"They just loved it," Jack says.

When they returned to their home in the Mornington Peninsula, Wayne and Collette asked each other if they wanted to go back to North Queensland. "Basically a vacation turned into a new home town."

Little did they know the implications for the 2016 AFL draft. Bowes is tipped to be one of the first handful selected later this month. The Suns are expected to use their academy discount to take him. The transition from junior ranks to an AFL list should theoretically be considerably smoother for Bowes than it is for most. He's been part of Suns academy since he was 13, spent the last two years living on the Gold Coast, and has rubbed shoulders with AFL players on the field, having lined up seven times this year for the Suns' NEAFL team.

While he missed his friends at Cairns' St Augustine's College, Bowes – though still just 18 – has known for years that he needed to make sacrifices to ensure that his talent didn't go to waste by "ticking every box".

It was his selection in the under 15 All-Australian side that cemented the idea in his mind. "That was the tipping point. I've got an opportunity here that I should probably make the most of."

As such he's latched onto the words of Suns academy coach – former Gold Coast, Richmond and Brisbane Lions tagger  Andrew Raines. Raines had a reputation for persistence as a player, and Bowes says it comes through in his coaching. "He's massive on off-field stuff. He's brought plenty of off-field strategies into my life that have helped me perform on the field," Bowes says. There's a bonus too in the fact that Raines' wife Alyse is a nutritionist, and has helped Jack with his diet by "cutting out all the crap".

But while Raines was renowned as blue-collar, Bowes is a very tidy ball user and good in tight spaces, leading to comparisons with the recently-retired Nick Dal Santo. However while Bowes has grown up a St Kilda supporter, it wasn't Dal Santo that was his idol. Rather it was Dal Santo's long-time midfield ally Lenny Hayes. Bowes spent time with Hayes on the AFL academy trip to New Zealand early last year. "I was just starstruck," Bowes said. "I should have asked him more questions when I think about it now!"

Hayes and Bowes share another tie: both have played their junior football in non-traditional football states. Making sure players of their ilk get to the elite level is part of the rationale behind the at-times contentious northern academies. While Sydney and Greater Western Sydney have borne the brunt of criticism about northern clubs getting an unfair leg-up from their academies, and the Brisbane Lions' benefiting last year in the form of Eric Hipwood and Ben Keays, the Suns' gains have been the most modest of the four clubs, with only fringe trio Jared Ellis, Andrew Boston and Jesse Joyce making it onto Gold Coast's list. Only Joyce is still there. But this year there is Bowes, touted earlier in the year as a pick 1 possibility, as well as fellow academy standout Brad Scheer – also likely to be selected relatively early – and seven other academy players nominated by the Suns before the draft. The tree is starting to bear tasty fruit for the expansion club. Fremantle's Lachie Weller and North Melbourne's Braydon Preuss are both emerging, and also came through the Suns academy.

Bowes played a lot of different sports growing up including soccer, basketball and futsal. That's why he thinks the academies are so important in helping ward off other codes. "It's so influential for a Queensland footy market that the academies are around," Bowes says.

"Basically everything now in Queensland is structured around the AFL academies. It's a great pathway for anyone coming from Cape York down to Rockhampton, Gladstone and through to the Gold Coast."