!["Shooting, motorbike riding, all that sort of stuff, I really enjoy doing" ... Blair Gowland. Picture Mark Bode "Shooting, motorbike riding, all that sort of stuff, I really enjoy doing" ... Blair Gowland. Picture Mark Bode](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/5efcce07-83c6-4337-8889-7cfa8991275d.jpg/r0_0_3629_2895_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
He's the super fit twentysomething who shunned the city and resumed his all-action country lifestyle.
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Meet Blair Gowland: Army reservist; personal fitness trainer; station hand; avid shooter and motorcross rider; and new Tamworth FC signing.
The 24-year-old relocated from Tamworth this year, after a short-lived Newcastle-based lifestyle change that was preceded by an upbringing on his family's beef cattle farm in Bathurst.
Gowland's elder brother, Bree, is Tamworth FC's captain and owns Happy Smiles Dental Care with his dentist wife, Chloe.
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It was Chloe who left Bathurst first, after landing a job at Happy Smiles. Bree, an accountant at Parry Logistics, soon followed.
Gowland - who has an exercise and sports science degree from Charles Sturt University - spent last year in Newcastle, leaving his hometown because he wanted "a bit of a change" and "a bit more opportunity".
He found it when he launched his personal training business, Tactical Fitness Strength and Conditioning, or TacFit S&C. But he said he soon got "a bit sick of the city" and "missed the country".
"It was either here [Tamworth] or back to Bathurst," he said.
!["I really enjoy hanging out with them and talking a bit of sh*t," Gowland says of his Tamworth FC teammates. Picture by Mark Bode "I really enjoy hanging out with them and talking a bit of sh*t," Gowland says of his Tamworth FC teammates. Picture by Mark Bode](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/f4aa8e0e-e051-4c7d-a9d8-9773e4aa7e10.jpg/r0_0_3271_2974_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"So I thought I'd give Tamworth a go, and it's been good so far. I've got a contract at Advance Fitness. And I'm doing some work at RevFit."
Gowland is also doing some work on a mixed-farming property south of Tamworth. He secured the gig after applying to a job ad on Facebook.
The casual station-hand position supplements his PT income while he builds up his fitness business, which he also operates in Newcastle via one employee. He plans to hire a second employee.
The farm job is also good for facilitating Gowland's need for action.
"Shooting, motorbike riding, all that sort of stuff, I really enjoy doing," he said. "So it's a bit harder to do that in the city."
So if I'm not busy on the weekend, soccer's not on, whatever, I'll go do a bit of work out there [the farm]. And I can shoot and motorbike ride and do whatever I want out there.
He added: "Hopefully I can build the business up a bit more, just do PT and carry on like that."
Gowland has been in the Army Reserve for four years. A private in the infantry, he has never been deployed.
The Army Reserve, he said, had provided him with "great life lessons" he would always use, adding that he would recommend that path "to anyone".
Gowland arrived in Tamworth as a single man. He has been seeing a woman in Armidale, but said it was "nothing serious yet, as it's early days".
"Short answer is, no, I'm not in a relationship."
Tamworth FC were thumped 8-0 away to South Armidale United in a season opener last Saturday. FC have used Gowland as a defender, but he prefers central midfield or wing.
"Hopefully the future brings good things," he said.
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