Nick Stevens

Personal information
Birth	3 January 1980 (1980-01-03) (age 29)
Recruited from	St. Marys (VMFL)/Preston U18 (TAC Cup)
Height and weight	180cm / 85kg
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 6, 2 May 1998, Port Adelaide vs. Fremantle, at Football Park
Team(s)	Port Adelaide (1998-2002) 127 Games, 78 Goals Carlton (2003-2009) 104 Games, 61 Goals Total 231 Games, 139 Goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2009 season
Career highlights
International rules series 2001 AFLPA Best First Year Player, 1998 Carlton vice-captain: 2007-pres Michael Tuck Medal 2002, 2007 Port Adelaide pre-season premiership side 2001, 2002 Carlton pre-season premiership side 2005, 2007

Nick Stevens (born 3 January 1980) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.

Originally from St Marys in the VMFL, Stevens was recruited in the 1997 AFL Draft to the Port Adelaide Football Club where he became a very prominent outside midfielder. In 1998, he was awarded the inaugural AFLPA Best First Year Player award.

At the end of the 2002 season, Stevens expressed a desire to return to his native Melbourne and wished to be traded to Collingwood. Port Adelaide were unable to obtain what they considered appropriate trade consideration and as a result, Stevens quit the club and entered the pre-season draft. He was subsequently drafted by Carlton and is one of the senior players at the club today.

Stevens sustained a neck injury following a front-on collision with Melbourne's David Neitz in late 2006. He continued to play and train until early 2007. After Round 3, on advice from specialists, Stevens had surgery to heal a prolapsed disc in his neck, ending his season. This came as a major blow to Carlton, as Stevens had been in fantastic form through the pre-season and early rounds. On 23 August 2007, it was announced that Stevens had signed with the Blues until the end of 2010.

Stevens was named vice-captain of the club in 2007, a position he has held since. Stevens has been involved in four pre-season premierships, with Port Adelaide in 2001 and 2002, and with Carlton in 2005 and 2007. He is the only man to have won two Michael Tuck Medals, winning the award in 2002 and 2007.

By his standards, Stevens had a poor season in 2009, struggling to make a strong impact in many games, and attracting criticism for deficiencies in his defensive game. At midseason, Stevens was dropped to the VFL for a few games. At the conclusion of the season, it was revealed that Stevens had sustained another, more serious, recurrence of his neck injury from 2007, most likely caused by a collision with captain Chris Judd in Round 22; facing the risk of permanent spinal damage if he played on, Stevens officially announced his retirement on October 29th 2009 after 104 games for Carlton and 127 for Port Adelaide.[1]

[edit] See also

• List of Australian rules football incidents

[edit] External links

• Nick Stevens profile on the Official AFL Website of the Carlton Football Club
• Nick Stevens's statistics from AFL Tables
• Nick Stevens Profile in Blueseum