IN the aftermath of the Round 3, 2017 match with Essendon - a famous 15-point victory at the MCG in the rain - Sam Rowe earned what was and remains his only career Brownlow vote for the job on Joe Daniher.
Wearing the No.17 of the 1964 Brownlow Medallist Gordon Collis, Rowe is now within eight matches (and there are eight remaining this year) of ticking off another bucket list item - to do what Collis and the dual premiership player Brent Crosswell couldn’t, in representing Carlton in 100 senior matches in the famous guernsey.
Having his name etched into the No.17 locker means much to the 92-game Rowe, whose solid contributions to the team’s cause these past six seasons have included stints in the ruck - as was the case after Levi Casboult and Matthew Kreuzer went over prior to and during the Round 14 encounter with Collingwood at the ’G.
“I don’t like to think about it,” said Rowe of the tantalisingly-close 100-game milestone, with obvious concern for the potential pitfalls. “But all being well I’ll get there in the last game of the season . . . and I’ll be pretty proud when that happens.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played 100 games at any club. I played 80, maybe 90 games of SANFL footy with Norwood before I came over . . . and when you get a bit closer here you think, ‘Hmmm, that would be special’.”
By rights, Rowe should have hit the big 1-0-0 at Bluesville by now. Regrettably, a ruptured ACL in the unlucky Round 13 match of 2017 put paid to his footy for the best part of 12 months, which is why he is hellbent on rounding out his 2018 season robustly.
“I haven’t got benchmarks . . . but I want to make sure that I play trademark footy for our club every week. That’s something I pride myself on, to always try to be consistent and reliable for the team,” Rowe said.
“So I’ll be hard on myself to make sure I constantly deliver for the team.”
Fresh from his negating role on Port “gorilla” Charlie Dixon at the weekend, Rowe was first to admit that contesting the footy with resident Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy wasn’t on his radar. That said, the big bloke from Walla Walla welcomed the challenge thrust upon him amid the chaos that followed the losses of Casboult and later Kreuzer.
Sam Rowe puts the clamps on Port Adelaide's Charlie Dixon. (Photo: AFL Media)
“I had a lot of fun in that Collingwood game,” said Rowe with what could easily be misconstrued as a warped sense of humour. “All the pre-planning got thrown out the window basically from the first centre bounce, so in that aspect you go back to the instincts of playing footy a little bit.
“Whilst I’m across the structures of a forward and as a ruckman you don’t train for them as much as you do a backman, so it was a question of keeping it simple and I had a lot of fun to be able to run around and win a bit of my own ball.”
In his sixth season at Carlton and fast approaching the 100-game mark, Rowe has seen enough to know where this team is heading – and from where he stands it's travelling north.
“I’m very sure about what we can do. I’m really hoping that things start to click for us this year so that we can go into the pre-season with a bit of momentum,” Rowe said.
“I know the determination of the group and I know that the work ethic is there, so I’m sure that things are going to come for us sooner rather than later – which gives an old fellow like me a bit more motivation.”
Carlton’s keepers of the No.17 (most senior matches):
Charlie Davey – 143 matches (1927-’37)
Doug Beasy – 129 matches (1951-’59)
Brent Crosswell – 98 matches (1968-’75)
Gordon Collis - 95 matches (1961-’67)
Sam Rowe – 92 matches (2013 - )
Setanta ÓhAilpin – 80 matches (2006-’11)
Mark Naley – 65 matches (1987-’90)
