Steven Trigg has hit the ground running in the seven weeks since his much-publicised appointment as the Carlton Football Club’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Energised by the change of environment and buoyed by the depth and breadth of support afford him by each and all from the President down, the boy from Roseworthy who oversaw the workings of Adelaide for 12 largely successful years is up for the task of restoring Carlton’s reputation as best in the business.

In a recent letter to members, the new Blue on the block conveyed his love for “the obvious passion of our people toward their Club”.

But who is Steven Trigg? In this, the first of a two-part Q and A with the former SANFL player, we learn a little of his formative years in country South Australia and of the football journey which has taken him from across the border and slap bang into Bluesville . . .

. . . and not for the first time either.

Q: Steven, can you begin by detailing a little of your upbringing and your first involvement with the great Australian game?

A: I grew up on a farm. Mum and Dad had a farm out the back of Roseworthy, which is, I suppose, in the lower mid-north of South Australia. It was a great upbringing, and I’m reminded from time to time by photographs of driving a tractor as a kid and, of shooting rabbits I hate to say, and of doing all the things you do in the bush as a kid growing up in a different era.

I also remember falling in love with the game at the age of five or six. Dad was a Sturt supporter and I can remember listening to Sturt games on a crackly old radio out in the bush at a time when guys like Bagshaw, Ottens and Davies were big names.

I can also remember kicking these big fat footballs on the gravely roads, which wore them out like crazy. The bladders would stick out of them, and in the process I’d fall on the gravel fighting my younger brother and lose some skin. And every now and then, if I didn’t fall on the gravel, I’d slip off the side of the road into a wheatfield full of bloody snakes, so I was always a bit wary. I remember all that stuff really clearly.

I played my junior footy in Gawler, at Gawler United, then Gawler Centrals (the Tigers) and played a little bit of junior footy there. At 15 I got noticed playing A Grade footy by Central District and it went from there. In those junior days I played as a follower, then when I started my SANFL career it was out on a wing or half-back and I then grew a little into centre half-back/full-back.

Q: Was the move from Gawler to Central District a monumental one?

A: Not greatly, because as soon as I finished school I actually moved out of home and moved into town, and I spent two years boarding there.

Q: You were a contemporary of John Platten’s at Centrals?

A: Yes.

Q: You played 110 games for the club?

A: Yep.

Q: Is it also true that you were the youngest captain in Centrals history?

A: In Centrals history. I’m not sure about the SANFL as there was a bit of chat about that at the time. I was 21 when I became captain. What happened there was that I’d had a couple of really good years on the field and the coach Daryl Hicks must have seen some capacity in me to lead. I wasn’t mentally ready at the time and if it wasn’t articulated to me in as many words, the idea was that I was to be the next captain but some time down the track. But the then captain Dean Mobbs hurt himself and “Mobbsy” never recovered - and what’s that scene in the Army where everybody takes a step back and one bloke’s left standing there. It’s fair to say I probably wasn’t ready for the captaincy then.
 

CEO Steven Trigg in his Visy Park office. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Q: How long did you remain with Central District?

A: Until ’87 when I went to North (Adelaide). I played almost the whole year then got terribly banged up towards the end of the year [co-incidentally a North Adelaide Premiership year]. I made myself available, but wasn’t selected and I can understand why because I was really bad physically. So I played at North in 1987 and ’88 but just kept breaking down, then coached Sturt reserves in ’90 and seniors in ’91 and ’92.

Q: Did you appreciate the coaching experience?

A: That was fantastic. But my time in football moved on pretty quickly. I got involved in the media in my working life, then it all came together with the Crows in ’97 and it became very difficult to go back to coaching. For a long time I would have loved to have gone back to coaching because I loved it but the past 13 or 14 years in senior management roles have made that impossible.

Q: Backtracking just a little bit, Carlton also happened to show some interest in you as a player?

A: Have I told you the story about the form four? I must have signed a form four [effectively a stat dec] with Carlton at the end of ’78, on the back of the Under 16 carnival down at Geelong. You don’t need to put this up in lights, but I was adjudged player of the carnival and Carlton came knocking and got me to sign the form four.

I came over and did a fair bit of the pre-season through 1978 and ’79, took part in a couple of trial games out here (Visy Park) and I remember standing a bloke called Mick Young (later a member of Carlton’s 1979 Premiership team) and that was great. But I was very young, terribly homesick, and I ended up going back to school actually in 1979.

I was lucky enough to be invited by Carlton as guest to the 1979 Grand Final, together with Stephen Kernahan and Garry Williams, who passed away recently in a light plane crash which was terribly sad.

I sat and watched that game, went to the Grand Final Dinner with the Prime Minister (Malcolm Fraser)  then came back here with (Shane) O’Sullivan and (Tony) Farrugia. But when it looked like I wasn’t going to come, Carlton said that we’re going to take that fairly transportable form four and use it on another player. In other words, ‘keep your stereo and the five grand – we want the form four back!’ - and they used it on some hack named Ken Hunter (laughs). It was one of Carlton’s better decisions because I eked out 110 games back home and he became one of the great Carlton champions of all time.

Q: Did you ever regret not making the move?

A: I know it sounds trite, but it is what it is. I was fairly injury-prone in the end so there’s no point wondering what might have been.

Q: Thirty years on, you’ve seen a lot – but have you seen it all in football or does the game still throw up surprises?

A: While you do become reasonably battle hardened, there’s occasionally still surprises, and as the saying goes “Expect the unexpected”

Part 2: The move to Carlton and the grand plan