Matt Bowen

North Queensland fullback, originally from Cairns, emerged as one of the most exciting broken play runners in the game. Wayne Bennett was amongst the first to appreciate Bowen’s ‘will of the wisp’ style of play when he chose him as an interchange player in the Queensland State of Origin team in 2002. Continued good form for the Maroons in 2003-04 (all as an interchange player) – and his scintillating play as the North Queensland qualified for the 2004 finals series – saw him become the club’s first ‘home-grown’ Australian representative player. Although he did not appear in a Test match in the 2004 Tri Nations competition Bowen did play for the combined ANZacs team against Cumbria and scored three tries in the international match against the USA Tomahawks in Philadelphia. A try-scorer in the North Queensland’ grand final loss to the W’Tigers in 2005 Bowen was out of favour with Maroons’ selectors following Queensland’s 17-16 loss in the opening match of the 2006 series and did not appear in another rep match during the disappointing season.