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No premiership farewell for Bowen as Leeds claim Super League title

Roar Guru
12th October, 2015
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Mango Matt scored a great grand final try, but his Wigan Warriors still went down to Leeds Rhinos. Digital image by Colin Whelan © nrlphotos.com
Roar Guru
12th October, 2015
16

Former North Queensland Cowboys fullback Matthew Bowen has been denied a premiership farewell after the Wigan Warriors went down to the Leeds Rhinos in a thrilling Super League grand final on Sunday morning (AEST).

In front of 73,512 fans, the highest attendance for a Super League decider since 2006, Leeds won their first title since 2012 and seventh since 2004 with a narrow 22-20 victory over the Warriors, capping off a dominant season for the Rhinos.

The Warriors, through Sydney Roosters-bound winger Joe Burgess, scored the first try of the match after just four minutes, but the Rhinos would rebound with three tries, a double from Danny McGuire and one from former Brisbane Broncos centre Joel Moon, to take a 16-6 lead into the half-time break.

Then, ten minutes into the second half, ex-Cowboy Bowen, playing his final game before retirement, would provide one of the highlights of the match, scoring a brilliant individual try to put the Warriors ahead 18-16.

But in the end, Leeds would win 22-20, ensuring that club legends Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai would each bow out of rugby league a premiership winner.

By contrast, Bowen was denied for a second consecutive year with the Warriors after previously featuring in the North Queensland Cowboys NRL side that lost to the Wests Tigers in 2005.

Although Bowen was never able to feature in a premiership team throughout his long rugby league career, he did provide plenty of highlights since debuting for the Cowboys against then-defending premiers the Brisbane Broncos in Round 1, 2001.

It didn’t take long for Bowen to be selected for Queensland in the State of Origin, debuting in Game II, 2003. The following year, he proved instrumental as the Cowboys got to within one match of a shock grand final berth.

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But, it was the arrival of Johnathan Thurston from the Bulldogs that saw Bowen and the Cowboys as a team really start to stamp their authority on the competition.

In the first match of the 2005 State of Origin series, which doubled as Thurston’s Origin debut, Bowen came off the bench and scored an intercept try for the Maroons, giving them first blood in a series which they would eventually lose.

That year, he was the NRL’s leading tryscorer, a feat he would repeat in 2007 on either side of a disappointing five-try season in 2006, a year in which the Cowboys succumbed to the pressure of expectations brought about by them reaching the grand final (in which Bowen scored the first try) the previous year.

His following three seasons would be marred by injuries, as the Cowboys crashed to two second-last place finishes in 2008 and 2010, only avoiding the wooden spoon in the latter year due to the Melbourne Storm salary cap breach.

The 2011 season would bring about a resurgence in both Bowen’s individual form and that of the Cowboys, who would return to the finals for the first time since 2007, only to be knocked out in the first week by the eventual premiers Manly.

2012 saw Bowen produce one of his better seasons, finishing second in the Dally M Medal voting behind Ben Barba, scoring 13 tries, the most in a season for five seasons, and producing 28 try assists, three more than Johnathan Thurston.

Then, as the Neil Henry era came to an end in 2013, Bowen left the Cowboys, and the NRL, and continued his career in the Super League with the Wigan Warriors, where he proved to be a consistent performer for the club.

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Though he left the NRL at the end of 2013, it wouldn’t be the last time he played a rugby league match in Australia – he played for the Warriors in their World Club Challenge loss to the Sydney Roosters early in 2014.

He would ultimately end up playing 43 matches for the club, including two grand final losses, against St Helens last year and Leeds this year. Both losses, narrow in margin, meant the premiership was to elude Bowen through his 15-year career.

Leeds’ victory means that they have become the first team since St Helens in 2006 to complete the treble of trophies, having won the Challenge Cup, the League Leaders Shield (the regular season minor premiership) and the grand final trophy.

They now have the chance to become the first team since the Saints in 2006-07 to complete the quadruple of trophies when they face the North Queensland Cowboys in next February’s World Club Series.

The Cowboys, of course, defeated the Brisbane Broncos in what many have described as one of the greatest NRL grand finals in history. Johnathan Thurston potted a field goal in golden point extra time to win them their maiden NRL premiership.

Their previous attempt at a premiership came way back in 2005 when the club lost to the Wests Tigers 30-16, with the spectacular try set up by Benji Marshall and scored by Pat Richards continuing to haunt Cowboys fans even to this day.

It will be the club’s first participation in the World Club Series, with the Brisbane Broncos, who were the runners-up and also played in this year’s edition, and Sydney Roosters, who finished as the minor premiers, to also take part.

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Joining Leeds in the three-match series will be Wigan, who finished as runners-up, and St Helens, who finished second at the end of the Super League’s regular season and were the 2014 premiers.

Three matches will be played, with only the Leeds versus North Queensland match to decide the World Club Challenge. The other two exhibition matches will pit St Helens up against the Sydney Roosters and Wigan against the Brisbane Broncos.

The St Helens versus Roosters match will be a rematch of the 2003 World Club Challenge, which was won by the then-Ricky Stuart-coached Chooks 38-0. This will be the second series in a row Wigan and the Broncos have met, the Broncos having won a thriller in golden point extra time 14-12 earlier this year.

The match that matters will see Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston attempt to win the only major trophy that has eluded him throughout his long and illustrious playing career.

Thurston has won two premiership rings, four Dally M Medals, two Golden Boot awards, featured in Australia’s World Cup winning squad in 2013, played in each match of Queensland’s record eight straight Origin series victories and won the Clive Churchill Medal in the Cowboys’ historic premiership win just last week.

While he will be remembered for leading the Cowboys to their maiden NRL title, lost in all of this, along his other achievements, is the fact that he also featured in the Bulldogs side that was victorious in 2004.

That year, he was the first-choice five-eighth ahead of Braith Anasta but could only play seven games that year, including the grand final, after suffering an ankle injury earlier in the season.

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It wasn’t until then-Bulldogs captain Steve Price was ruled out that Thurston was called up, coming off the bench in jersey #18 in their 16-13 victory over the Sydney Roosters in the grand final.

It was to be his final match for the Canterbury-based club, as he had signed with the North Queensland Cowboys for seasons 2005 and beyond. The rest, as they say, is history.

Having now achieved nearly everything possible in rugby league, Thurston only needs to win the World Club Challenge to win every award possible in rugby league and further cement himself as the greatest player in modern history.

That will be the major subplot to next year’s World Club Series, which will serve as an important warm-up tournament for the Cowboys, Broncos and Roosters, ahead of the 2016 season opener, likely to be on the first weekend of March.

As I suggested in a previous article, the season should be launched in Townsville with the grand final rematch, which would be a perfect way to give back to the Cowboys fans who have stuck by their side long throughout their two-decade ride.

The Cowboys’ NRL premiership win officially brings to an end the rugby league year in Australia, with no Four Nations tournament being held this year.

However, the New Zealand Test team will embark on a four-match tour of Great Britain, which will include a match against the Super League premiers Leeds, as well as three matches against the English Test team.

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The Golden Boot Award is also still to be awarded, and judging by Johnathan Thurston’s efforts this year in leading the Cowboys to their first premiership title, it’s a sure bet that he’s already won this award before it’s even announced.

As for the Australian fans, the summers of cricket and tennis will be just about the only sports they’ll be tuned into before the new rugby league season kicks off next February with the Auckland Nines in New Zealand.

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