After 182 games and a premiership medal, Steve Alessio decided to hang up his boots at the end of the 2003 season. In the soon to be released 2003 Essendon Football Club Year Book, retiring players Alessio and Paul Barnard careers are celebrated. Following is an excerpt from the Alessio feature article – “WHEN THE MOON HITS THE SKY …. IT’S TIME TO DRAW THE CURTAINS.”

Nonno Bepe, the grandfather of retiring Essendon ruckman Steven Alessio, was a frequent visitor to the piazza of his small Italian village Bassano del Grappa. Everyone knew him and he knew everyone. He would listen to their stories and they his. He was just that sort of person that people warmed to and enjoyed being around.

Steven Alessio inherited his grandfather’s genes.

“My mum always talks about my grandpa who used to love going for a walk in the piazza and having a chat to anyone who would listen. The piazza is a hive of activity in every little Italian town,” Alessio said. “I think it might have come through the genes. I like sitting down and having a yarn to different people.”

For the past 14 years Alessio has been wondering around Windy Hill doing just that and in between times playing some very good football. Alessio has been an outstanding servant of Essendon Football Club. He played 182 games and was a member of the 2000 Premiership side. He was named the club’s Best Finals’ Player in 2001 and he was a three-time winner of the Best Clubman award. From his first game to his last, he gave this club all he had.

There was however a time when he thought his first game might actually be his last. “My first game was at the old Princes Park against Carlton and I lined up at full back on Stephen Kernahan – I must have been one of the games’ few 203cm, 100kg full backs. I thought either Sheeds or myself was mad,” Alessio recalls.

“I held him to one goal in a quarter and half and then he kicked four in a hurry and the coach decided to move me. I didn’t feel too bad because they put Terry Daniher back on him and he kicked another three on him so that lessened the blow a bit. I thought my career might have finished then and there.”

But Alessio played the next five games, kicking his first goal at Cararra thanks to a handball from teammate Derek Kickett. While his first goal took five games, his first ‘screamer’ took almost five years. It was Anzac Day 1995 and Alessio got the ride on Craig Kelly, marking the ball with Michael Christian hanging off his back.

But there were many highlights awaiting Alessio, some on the field and just as many off it. “The Premiership is a highlight and also being recognised for playing good finals’ football (2001),” Alessio said. “The Sydney Swans game (Round 19, 2001) was another highlight when I kicked the winning goal. It didn’t come of the boot perfectly – I was 30m out and as it went through it was starting to swing, if I had been 40 or 50m out I don’t think it would have gone through. The first game at Stadium Australia was also a highlight.

“I played under 16s at St Olivers until the mid 80s then I played school footy until 1989 and then started playing under 19s footy. We played in the finals in 1990 in the under19s and the following year I played reserves’ football with players like James Hird, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti, David Calthorpe, Rick Olarenshaw and Dustin Fletcher a bit later on.

“That has been one of the things I have really enjoyed about my career – the fact that I have a great friendship and bond with the players I came through with. Twenty or thirty years down the track when I look back on my career, that is something I will really cherish.”

It is also why Alessio has found it so hard to watch the tough times that some of his long-time friends and teammates have had to endure.

“I think it effects all the players. I don’t think anyone realises the hard work all the guys put in once November comes around. It is during the pre-season you really develop that initial bond and then you have the emotional roller-coaster of the season itself,” he said.

“To see not only teammates but close friends go through that is hard to take. We tend to try and held each other out and go for a few quite beers. You just enjoy each others company and support each other like that. I think the club has to understand what the players go through and by the same token players need to understand that is the nature of football these days.”

To read the remainder of the Alessio article, look out for the Essendon Football Club 2003 Year Book. The Year Book is due to hit the shelves in late November and is a must read for all Essendon supporters. The Year Book looks at the season that was, catches up with all the award winners from Crichton Medal night and also pays tribute to dual Crichton Medal winners James Hird and Scott Lucas. The Year Book is chock-full of information about your favourite club and players.