Steve Salopek looks back on his footy odyssey on his 40th birthday
Steven Salopek has just turned 40, and he is in a reflective mood as he sits down with the Vjesnik to celebrate the milestone by looking back on his AFL career.
Salopek is now at peace with his 121-game journey with Port Adelaide.
But it would be wrong to say that was always the case.
After being selected by the Power as a highly-touted No.6 pick in the 2002 national draft, the midfielder from the Dandenong Stingrays had the footy world at his feet.
But while he still sits in the top 50 of the club’s all-time AFL games record list, Salopek left Port in 2012 feeling unfulfilled.
And it was a feeling he could not shake for quite some time.
“There’s certainly an element of, like, not anger, but sadness,” Salopek said.
“Just, I suppose, when you are a high draft pick, there is an expectation automatically that you’re going to be playing 200-250 games and be one of the club greats. That clearly didn’t happen.
“So that probably sits with me and still hangs over me to a degree that, as pick No.6, I should have played 200, and I fell 80 short.
“But in the same breath, I did ten years in an AFL world that has an average lifespan of three or four years, in a very successful team, and created some lifelong memories.
“I finished in 2012 and I reckon for maybe three or four years it really affected me – I hated the AFL world, I just didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
“But it wasn’t until we were moving house one year, I was just packing the garage up, and my dad had kept all of my just bits and pieces, like paper clippings, footy records, and old jumpers.
“And my eldest son, Louis, who would have been six or seven at the time and absolutely loves his footy, when he saw me pull these things out he was like ‘oh my God dad, look at this dad, this is so cool dad’, that was the moment where I said to myself ‘stop being an idiot, you had a great career, you’ve played the sport that you’ve loved for so many years, you’ve got to live the dream of being an AFL player, there’s a lot to be proud of’.
“And yes, the end outcome may not have been what I wanted or envisioned for my career, but that was the pathway that was dealt and that’s OK.
“Ultimately it was a great period of my life. Now I remember the good times.”
Salopek was at Port Adelaide in 2004, the year the club won its sole AFL premiership.
He played 11 games in that season, but missed selection for the Grand Final against the Brisbane Lions.
He would go on to feature in a Grand Final – in 2007 – but that match infamously ended in a harrowing 119-point defeat.
Asked how he felt now about the 2004 success for the club despite the fact he didn’t receive a premiership medal, Salopek said the memory was still a positive one.
“I was so young, I would have only been 19,” he said.
“I played the first 11 or so games of the year, but then I got glandular fever, so that’s why I didn’t play any more beyond that.
“I’d still been doing Year 12 across 2003-04 while balancing that with footy, and I think it all caught up with me.
“I came back into the reserves late in the year and I think I kicked five goals in my first game back and I thought ‘I might be a chance to come back into the team here’. Obviously it didn’t happen.
“Grand Final day was just a bit of a blur. It was pretty cool. A full MCG, a group of us young boys were in the stands watching together, and to feel a close part of it was still quite special.
“We definitely enjoyed it for about a week after.”
Salopek’s father, Nick, and mother, Angela, who passed away when Steven was a teenager, were both born in Croatia.
His grandparents on his mum’s side of the family are still alive and live in Pakenham, Victoria, not far from where Steven lives with his wife, Alice, and four sons.
Salopek’s Croatian roots are something he remains intensely proud of.
“My first language was Croatian, I didn’t really speak English until I was five or six,” he said.
“Mum had a hair salon in Hampton Park, dad was a glacier. They worked hard.
“After school I’d usually walk the 10 minutes to my Baba’s house, my mum’s mum, and naturally she’d have all the grah there and prosciutto, whatever I wanted, soups, you name it.
“It’s still the case now. ‘Eat more Steven!’, she’s always saying. I’m trying to lose weight.
“Such fun memories though. Every Sunday we would go there for lunch after I played footy in the morning. Typical Croatian family with the big spread and everyone in the family rocking up.
“I missed out on a lot of that, obviously, when I left for Adelaide, which was disappointing. And so I probably lapsed a bit with that communication and dialog.
“But even now, they speak to me in Croatian. If you spoke to me in Croatian I wouldn’t understand you. But the close-knit people in my life, if they speak to me, I get it.
“It’s always there. And I like knowing that my kids have got that background in them, and I think they like that aspect of themselves too.”
Aussie Rules was always Salopek’s love, even despite overtures from his grandfather.
“Dedo, my mum’s dad, he absolutely loves soccer. He tried to bribe me when I was younger. He gave me $1000 when I was 10 or 11 – no joke.
“But it was always footy for me. I played basketball in the summer to stay fit, which I loved, and I was making representative squads. But it got to the point where I had to choose and it was a pretty simple choice in the end.”
The Croatian community may have another Salopek or two to look out for in the future with Steven’s eldest children, Louis, 16, and Max, 14, also firmly afflicted with the footy bug.
The Salopek clan would be eligible to play for Port Adelaide under the father-son rule.
But Steven, wearing his dad hat, has his sights set, for now, on making sure his sons enjoy their childhood, do well at school, and, most importantly, continue to be good human beings.
“Look, they’re going the right direction,” he said.
“Louis absolutely lives and breathes it. He sleeps with his footy, watches tapes, has a diary and writes down what different players are doing.
“If they’re good enough, there’s a pathway there. But it’s not a right or a given. They’ve still got to work hard and show that talent.
“But he’s 16 and there’s a lot to being a 16-year-old nowadays, it’s different to when I was going through.
“We’re just trying to do everything we can to support him and all of the kids. Surround them with good people and that approach will filter down from Louis to his brothers, with Max being next, he’s only 14, so he’s still got a while to go. But he’s playing rep footy and is a good size. So he’s going well.
“But there is no pressure. What they do is up to them. If they can get there, we’ll do what we can to help them get there.”
