Paul Bowman (rugby league)

Paul Bowman (born 24 January 1976) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. He spent five years as regular Queensland State of Origin centre and played his entire club career at the North Queensland Cowboys of the National Rugby League whom he also captained. He later worked with the Cowboys as an assistant coach.

Bowman was born in Newcastle, New South Wales. The 1995 ARL season was the first for the newly created Cowboys and Bowman made his debut for the club that year. Bowman was named the Cowboys' player of the year in 1999 and the following year he shared the award with Julian O'Neill Bowman captained the Cowboy's between 2001 and 2004. In game 1 of the 2003 State of Origin series Bowman suffered medial ligament and cartilage damage to his left knee in an awkward tackle that would see him sidelined for four weeks. Remarkably however, despite being unable to walk, he stayed on the field as long as possible, still managing to make several tackles before getting a chance to leave the field. He scored two tries in game III of the 2003 State of Origin series.

Bowman played at centre in the Cowboys' loss to the Wests Tigers in the 2005 NRL grand final. Bowman retired at the end of the 2007 season, ending a 13-year career with the Cowboys. Bowman played his last regular season game on 31 August against the Bulldogs in Townsville. With 203 games, Bowman retired having played the most games for the Cowboys and was the last player from the Cowboys' inaugural season to be still playing for the club. Renowned as one of the best defensive centres in the competition, Bowman also represented Queensland in the State of Origin competition twelve times between 2000 and 2005.

In 2007, the Cowboys announced that the Cowboy of the Year award would be renamed the Paul Bowman Award.

The Paul Bowman Medal is awarded to each year's best and fairest A-grade player for the Whitsunday Brahmans, Bowman's junior club in North Queensland.

Statistics

Highlights

• First Grade Debut: 1995, Round 16, Cowboys v South Sydney Rabbitohs at Aussie Stadium, 15 July
• Runners-up: 2005, member of the Cowboy's team defeated by the Wests Tigers in the 2005 Grand Final

Awards and honours

• 1999: North Queensland Cowboys Player of the Year
• 2000: North Queensland Cowboys Player of the Year
• 2005: North Queensland Player's Player of the Year
• 2006: North Queensland Cowboys Life Membership (Bowman was the first person to be awarded life membership of the North Queensland Cowboys)

• Honours at cowboys.com.au
• "Bowman flags retirement plans". Fox Sports news (Australia). 4 July 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007. 
• "Our pick of the best cowboys over the clubs 20 year history". Retrieved 3 February 2017. 
• "Bowman Puts Name to Whitsunday Medal". Queensland Rugby League. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007. 

Following the departure of Graham Murray, assistant coach Ian Millward was named head coach. On 26 May 2008, Bowman was named assistant coach in a deal to the end of 2010.