Matt Bowen did it all in rugby league, except talk about it MAN of few words . . . Matt Bowen. IT WAS 10 years ago when I first met Matthew Bowen. I knocked on a door at the Brisbane Sheraton Hotel and it was opened by a grinning, excited, wide-eyed footballer who was so blown away by being called into the Queensland Origin side that he just couldn't stop talking about it. That wasn't Matt Bowen. It was Scott Sattler. Matt Bowen was the small, quiet kid sitting on his bed, not saying boo. That's the memory I'll always have of that day. The rest of the side was yet to arrive, but the two newcomers were told to check in early and get measured for their team uniforms. For Sattler, it was the realisation of a dream that started when his father John, the South Sydney legend, took him to Origin games at Lang Park as a schoolboy. A dream he thought had passed him by at the age of 31. I can honestly say I've never seen an athlete happier to be picked in a team. And Bowen? I'm not sure how he felt because he was so tongue-tied he could hardly speak. In my story the next day, I noted Bowen was so quiet that "to talk to him is almost an exercise in lip-reading." It would be cliche to say that "Mango" did his talking on the field. Cliche, but true. In 40 years of covering sport I can't remember any footballer who spoke less and said more. Every time he played a game his body language said how much he loved the game of rugby league. Every run he made shouted out "This is fun." Every tackle was a lecture that started and finished with the words "this is how it's done." And every time he featured on a television screen in an Indigenous community around the country he held up a sign emblazoned with the words "You can do anything if you want it bad enough." Matt Bowen knew he wanted it at an early age. His father Richard had a property out Hope Vale way. His mother Lillian raised six kids and then went out and qualified as a teacher. Every one of the Bowen kids stayed at school, worked hard and got a job. They never gave their parents a day's worry. Matt's four older brothers were all good footy players, but he was the one. At 12 he followed his brothers to Abergowrie College, a small boarding school in the middle of a cane field 40km west of Ingham. At 14 he played in shoes for the first time. A year later he was in the school 1st XV. In Year 12 he was five-eighth and star player and little Abergowie had the top football team in Queensland. The Cowboys signed him at 15. When he arrived at the age of 18 they were worried that the big-smoke of Townsville might be too much for him, to say nothing of grade footballers. They started him off at local club Souths. He was selected to play Foley Shield first year out of school and scored five tries from fullback in his first game. He could do anything. His Origin teammates would marvel at what how gifted he was with a pool cue or ping pong bat. Any game, any competition they played in camp, Mango would win. He didn't drink or smoke, didn't play up or get into trouble. He just played footy and had fun doing it. As long as it was warm. It seemed there was only one thing Matt Bowen didn't like, and that was the cold. Word is he spent the Australian tour of Britain in 2004 huddled under a pile of blankets. Maybe that's why he always seemed to be moving on the footie field. He was just trying to keep warm. He'd bob up anywhere. There was that intercept to win Origin 1 in 2005, the last second try from lock that sunk the Broncos in 2012. His YouTube highlights package shows him felling a rampaging Willie Mason in Origin and running down Billy Slater in a club game. His pace off the mark was such that TV commentator Andrew Voss once exclaimed "Bowen's been shot out of a cannon." He was the kind of player that makes people go the footy; the type that makes us enjoy the game as much as he did. A week ago Wests-Tigers fans bemoaning the end of Benji Marshall's career saw the future in 18 year-old Luke Brooks, proving once again that no matter how good a player is, he can always be replaced. But maybe not in the case of Matt Bowen. When he leaves the game next week, I'd argue that we'll never see anything quite like him again. A little bloke from Hope Vale who made a huge statement without ever having to shoot his mouth off.