Australian Football

Steven Lawrence was a fearless defender/utility who defied two knee reconstructions early in his career to play 120 AFL games with Brisbane and St Kilda. Born in Tasmania, the son of St. Kilda champion Barry Lawrence, he moved with his family to Melbourne aged four and then to the Gold Coast in 1987 as a 10-year-old. A Southport junior, he was an All-Australian Teal Cup choice and Queensland Best and fairest winner at the national carnival in 1993. He played 50 QAFL games with the Sharks before making his AFL debut with the Brisbane Bears in 1995.

Lawrence was best afield in his second AFL game against Carlton at the Gabba and won an AFL Rising Star nomination in his fourth game, but major knee surgery in 1995 and 1996 cost him 18 months of football. A great deal of hard work saw him re-establish his career in 1997, with the fruits of his efforts paying off  the next year when he finished sixth in the Lions Best and Fairest count, and won the ‘1%er of the Year’ award, an honour that spoke to the style in which he played the game. He subsequently won the ‘Most Improved Player’ award in 1999.

After 81 games with Brisbane Lawrence was lured to his father's old club, St Kilda, for the 2001 season, a move that did not turn out as well as would have been expected. On the one hand, his departure from the Lions coincided with the start of that club's greatest era, while his time at St. Kilda was marked by club instability (not least the sacking of coach Malcolm Blight), and a series of injuries and discipline problems that diminished his overall contribution. A good year in 2002 was bookmarked by two frustrating years, and in 2003 he was let go by the Saints.  

In 2004 he transferred to Williamstown in the VFL, where he became captain, and was subsequently recruited by Port Melbourne.

Author - Murray Bird and Peter Blucher, with additional material from Adam Cardosi