By his own admission Matty Bowen experienced a disappointing start to his first season in Super League but he has high hopes of finishing it on a high at Old Trafford on Saturday night.
The 32-year-old Australian full-back makes no secret of the fact that he struggled at first to make the adjustment to the English game after spending the first 13 years of his career with North Queensland Cowboys.
Bowen went from tropical Queensland at the height of an Australian summer straight into the middle of winter in the north of England to join up with Wigan, initially without his family.
He was the newly-crowned Super League champions’ choice to fill the boots of the departed Sam Tomkins but he was in and out of the team for the first half of the season.
However, his dashing runs from deep gradually made him a fan favourite and he has missed only two games in the last three and a half months as Wigan clinched a second successive grand final appearance at Old Trafford, where they will defend their title against arch rivals St Helens.
“For me personally, I didn’t start the season off well,” Bowen said.
“I was pretty slow to the learn the system at Wigan and the combinations with Matty Smith and Greeny (Blake Green).
“But it’s sort of been building during the year and the last couple of weeks we’ve certainly been improving and that helps me as well.”
Bowen is now enjoying himself in Wigan so much that he taken up the option in his contract of a second season in Super League.
“It was always my plan,” he said. “I wanted to come over see what it’s like and see if my family enjoy it. They seem to enjoy it so it made my decision a lot easier.”
Bowen’s first Super League grand final appearance comes nine years after he played in an NRL title decider, where, despite scoring the opening try, he could not prevent his side going down 30-16 to the Wests Tigers.
“I’m hoping for a better result than we had in ’05,” Bowen said.
“It’s going to be tough, we need to play our best rugby this weekend.”
Bowen is looking forward to running out in front of a 70,000 crowd and the unique atmosphere generated for a Wigan-St Helens derby, whether it is for a grand final or a pre-season friendly which marked his first taste of English rugby league.
“The guys spoke about the atmosphere before we played a friendly at the start of the year but it caught me by surprise,” he said.
“I love the way the fans get behind their team and sing to their players. Back home, the only time they sing out is when someone scores a try but here they sing the whole time, it’s pretty good. I can’t wait for Saturday.”
bigbaz
Roar Guru
Qld Reds missed a massive marketing coup by not signing Mangoe for a couple of years. Would've handled 15 really well and bought a truck load of kids to union.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Mango, my favourite player of the last 15 years, extremely underrated.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
You have to love Mike Stevos nickname for Matty Bowen. He calls him "Cardigan" because he is not a jumper.
Dallas
Guest
It also shows that the clubs are the disloyal ones not the players, when the player is a young up and comer or in his prime and about to resign the clubs harp on about loyalty and the player should repay them by taking less money because that club got them to where they are, but then when the player is 30-31 coming off contract and wants to go a couple more seasons the club doesn wanna know him and he gets shafted. Rugby league is a business for the clubs and the players and any player who settles for less or does a club any favours is a fool in my eyes. It was such a shame to see matty bowen get punted like that, he was the heart and soul of that team for over a decade
The Barry
Roar Guru
Matt Bowen is my all time favourite non bulldogs player. If you're not sure how good he was look at some of his highlight reels on you tube. There was an interview with him on Eurosport during the week where he spoke about how disappointed he was that the cowboys chose not to re-sign him. If ever there was an example of the NRL needing to do something about discounts for long serving players that was it.
Muzz
Guest
Disgraceful stuff from Flower's. Should miss a full season if not longer.Also put his team under pressure in their biggest game of the season. Wigan's first try was easy on the eye and the atmosphere looked electric.
Renegade
Guest
That was shocking, opening 2 minutes of the game - deserved sent off and Flower knew it as he walked off. That said, it was a good contest... The noise and atmosphere was on another level.
Joel
Guest
Mango, the most gifted runner of the ball ....
Cyclone Country
Guest
Good on ya Matty. Still my favourite player. See you when you get home.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Talking about that grand final, Flower's punch was one of the worst I've seen. Should be banned for months, thank god he got red carded. I've not one of those who believes in the one punch your off style of football, but that was ridiculous.