Lisa Bowman and son Harry
RUMOURS of Lisa Bowman’s retirement were greatly exaggerated although the Team NI netball goal shooter did take an eight-year break from international competition
.Bowman is gearing up to lead the Warriors attack at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.It will be her third Commonwealth Games with it all starting in the Scottish city back in 2014 and Bowman travelled to the Gold Coast four years later.
“No retirement, I just took a step back, didn’t know if I would ever come back, I suppose, at the international level, but yeah, I finally made that decision just before Christmas that I had something left in the tank,” explained Bowman.
“As much as I wasn’t involved internationally playing, I was still playing at one of the highest club levels within the NI, so it was tough coming back into the room, but I wasn’t completely no netball for those kind of eight years.”
Initially it was a bad injury that sidelined Bowman in 2019.
“I ended up badly fracturing my ankle, kind of pre-World Cup, that kind of set me back, I missed out.”
“That was just a matter of a month prior to going to the World Cup in 2019, so it kind of took a long time, I think, even for me, kind of emotionally and mentally, to get back in to even playing club netball, injury and then life takes over as well.”
While Bowman mightn’t have been on the court at international level she was helping to prepare the next generation of Warriors.
“Within Netball NI, I worked for them for quite a number of years within kind of the community sector, delivering kind of grassroots netball and then I progressed into working with secondary schools and kind of the participation but the performance side of netball within secondary schools as well.”
With the likes of Caroline. 0’Hanlon and Fionnuala Toner still in the squad, it made it easier for Bowman to reintegrate back into the Warriors squad.
“There’s still a few of us more experienced players in the room, it was definitely tough don’t get me wrong, kind of coming back into that environment of them really high expectations, that intensity, but that was something I felt I was missing and that was why I wanted back on squad and wanted the opportunity to come back onto squad.”
After her hiatus the Commonwealth Games weren’t on the radar for Bowman.
“I kind of came back and I was under no illusion that it was going to be a hard ask of myself, but I have worked extremely hard, I was at no point cert that I was going.”m
“I was in very much, I would say, more in the opposite, I was very doubtful that I was going to be selected into the 12, I even remember the phone call to this day when coaxh Sheonah (Forbes) rang and I literally just burst into tears because just that overwhelming feeling of, oh my word, I have made it, kind of just took over.”
Bowman has fond memories of her first Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“Started in Glasgow we’ll not use the word that it’s going to finish in Glasgow either, we ended up playing Wales for 7th and 8th play-off in 2014.
“That was our first time as a country playing at a Commonwealth Games so even expectations as to where we were going to kind of finish, there wasn’t really much of an emphasis on it.
“We did extremely well in that game, so hopefully some of that luck will carry us through to this one.”
As a goal shooter Bowman is under added pressure.
“I love those moments there, the moments that I want the ball, and don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t come easy too, that comes with missing those all-important shots and those all-important moments as well, and kind of those feelings of deflation and that you didn’t score that winning goal.
“But at the same time, it just kind of builds up that resilience and that confidence and that you can take into games and know that when you’re in that moment, you can finish stuff off.”
