AFL player agent Robbie D’Orazio has revealed how his client Jack Bowes ended up a Geelong Cat this trade period.
Bowes, 24, chose to head to Geelong after the Suns indicated they’d like to get the remaining two years of his salary off their books, with the former top-10 pick being traded to the Cattery along with pick seven for a future third-round pick.
While all worked out in the end for Bowes, D’Orazio says it was never the Cairns native’s plan to leave Gold Coast after coming through as a Queensland academy player, adding that he only ever discussed departing once the 2022 season was wrapped up.
“Up there, it’s been a tough footy club to build, and Jack was definitely part of that as an original academy boy that was there,” D’Orazio said on AFL Trade Radio.
“He bled for the footy club, but again we’ve got to move and we’ve got to look forward.
“To his credit … he didn’t want to talk about it throughout the year despite all the speculation.
“I’d ring him in Round 18 and say, ‘This is probably on the books’, but he was playing VFL at the time and wanted to win a VFL premiership … that’s where all of his energy went to.
“Then he went to Bali with his partner and still didn’t want to talk, but to his credit he came back and said, ‘Where are we at?’, and we had time up our sleeve to meet clubs and go through the process without the emotion attached to it.”
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D’Orazio revealed his client chose to head to the reigning premiers over a raft of other interest clubs after Geelong held a pair of impressive presentations including an assurance from coach Chris Scott.
“I’d be really excited if I were a Geelong fan,” D’Orazio said.
“I know a lot of people are looking at it going, ‘How does he play? How does he fit in?’, but we sat through two presentations from Geelong footy club, and they were really impressive.
“Mitch Duncan, Patrick Dangerfield, Tommy Stewart, there was some really big names in there and Chris Scott most importantly sat there, looked him in the eye and said, ‘You’ll play in our team’.
“We’ll trust that and go in that way.”
With the deal ticked off on Tuesday, D’Orazio says Bowes will ink a four-year deal with the Cats – another indication of a show of faith from Geelong.
“In the end we’ll do four years there,” D’Orazio said.
“That’s another show of faith for us.
“I don’t give two stuffs about pick 7, I care about Jack Bowes, that’s my job, pick 7 could be one of our players, we’re not sure, but right now pick 7 is just a number.
“I look through all the crap to make sure Jack Bowes is the one they’re going to look after and Jack Bowes is the player they wanted and he’s going to play footy.
“Four years is really important for us … that was a really important part and show of faith.
“I don’t think you want a player on your list for four years if he’s going to play VFL footy on a pretty lucrative deal.”
Bowes joins Geelong having played 83 senior games for Gold Coast with five of them coming in the 2022 campaign.