Stephen Paxman played a total of 240 AFL games, 138 of those at Port Adelaide after coming across from Fitzroy to be a part of the club’s inaugural list.
A talented backman and leader, Paxman won the John Cahill Medal in 1999.
For a man from a proud club like Fitzroy, Paxman was immediately in tune with the culture and values of Port Adelaide when he moved across the border.
“Once you walked in the door, the history was clear to see,” he recalled.
“We talked about it a lot, obviously having John Cahill as the inaugural coach and other guys around like Greg Boulton, Brian Cunningham and Bob Clayton.
“They all passed on the history, but also understood where we needed to go as well in the AFL.”
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1999 John Cahill Medallist
For a defender, Paxman was relatively high scoring - averaging a goal every six games.
His 1999 season, when he played every game, including the club’s first ever finals match was a highlight for the reliable defender.
“Being three years in, Tredders was starting to become the dominant force he would go on to be, and some of the younger guys had got games under their belt and we were on a steady improvement,” Paxman said.
“We had a very stable back six and it allowed me to take some more risks I suppose.
“Any finals experience is good, win or lose, and while we were beaten by the eventual Premiers North Melbourne, I think Chad Cornes, Peter Burgoyne and a lot of the other boys got a good taste of what finals football was like.
“I think down the track we saw the benefit of that, especially when those guys matured and went on to the ultimate success in 2004.”
Unfortunately for
“When it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go, and sometimes you don’t do it by choice but you do it for the betterment of the club,” Paxman said.
“There were no regrets from me and it was just fantastic that the boys went on to win the Premiership the next year.”
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Post Port Adelaide
After retiring, Paxman signed on to play for the Greenvale Football Club in Victoria because he lived nearby and had a brother-in-law playing there.
He also spent a year as a senior
He has also worked with former Essendon player Adam McPhee and Kangaroos great Shannon Grant, who have coached at Greenvale in recent years.
“I enjoyed the club environment and ended up playing for another six or seven years at Greenvale and it was great to be back at the grassroots level,” he said.
“I think I only played about two games down back - part of me signing with the club was that I told them I think I had played enough down back.
“One year I kicked 86 goals, which wasn’t too bad and I always backed myself in as being pretty handy at goal kicking but it was more about being a part of a team and a club environment and enjoying myself.
“It also helped that we won a couple of flags in that time as well.”
Work and Family
Paxman has an engineering degree he completed while at Fitzroy and since his retirement from AFL football he has worked in various roles at Ford Motor Company.
The 47-year-old now lives at Strathmore with his wife Shannon and his three kids Georgina, 22, Matthew, 18 and Jacob, 16.
When he has
“I certainly take an interest in Port Adelaide and it’s good to see the club doing well again.”
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