Glenorchy’s Jaye Bowden collects his third best player award... is he the best Tasmanian player never to play AFL?

GLENORCHY superstar Jaye Bowden has etched his name into Tasmanian footballing folklore after adding yet another award to his illustrious career.

YOU CAN’T CATCH ME: Glenorchy’s Jaye Bowden has been named the RACT Insurance player of the year for the third time. Picture: PATRICK GEE

GLENORCHY superstar Jaye Bowden has etched his name into Tasmanian footballing folklore after adding yet another award to his illustrious career.

Bowden’s standing as one of the state’s most decorated footballers has been further enhanced after winning the RACT Insurance player of the year award for the third time in four years.

After first winning the award in 2014 and then again in 2016, the Glenorchy stalwart continued his dominant form into 2017, kicking a league-high 52 goals rotating through the midfield and forward line.

Bowden (22 votes) edged out the North Launceston duo of playing-coach Tom Couch (19) and midfield gun Bradley Cox-Goodyer (16) to win the coveted award, with Bowden thankful to be recognised in such a star-studded competition.

“A few North Launceston boys were pretty close ... I’m probably lucky they took votes off each other in the end,” he said.

Bowden was the TSL’s top scorer with 52 goals for the season. Picture: PATRICK GEE

“It’s great to accept an award like this ... it’s something that’s always nice to get.”

It appears increasingly unlikely that Bowden will take home the award again in 2018, however, with the 28-year old expressing a desire to travel throughout some of the colder months of next year.

“Probably towards the middle part [of 2017] I will look to head away for a month or a couple of months. Footy will just work around that,” he said.

“I’m getting a bit older now and footy is starting to take a bit of a back seat.”

Bowden insists his focus for now is solely on the blockbuster elimination final against Launceston on Saturday at Blundstone Arena.

“Back to back [premierships] is always something you aim for. We finished fourth this year so we have to play good footy or that’s it for us,” he said.

“We believe our best is good enough to go all the way again. We just can’t have an off day – we have put ourselves in that position and we will get ourselves out of it.”

Bowden admits that facing Launceston is a difficult task, particularly after the Blues comprehensively defeated the reigning premier by 70 points in May.

“They touched us up earlier in the year and we are definitely expecting a hard slog.

“[It will be] certainly tough and physical, you wouldn’t expect anything else from a Launceston team – it should be a battle either way.

“We will have to keep an eye on a fair few of them.”

The Glenorchy camp is confident that a host of stars, including captain Brayden Webb, ruckman Cameron Duffy, Josh Watts and Mitch Hills will be raring to return for the crucial encounter.

“We will certainly have no excuses. We have had a pretty bad run with injury throughout the year, but hopefully it is all coming good at the right time,” he said.