HE IS the 'Mr Football' who is quiet off the field but a fearless competitor on it and he's driven to get Gold Coast into its first ever finals series.

Suns star Matt Rowell joins Cal Twomey for Cal's Q&A this week, delving into his midfield excellence, the hot start to his career and injury setbacks, expectations, being the top draft pick and why he's still nicking footballs.

There's a lot to talk to you about – your form, being a No.1 pick, the Suns' finals push. But I want to start by talking about cards. Word has it you are an avid cards player. Do you play cards like you do your footy? 

Yeah, out of the group that I play cards with I'm the one who doesn't like to hold back, I play some of my stronger cards early and see how it goes. It's pretty similar to my footy. 

Has it always been part of your routine?

It has become a routine, especially for away trips. Obviously when we travel there's time to kill if we're waiting around in the lounge or on the plane or in the hotel rooms. Usually it's the five of us – myself, 'Luko' (Jack Lukosius), 'Noz' (Noah Anderson), 'Kingy' (Ben King) and Charlie Ballard and we play the game 'Presidents'. We play that and usually put something on the line whether it be a coffee or something like that in some down time. The loser has to keep hold of the cards and more recently I have been keeping the cards which is a bit annoying. When we were up in Darwin recently we played a big session of cards and kept score of the points and whoever won got the best room in the house we were going to for our bye in Noosa. I came last so I got the worst room. 

The cards form marginally takes away from your run of form on the field, which is the best we've seen in your career. What's clicked for you? 

I feel like I've really taken the game on and in the midfield we've got a really good mix at the moment. With Touk (Miller) being out, we've had to step up a bit and young blokes like Bailey Humphrey and Alex Davies have really chipped in well for the team. We've got a really good balance and we're all complementing each other. I feel really confident in that midfield at the moment and we're all playing some good footy. 

Do you see any of yourself in how Bailey plays his footy?

He attacks the ball hard. For someone who is in his first year, it's been pretty cool to watch the way he's gone about it. I've been pretty impressed and he's going to get stronger and more confident as the season goes on as well. He didn't have much of a pre-season either because he had a few little injuries so to do what he's done has been pretty special. 

He kicked the matchwinner against the Western Bulldogs two weeks ago, but your performance was crazy that night in Darwin. 29 disposals, 23 contested possessions, 16 clearances and a goal. Take me into your mindset in a game like that.

We talked a lot pre-game about those conditions and we were really looking forward to it because we play in a lot of those type of conditions up here, especially early in the season when we play night games and it's still pretty hot on the Gold Coast and even in the pre-season we train a fair bit in it. We knew it was going to be almost wet weather conditions so we talked a lot about making sure we won the ball first on the inner layer and really gained territory and it would go a long way for us winning. My mentality was that I am someone who leads that contested ball side of things and getting the ball out to others so I really put it on myself to crack in and get the ball going forward. 

We look at games differently from the outside to those inside clubs. How do you judge a good game?

A lot of what we look at after a game is not so much in terms of possessions and whether I get on the end of a few. It's more the preparation phase about getting my body work right before the ball goes up or even after the stoppage when I'm getting to the next contest and thinking about what I can do after it. Steven King (Gold Coast's midfield coach) and I look a lot at my footwork around stoppages and if I'm moving my feet early enough and then a lot of it is timing as well. When the ball hits the ruckman's hand am I too early or giving myself enough of a window to get the ball? A lot of it is preparation and then after the ball's got out of the stoppage what I am doing next to give myself the best chance to get to the next contest. 

You've always been meticulous with your training. What are the technical things you do to get that midfield work right?  

It's a lot of repetitions at training. It can be in match play and making sure you're training like you're playing and trying to put yourself in those positions. A lot of it is getting out there and how you compete. We do a lot of craft as midfielders after sessions with one-on-ones and body work and reading it and getting our timing right off 'Wittsy' (ruckman Jarrod Witts). We make sure our craft work is ready to go because we know that's so important in winning clearance and contested possession. 

Injuries knocked you around in year one and two, but you played every game last season and haven't missed a game since the middle of 2021. After the early setbacks did you think about adjusting your style? 

After the injuries I did look at it a bit this pre-season in terms of getting a bit of balance on the outside but I didn't change too much. I'm still making sure my strength is winning the ball so I had a look at a few things but getting a lot of continuity with playing games has helped a lot as well. Not too much has changed.

You polled three consecutive three-vote Brownlow Medal games in your second, third and fourth AFL games back in 2020. Did that run set expectations too high?  

It probably did. There was a bit of pressure with that but I didn't listen to too much of it. It was a bit of a whirlwind that first month but I'm just enjoying my footy now. 

Go back to 2019 – you were locked as the No.1 pick for a while with Noah coming as well when Gold Coast got its assistance package from the AFL. How much more comfortable were you moving from Melbourne knowing you had him with you? 

It definitely made it a lot easier moving away from home to another state and doing it with someone else. A lot of people say when they get drafted that they had a link to someone else and how it made it better for them, and to do it with Noah who is my best mate made it so much easier. We both went into the CEO Mark Evans' place with his wife Lynne and that helped settle us in too as they made it so much easier for us to transition. They were like our second mum and dad so we were really lucky to have that. Going through everything together meant it was definitely special to talk about things. 

I recall at the time you were a big Carlton fan and the Blues had traded their future first-round pick that year at the previous draft, which meant you knew a year out you probably wouldn't be heading there. 

I remember that and I was a big Carlton supporter. My whole family was. I remember when they traded that pick and my household was a bit flat, but I'm glad things worked out because I'm loving it up on the Gold Coast now. 

Your school side at Carey Grammar had yourself and Noah, as well as a young Nick Daicos. How has it been seeing his rise? 

It's pretty cool to look back on with me, 'Noz' and 'Daics' in that school team. It's been great to see him with the way he's come into the AFL and had such a big impact. He's such a good player and I remember at school me and 'Noz' used to say 'Gee, he's going to be a very good player' and that's exactly what he's been at AFL level. It's been pretty cool to see how well he's done since coming in, that's for sure. 

You've been living with Jack Lukosius for a little bit now. Has he put you on gardening duties? You were always pretty keen on the gardening – I think Noah might have even bought you a Blue Moon rose for your 16th birthday. 

Yeah, 'Luko' got a house up here not that long ago at the end of last year and I moved in with him and I've loved it. It's a nice house in Burleigh. The garden's looking pretty good, we've got a lot of lawn out the back in this new joint and 'Luko' has actually been taking good care of the lawn and he's doing a good job. 

Is that where the eating of grass before games comes back to? 

Nah, there's probably not a connection with that. I started with the grass at the start of this year with the practice matches to ground myself and have that taste and smell and to close my eyes and listen. It was more in that sense trying to prepare myself for the game and zoning in. 

How did you feel when the vision went viral? 

A little bit [flat], because it was something I was keeping to myself a bit and I was minding my business and doing it. When it did pop up it took me by surprise a bit, but you're on camera all the time now and it's just part of AFL. It's just something I do. 

The Suns have won three of the last four games and finals are within reach. How driven is this group to get there?  

Very. That's the main thing that drives us. We want to be the first Gold Coast group to make finals, we haven't done it in our history. It's definitely something that really drives us. We've done some good work in the first half of the year to get us into this position at the moment but we know that there's so many good teams in the competition so we can't look too far ahead. We've stayed really process driven and prepared well for each game. We want to be the first Suns group to make finals but we also know we need to work hard and focus on each game. 

You've always been a bit of a 'Mr Football' in terms of your passion for the game. How has that developed since you actually entered the AFL level? 

I still love the game as much as I did when I was a junior. I still have that real passion for the game and every time I run out it's my favourite thing to do. I probably don't watch as much footy as I used to. When I was little I used to watch every game every weekend. Now that it's a full-time job it does take up a lot of time so away from the club I probably try to do other things and take my mind off it at times otherwise it can get pretty consuming. That's probably the one thing that's changed since being a junior. 

You were famous for your Sherrin collection – you had more than 50 before you were drafted. Has it continued to grow?  

I'm still nicking a few here and there. It's probably not as much as what I used to but whenever I get the chance I like to add to the collection every now and then.

How do you flick the switch? You're pretty quiet and mild mannered off the field but a fearless competitor on it. 

It's a hard thing to explain. It's something I've always had as a little kid. I played a lot of sports when I was little and in everything I was in I wanted to do well and win. When you're out there with your teammates you want to have a good time and win with them so a lot of what drives that is creating memories with your mates and also not letting them down too. There's a lot that fuels that. If you're competitive then you just have those instincts to go hard. 

Given what people see, it might surprise people that Fleetwood Mac, Coldplay and Queen are your favourite bands then. Is that your pre-game playlist? 

Yeah that's what it would be. I've got that music taste from my parents and especially my dad. I've grown up listening to that stuff as they had it on and I got into it and that's where I get that from.