Stephen Carey’s story is one Bridgenorth knows well. He lived across the road from the club. For Stephen, Bridgenorth wasn’t a place you visited now and then. It was part of the landscape of growing up. All he knew was the Bridgenorth Football Club, the people, the routines, the noise of game day, and the quiet work that happens around it.
As a young bloke, his Saturdays were about helping out. He’d run the boundary for a drink and a pie, happy just to be around the action. That was his weekend out. That was his footy education. He remembers watching the seniors closely, especially blokes like Kevin Lack and those clean drop kicks, moments that stick with you because they show you what good football looks like long before you’re good yourself.
Stephen wasn’t labelled a standout junior or the obvious next star. If anything, he was the opposite, not identified early as a huge talent, just a kid from the club who kept working. But somewhere along the line, the improvement came. The growth forced people to take notice. And the local boy who grew up on the boundary line ended up earning his way into the VFL.
From Bridgenorth, he went on to play 105 games for Essendon, 7 games for Geelong and became a VFL Premiership player in 1985, part of Essendon's win over Hawthorn.
Stephen Carey is a Parrot who made it all the way, and his story is a reminder of what this club has always been capable of producing: people who keep showing up, keep improving, and eventually prove themselves on bigger stages.
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