Another game, another assist, another monster impact from Jacob Dowse.
The Perth Glory winger’s red-hot run of form continued in Saturday afternoon’s Distance Derby, tallying a fourth assist in three games to help his side come from behind to secure a point against Wellington Phoenix.
Dowse came from the bench in the second-half and helped swing the pendulum in the Glory’s favour after Tim Payne’s sending off – with his deliveries from the left-hand side causing all sorts of havoc for the Phoenix defence.
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It was his delightful cross that met the head of David Williams – who got on the end of it with an unstoppable diving header. He could have easily had a second assist when Giordano Colli got on the end of his sensational cross and nodded the ball against the bar.
Wellington Phoenix legend Paul Ifill described the ball on commentary as “fantastic” and there’s no hyperbole in that statement.
This is nothing new for the 22-year-old, who has been doing this week in and week out for the last few rounds.
Dowse, who has featured only eight times in a Glory jersey, has come from the bench in each of his last three matches and had an enormous impact in all.
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Not only is he racking up assists, he’s doing it in crunch time, with each of his four being for either late equalisers or go-ahead goals against Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory and now, Wellington.
Against the Sky Blues, he was a second-half substitute in stoppage time, and within minutes his impact was nothing short of profound – whipping in a delightful ball for David Williams to slot home a late equaliser.
A week later, with the scores level, he set up new signing and Socceroos striker Adam Taggart, not once, but twice to score the winning goals against Victory.
Now, he’s done it again, with that assist taking him level on top of the assist charts alongside Socceroos Craig Goodwin and Marco Tilio, Macarthur’s Craig Noone and Wellington’s Callan Elliot.
For Dowse, it’s been a long and difficult journey to reach professional football.
The 22-year-old was signed in the off-season from Broadmeadow Magic – having previously worked under current coach Ruben Zadkovich at the Northern NSW NPL side.
Dowse battled a number of almost career-ending knee injuries, having a total of five knee injuries throughout his teenage years – which stunted the Emerging Jets academy graduate’s development enormously and was even told by his surgeon to give up the game all together.
“I was just 12 years old when I tore my ACL for the first time, I didn’t even know what an ACL was,” Dowse told Kick360 in October.
“By my 5th and hopefully my last knee injury, my surgeon was telling me to stop playing football all-together, asking me to consider my health and the state of my body at 40-50 years old.”
However, he persisted and became an integral player in Broadmeadow’s senior side under Zadkovich – who handed him his senior debut at 17 – and his successor Damian Zane.
“I was half decent at football and it was what made me happy, at the end of the day all you want to be is happy, I knew deep down I couldn’t just chuck in the towel even when people were telling me to,” he told Kick360.
But it was his performances in the Australia Cup that put him in the spotlight, scoring for Broadmeadow in their narrow defeat to Bentleigh Greens in the Round of 32 – capping off a dominant season where he fired home 12 times and finished as their top goalscorer.
Zadkovich, who was impressed with his output, offered him a trial in the off-season and the rest was history – signing him to a scholarship deal this season.
Now, after biding his time and waiting in the wings for his opportunity, he’s ensuring that he makes the most of it on the big stage.
