Stephen "Steve" Malaxos (born 19 June 1961) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er and coach from

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. While playing for Claremont in the WAFL, he won the 1984

Sandover Medal The Sandover Medal is an Australian rules football award, given annually since 1921 to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League. The award was donated by Alfred Sandover M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant and be ...

. Malaxos was an

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

with Claremont in 1986 and while he was with the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in 1988. He was the inaugural

fairest and best In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

player at West Coast (1987), holds the Eagles' record for the most possessions in a game (48) and captained the club in 1990. Malaxos was the head coach at

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

, after successfully coaching the colts team to a premiership in 2010. In 2005, he was inducted into the Western Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Playing career

Malxos attended

Hollywood Senior High School , motto_translation = , established = , type = Public co-educational high day school , principal = , streetaddress = Smyth Road , city = Shenton Park , state = Western Australia , country = Austra ...

and trained with the Claremont colts in 1977 playing for both the club and his school. He began his senior career as a forward in 1979, with Claremont, and helped the Tigers rise to power at the beginning of the 1980s. In 1981, Claremont broke scoring records week after week on their way to their first WA(N)FL premiership since 1964, and Malaxos' crumbing was the perfect foil to

Warren Ralph Warren James Ralph (born 25 February 1959) is a former Australian rules footballer who played during the 1980s with great success as a full-forward for Claremont in the WAFL and with lesser success in the VFL and SANFL. Ralph began his care ...

. Despite missing a quarter of the season though injury, Malaxos kicked 82 goals and during 1982 was widely tipped to be the second non-full forward to top the century after Kevin Taylor in 1979 – though he finished nine goals short. During 1983, Malaxos was shifted onto the ball to cope with losses to the VFL. The move was a resounding success as he won the club trophy in both

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and 1984, becoming

Western Australian Sports Star of the Year The Western Australian Sports Star Award, currently known as ''The West Australian'RACSports Star Award, is an annual award for sportspeople from the Australian state of Western Australia and/or playing for teams based in Western Australia. It has ...

in 1984, after winning the Sandover. Malaxos was recruited by Hawthorn in the VFL for the following season. He went to Glenferrie Oval as the all-Australian captain, but struggled for an opportunity in the powerful Hawks line-up. Malaxos was a Reserves and night series premiership player with the Hawks, but returned to Claremont at the end of the season after playing only nine senior games. At the end of the 1986 season, West Coast, who were due to enter the VFL competition for the 1987 season, added Malaxos to their inaugural list. The Eagles were required to pay the Hawks a $35,000 clearance fee. In Malaxos' inaugural season at West Coast he played 21 games; in round 22, against St. Kilda, he collected his record of 48 possessions. In 1990, Malaxos played 20 games during the home-and-away season, including the club's historic drawn qualifying final against Collingwood, and the replay a week later. Despite being captain, Malaxos was dropped for the remaining finals matches, and replaced as captain by John Worsfold. He did not add to his total of 66 games for West Coast, but was on the club's list for the 1991 season. During 1991, he played his 150th game with Claremont, which included 11 pre-season/night series games. In 1992, he transferred to

, where he would spend the rest of his career: he would win three club fairest and best awards with the Sharks, and play in premiership sides in 1992 and 1994.

Post playing

In 1999, Malaxos was appointed as coach of the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

reserves team in the AFL. In 2004, Malaxos was appointed to an assistant coach's position with Fremantle in the AFL, a position he left in 2009. Malaxos was inducted into the Western Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2005. He now is a sports teacher at a high school in Western Australia.

Other matches

Malaxos also played 10 matches in State of Origin football for Western Australia, as well as 23 pre-season/night series matches, 11 for Claremont, three for Hawthorn and nine for West Coast (these are counted as senior by the WAFL but not the VFL/AFL). If these matches are included, Malaxos played 386 senior career matches. Malaxos also played nine International Rules matches for Australia, which are counted as senior by the VFL/AFL, who list Malaxos' total as 383, excluding his pre-season/night series matches for Hawthorn and West Coast. If these are included here, Malaxos played an overall total of 395 senior career games.

References

External links

Steve Malaxos
player profile page at WAFLFootyFacts

Sources

*Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Malaxos, Steve 1961 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Australian people of Greek descent Hawthorn Football Club players West Coast Eagles players Claremont Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club coaches Western Australian State of Origin players Western Australian Sports Star of the Year winners Sandover Medal winners John Worsfold Medal winners All-Australians (1953–1988) West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australia international rules football team players