Mikayla Bowen

Mikayla Bowen (born 17 April 2001) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the West Coast Eagles in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Bowen and Rosie Deegan were West Coast's first two signings prior to its debut in the 2020 AFLW season. Bowen played in the club's first match, against Collingwood.

Mikayla Bowen
Bowen with West Coast in 2020
Personal information
Date of birth (2001-04-17) 17 April 2001
Original team(s) Swan Districts (WAFLW)
Draft Expansion signing, 2019
Debut Round 1, 2019, West Coast
vs. Collingwood, at Victoria Park
Height 164 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s) Midfielder/small forward[1]
Other occupation Carpentry apprentice[1]
Club information
Current club West Coast
Number 1
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2020– West Coast 6 (1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 2020 season.
Source: AustralianFootball.com

Junior career

From Darlington, Perth, Western Australia,[2] Bowen tried athletics, basketball and soccer in her youth before settling on football around 2016,[3] playing recreationally at her school, Helena's College.[2] She also played for Swan Districts, a WAFL Women's (WAFLW) club, in their junior side, winning a best and fairest in 2016[2] and captaining the team to a premiership in 2017.[1] Bowen also represented her state at the AFL Women's Under 18 Championships from 2017 to 2019.[3] At her final championships, she captained Western Australia.[1] She was named in the All-Australian side's midfield and her state's best and fairest after averaging about 19 disposals, four tackles and seven clearances.[4]

AFLW career

After training in West Coast's women's academy, Bowen signed with the club in January 2019. As an expansion club entering the AFLW in 2020, West Coast were permitted to sign up to 10 players from their academy before the end of the 2019 season; Bowen and Deegan were the first announced.[5]

She debuted in the opening round of the 2020 season, as part of West Coast's inaugural team.[6]

Personal life

Bowen's family has strong connections to ballet and football. Her grandmother Terri Charlesworth was West Australian Ballet's first ballerina, while her mother took the same role at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Bowen's uncle played for Swan Districts in the late 1980s, while her great-great-grandfather played for South Melbourne.[2]

She has been a "diehard" supporter of West Coast since her childhood.[3]

gollark: `curl -I` can do that.
gollark: You should be able to send HEAD requests and read the `Content-Length` header.
gollark: I think much of the API uses UTF-16, because they wanted to be all international back when it was fixed-width UCS-2 and actually made some sense.
gollark: Because Windows bad and legacy stuff.
gollark: I blame... UTF-16, somehow?

References
  1. "AFLW: Eagles Q&A - Mikayla Bowen". westcoasteagles.com.au. Telstra Media. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. Brookes, Sarah (19 May 2017). "Darlington footy star has AFLW dream in her sights". Hills Gazette. Community Newspaper Group. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. Makse, Sarah (23 February 2019). "From barracking to pulling on the jumper: Meet West Coast's newest recruits". The Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment Co. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. "WA talent recognised among future stars of AFLW". The West Australian. Seven West Media. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  5. Dickinson, Rhys (29 January 2019). "Bowen, Deegan set to fly with Eagles". westcoasteagles.com.au. Telstra Media. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  6. "Mikayla Bowen". AustralianFootball.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
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