Australian rules footballer, born 1967

Australian rules footballer

Stephen Silvagni (born 31 May 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

As the second member of three generations of Silvagnis to represent the Blues, he is regarded as one of the greatest ever full-backs to play the game and was named as full-back in the AFL Team of the Century and is an inductee in the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Prior to 1985 he captained the undefeated Marcellin College 1st XVIII that won both the 1984 *ociated Grammar Schools premiership, and the coveted Herald Shield Cup then played under lights at Waverley Park.

He is widely known by his nickname, "SOS" (pronounced "Soss"), standing for "Son of Serge", referring to his father, Sergio Silvagni, another great Carlton player.

After retiring from playing, Silvagni has worked as an *istant coach and list manager at several AFL clubs. He is the former list manager of Carlton Football Club.

Contents

• 1 VFL/AFL career
  • 1.1 Playing career
  • 1.2 Post-playing career
• 2 Statistics
• 3 Personal life
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

VFL/AFL career

Playing career

Silvagni's defensive skills were renowned and earned him the status as a true clubman at Carlton. In 1996's AFL Team of the Century, Silvagni had the honour of being named at full-back. He retained the *le as the best full-back for four years in succession, although he was also known for his marking and goalkicking ability when playing at the opposite end of the ground in the full-forward position at times, even kicking a bag of 10 goals in Round 16, 1993 against the Fitzroy Lions.

Possibly his finest game was in the 1995 AFL Grand Final where he kept Geelong legend Gary Ablett goalless for the entire game.

In addition to Silvagni's blanketing tactics, he was also a renowned high-flyer, taking out the Mark of the Year in 1988. However, when one such mark led to an ankle injury, the high-flying aspect of his game largely disappeared.

A year after his retirement at the end of the 2001 season he announced that he would make a comeback to *ist Carlton, following their penalties for salary cap infringements. He however changed his mind soon after and was not a listed player for the 2003 season.

Silvagni also played as goalkeeper for the Australian International Rules team on several occasions, and won the inaugural Jim Stynes Medal in 1998.

Silvagni watches over Sam Fisher at training prior to the 2009 AFL Grand Final

Silvagni was a five time All-Australian, being selected in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999.

Post-playing career

After retiring from playing, Silvagni worked as an *istant coach at four AFL clubs, Collingwood, Sydney, Western Bulldogs, and most recently St Kilda from 2007 until the end of 2010. In 2011, Silvagni took on the role of list manager with the fledgling Greater Western Sydney Giants. He returned to Carlton as list manager in 2014. He was notably active in recruiting former GWS players to Carlton, with nine former GWS players shifting to Carlton in Silvagni's first three recruiting years.Stephen departed the Carlton Football Club, when he left his role as list manager on 4 December 2019, following the 2019 AFL season.

On 21 October 2020, nearly a year after Silvanghi's departure from the Carlton Football Club in his role as list manager, Silvanghi gave an interview on SEN radio station and he was critical of the club's administrators of Carlton Football Club President Mark LoGiudice and Carlton Football Club CEO Cain Liddle during his time at the club in his tenure as the list manager. Silvanghi then described his tenure at the club as a "messy" situation because of the falling out with the club's management.

Statistics

Personal life

Stephen Silvagni married television celebrity Jo Bailey in 1996, and they have three sons. Their eldest son Jack was drafted by the Carlton Football Club in 2015. He played his first match in round 15, 2016 against Collingwood. Their second son, Ben, was also drafted by the Carlton Football Club in the 2018 AFL draft but was subsequently delisted after the 2020 season without having played a game.

Since retiring from playing football he has worked in the media as a guest football commentator.

Former Carlton Football Club key defender Alex Silvagni is Stephen's second cousin. (Alex's father Eric and Stephen's father Sergio are first cousins.)

See also

• List of Australian rules football families

References

External links

• Stephen Silvagni's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Stephen Silvagni at AustralianFootball.com
• Stephen Silvagni Profile in Blueseum