Peter Caven

Peter Caven (born 16 May 1970) is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League. He played initially as a nagging, sometimes ungainly but effective defender and built on this base to become a sweeping counterattacking central defender. He began his career at Fitzroy before playing at the Sydney Swans and finally at Adelaide where he was a 2-time premiership player.

Career

Fitzroy Caven was zoned to Fitzroy and progressing from under 17s and 19s to reserves under coach Robert Shaw before making his AFL debut in 1991 as a forward however Caven would go on to play a majority of career in defence. After three AFL seasons with Fitzroy, Caven could not come to terms with the club and left as an uncontracted signing to Sydney.

Sydney In a match against St Kilda in Round 7, 1994, a clash with Tony Lockett's elbow left Caven with a broken cheekbone. Lockett received a suspension of eight weeks for the incident while Caven missed 12 weeks and returned to play the last four games of the season. In an absurd twist, Caven appeared on comedy television show Denton during the following week and, at the urging of host Andrew Denton, bashed an effigy of Lockett with a baseball bat. Caven was forced to issue an apology to Lockett. The following season, Caven and Lockett were teammates at Sydney.

He would only play 9 games in 1995; and, after failing to return to form after his broken cheek, Caven was told he is not good enough to play AFL football by Sydney football manager Rob Snowden.

The next year would prove to be another fine season for Caven, topped off with a magnificent performance in the 1998 Grand Final on Wayne Carey, where he kept him to one goal. Caven also collected 20 possessions and nine marks on the day.

139 55 59 1073 502 1575 495 179 0.4 0.4 7.7 3.6 11.3 3.6 1.3