.

And he played with the all the Saints greats: Harvey, Tony Lockett, Stewie Loewe, Nathan Burke and Nicky Winmar.

One of his 85 games brought him three Brownlow Medal votes. He had 10 possessions. In the same match Lockett just happened to kick 10 of the team’s 13 goals.

Jake wasn’t born when his father was playing at St Kilda, but he’s heard the stories and watched some clips.

“He used the bring the tapes out a fair bit,’’ he said with a laugh.

“Good to see him running around in the No 18.’’

He’s a St Kilda supporter – and since he began making his name in the NAB League, quite a few Saints fans have lamented the fact that his father didn’t play 100 games and have the father-son rule kick in.

St Kilda has spoken to the Cheltenham Secondary College student, as have a dozen other AFL clubs.

“I think he’s got the attributes,’’ Brett Bowey said of his son.

“He’s worked on his deficiencies and he’s worked on his elite stuff, his kicking, his running, his endurance. I think he’s a good chance to be picked up. Fingers crossed.’’

AFT DRAFT GURU ‘SHIFTER’ SHEEHAN ON JAKE BOWEY

“Creative small midfielder/forward with some real X-factor overhead and the speed and nimbleness to find separation from his opponents. Laid solid foundations in 2019 for his draft year playing 16 matches for the Sandringham Dragons in the NAB League, averaging 15.8 disposals mainly through the midfield. Son of former St Kilda star Brett Bowey, he represented Victoria Metro as a 16-year-old before being one of the stars of the Futures game last year, having 22 disposals to be one of the best players for Team Brown on the MCG on 2019 AFL Grand Final day. His 2.95 seconds for 20 metres and 89cm Running Vertical Jump were eye-catching performances at the NAB AFL Draft Combine in Melbourne.’’

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