‘I wouldn’t understate how much this club means’: Stevenson back at home with the Bears

A Shepparton lad, he played junior football for the Bears and was even a mascot for the team at one point, growing into a senior player in the years after that.

With senior football came a memorable debut lining up against Melbourne Football Club 271-gamer Adem Yze, a stint in Sydney, a return to Shepparton and – of course – a premiership.

Following that, Stevenson became a different kind of Bear at Tungamah before returning to the club that he has always called home.

“My dad was a massive influence and my mum, we were a pretty footy mad family. I can remember playing football from a young age, from Auskick all the way through,” Stevenson said.

“I always had a massive connection to Shepp Bears. I guess I grew up loving the Bears and idolising some of the players, I always had that ambition to one day play senior footy here, for sure.

“The club means a lot. It does mean a lot. I love the individuals that play within the club, I love the individuals that volunteer within our club.

“A football netball club is your sense of community. It is what we do on a Tuesday and Thursday night, we have Saturdays to get together and share a common interest.

“I wouldn’t understate how much this club means to me and being back has solidified how much I love it.

“I am really hopeful that I can bring some success to the club in the future, but also some joy to those individuals that mean a lot.”

Top of the mountain

Stevenson had a history of winning flags at Shepparton, having played in two thirds premierships at the club as a junior.

But after a stint playing footy in Sydney, the stars finally aligned for Stevenson at a senior level back at his home club.

The Bears had been good in 2017, but not quite good enough.

They finished second on the ladder behind Kyabram, before falling to the Bombers in the grand final.

In 2018, however, the Bears got their revenge.

The ladder ended up the same as it did the year prior – Kyabram on top, undefeated. Shepparton behind it in second. But the grand final would play out differently.

After falling by 55 points in 2017, the Bears snapped Kyabram’s historic domination of Goulburn Valley League with a stunning two-point win.

“It was in a period where Kyabram was that super team. They had won the premiership earlier, they had been winning 40 or 50 games in a row. We played them twice throughout the year and we lost by 11 goals both times,” Stevenson said.

“I remember in the lead up no-one giving us a chance. There were words around the ‘boys against men’ mentality and those types of things. Internally, we were really confident. We had the belief which is obviously really important.

“The game itself is a bit of a blur. We have watched back key moments … and still to this day when I watch the last quarter, I still get nervous and still think that the result could be different.

“I remember the scenes when we won it, that was the main thing. People talk about the joy that a premiership brings, not just to the 22 that play, but the wider network, is just incredible. I remember individuals crying within the club rooms and the scenes on the ground where we had so much support – those are the feelings that you really remember.

“Like anything, once you have it you want it again. I think that is what drives you.”

A change of scenery

After winning the flag in 2018, Stevenson spent another year with Shepparton, but after the COVID-19 pandemic it was time for a new challenge in 2021.

“I had another year at Shepp in 2019 and we got close again, and then COVID impacted things a bit and from there I went to Tungamah,” Stevenson said.

The move made sense. While he grew up at Shepparton, the Stevenson family always had a powerful link to the Bears of Tungamah as well.

“It had been a club that I had always had a big connection with,” Stevenson said.

“My dad coached a premiership there and played in a premiership. My two uncles coached there as well, so there is some family history with Tungamah Football Netball Club.

“It is probably one of those scenarios where Shepp was in a bit of a transition phase, I was really keen to develop from a coaching perspective and when they approached the timing was right.”

Tungamah has been one of the top clubs in the Picola District League in recent times with five premierships in the past 15 years, and Stevenson came close to delivering the Bears flag number six as the playing coach in 2021.

The Bears finished on top of the ladder, but fell to Waaia by 45 points in the grand final.

“I was able to go across there and I loved my time there, my two years at Tungamah. I learned a lot, there are some amazing people, and I was able to do exactly that and develop my coaching so that I was able to come back in 2023 and come here and coach with Ted (Lindon),” he said.

“I still have individuals that I am close with through playing there and through meeting there, and they are probably what you take away most in terms of the special things, those relationships that you form.”

The homecoming

This year, Stevenson returned to where his footballing journey began, rejoining Shepparton as a playing co-coach alongside Ted Lindon.

“I think Shepp people would say they always knew that I was going to come back,” he said.


“I didn’t necessarily have that opinion, I was just going to see how it played out at the time.”

So how has he found being back?

“It is different. Clubs change really quickly,” he said.

“My last year was 2019 and I’m back in 2023, so there is a large changeover in personnel. But there is still that familiarity that you love.

“I have grown up around here, so the familiarity around the club rooms, the people, the volunteers, that doesn’t change. This has always been home for me, I have loved being back.”

The year ahead

It has been five years since the Bears hoisted the premiership trophy and now Stevenson is hoping to help lead the climb to the top of the mountain once again.

But that journey has gotten off to a difficult start.

Looking to return to the finals for the first time since 2019, Shepparton finds itself winless three rounds into the season.

“0-3, we don’t want to beat around the bush, it obviously is not ideal. We want to be winning football games,” Stevenson said.

“We have been really happy with two out of those three games in terms of our ability to win some key measures.

“We were really disappointed with round one. Not taking anything away from United, but we just didn’t feel like we played our brand of football.

“Round two against Mooroopna was more positive, we were up at three-quarter time and in a winning position. And likewise against Kyabram on the weekend, bar one quarter, we were able to win some key measures.

“The results don’t necessarily point our way, but the processes and some key measures that we take, we are really happy that it is on an upwards trend.”

Eyes on Tigers

Shepparton will have another chance to get that first win on the board this Saturday when it takes on Rochester at Deakin Reserve – another team with finals aspirations that finds itself 0-3.

“It is obviously an incredibly important game. It is really important that we get some reward for effort,” Stevenson said.

“It would be really nice and really gratifying for our list to be able to get a win against Rochester this weekend.

“We are really big that we need to be a blue-collared football side and win contested football and groundball gets.

“We are hoping that our style of ball movement is able to get going with fewer turnovers than what we have had in the last couple of weeks.

“Obviously it is what we do in defence too, and that is around our pressure on the ball carrier and how we are setting up behind the ball.

“From our perspective, we feel if we can get those things right and control what we can control, that the result will go the right way.

“Rochester has obviously got some good individuals that we will need to nullify, but we are still really confident in what we can do.”