Victorian women’s football great Belinda Bowey hits 350-match milestone
This Sunday, 26 years after her first game, Victorian women’s football legend and veteran St Kilda Sharks player Belinda Bowey will hit the field for her 350th match.
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SHE’S an original. And she’s one of the best in women’s football.
When the Victorian women’s league started in 1992, the St Kilda Sharks took their place as a foundation club, and 17-year-old Belinda Bowey was in the inaugural team.
She had played junior football with her twin brother Matt — but at age “13 or 14’’ Bowey was told she had to stop — and she can still remember the disappointment.
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“They said I was developing and it was too dangerous for me to play football,’’ she said. “So that was it.’’
Wanting to stay involved with the game and the club, Bowey began boundary umpiring. But ahead of the 1992 season she took a phone call saying St Kilda was starting a women’s team and asking if she would be interesting in joining.
“I was down there like a rocket,’’ she said.
And, save for three years in a coaching role at Keysborough, she’s been there since.
When she first ran out she wore No.18, the same jumper number of her older brother Brett, who played for AFL club St Kilda.
This Sunday — 26 years after her first game, lucky to have avoided any serious injuries and thankful for the support of her family — Bowey plays her 350th game of women’s football. At 44, she’s still going strong.
“Well, I’m still going, but I wouldn’t say strong!’’ she said with a laugh.
“To be honest, there are some games when I feel like — well, I don’t feel like I’m 21 again — when I feel that I can still play football and still make a difference. And there are other games when the younger girls seem to be getting younger and faster and I actually feel older than 44. So I guess it just depends on who you’re playing and how you’re feeling on the day.’’
The Sharks rose to the VFL Women’s league three years ago but dropped back to “community level’’ this season. They have two teams and Bowey is playing in the seconds, taking on a mentoring role for teammates new to the game. There are quite a few of them, in keeping with the rapid growth of women’s football.
With a mix of envy and pride, Bowey has seen the boom at club level and as an assistant coach of the Sandringham Dragons TAC Cup Girls program.
She admits she’s jealous of the opportunities available to young girls coming into the game — “they’ve got five coaches, and they’ve got fitness coaches and wellness coaches’’.
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And they also have the potential to reach the AFL W and get paid to play. Those very words — “paid to play’’ — still astonish her. And they make her proud, reflecting as they do the rise of women’s football from a bunch of VWFL teams in 1992 to a game with thriving junior competitions, elite programs and pathways for under-age talent, VFL Women’s and AFL W.
“I see it at the Dragons. The talent coming through is just outstanding,’’ she said.
“When the AFL W started I had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘You must be spewing you’re not 10 or 15 years younger’.
“And I’m kind of like, ‘I’m jealous and I’m proud at the same time. I’m jealous I never got the chance but I’m so proud of what’s there now and that I was part of helping to get there’.
“I was in the original eight-team league. And now they can play AFL football and be household names. Amazing.’’
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In her prime Bowey was a fine player, as evidenced by her selection in St Kilda’s 25-year team.
She played in premierships, won best and fairests and, in 2004, played on the MCG.
That day is vivid in her memory; the sound of the siren “went through your whole body’’.
“It’s one of those things that you never forget,’’ she said.
“That was a massive highlight. People were even cheering us!’’
Bowey had been talking about this being her last year of football. But last week she bobbed up for the Melbourne team in the new women’s Masters competition. Suddenly the veteran has another spring in her step.
“It’s still an amazing release, good for the mind, body and spirit, running out and going after a kick and hanging out with your mates,’’ she said. “You can’t beat it.’’
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