Here is a story I did about Steve...have altered it a little for obvious reasons. I wasn't aware that he'd played at West Perth and he didn't mention it when I interviewed him so sorry Cardy fans about that omission.
MAYBE GEORGE OR MIKE CAN PUT THIS UP ON THE MEMORY LANE PAGE....I DO HAVE PLENTY MORE BUT NOT SURE WHETHER ANYONE REALLY WANTS THEM.
It is with much sadness that we hear of the passing of Steve Basso at the young age of forty four.
A life member of both Swan Districts and Peel Thunder, Basso was held in high esteem at each club he was involved in, and was a popular member of the football fraternity. He will be remembered for both his prowess on the playing field and his mentoring as a coach.
To say that Steve Bazzo showed promise as a teenager would be an understatement.
By the time he’d turned twenty Bazzo had played State football in under sixteen and eighteen sides, participated in a SWNFL premiership team with a record margin, won the 1987 SWNFL Rising Star award as well as the Swan Districts Rookie of the Year in 1988, runner up for Swan Districts fairest and best in the same year, selected in the Daily News WAFL Team of the Year, and represented Western Australia in a match against South Australia in Vancouver.
Bazzo, a running onballer who was big enough at six foot two to stay with the talls and quick enough to play with the smalls, was a coach’s dream, a player capable of filling any position on the ground. A product of Carey Park, he was playing with the club’s league side at sixteen. “We were lucky enough to have two coaches of the ilk of Merv Kennedy and David Hollins at the time,” said Steve. “Kennedy was the perfect coach to set a young bloke on the right path. A hard taskmaster, he left no stone unturned in developing his people. He was tough, but I learned a lot from him.”
Bunbury is in Swan Districts zone, but the black and whites weren’t waiting for the young Bazzo to walk into the gates at Bassendean. A journey South by coach Ed Blackaby and manager Brian Close in late 1987 resulted in Steve running out onto Leederville Oval on Easter Monday, 1988, for the first game of the season. It wasn’t the ideal scenario, and in a result the young player would have been unaccustomed to at Carey Park, Swans went down to West Perth by eighty four points.
But it was Bazzo who proved to be one of the few shining lights for the Swannies that year, a season in which the club won only four games and drew one. Runner up to Mick Grasso by two votes for fairest and best, he was the club’s Rookie of the Year, and represented his State. A promising start to 1989 from the black and whites was dampened by injuries to key personnel later in the season, but it did lay the groundwork for a premiership year the following season.
Making the State squad once again but missing the final cut, Steve suffered another blow on grand final eve when he was dropped from the side for the big day. “It was hard to handle,” he admitted. “It was a new challenge for me.” Bazzo fought back to play every game in 1991,but Swans fell over in the preliminary final, going down to Subiaco in a high scoring game, 17.12 to 22.14.
“We had the nucleus of a good side in the early nineties, with talented youngsters and some great older players, but just couldn’t take that extra step,” Steve told us.
In 1997, Steve Bazzo joined the ailing Peel Thunder.
“I felt I’d had a good run at Swans, and was certainly happy there, having been made a life member, but the idea of a seachange and a new challenge had an appeal,” he explained. “I was twenty seven, so it was probably good for Swan Districts to look for young blood as well, while Peel needed experience.”
Playing over sixty games with the Mandurah-based club between 1997 and 2000, Bazzo had a huge buzz when he played against his old side in his final season. “The clubs had got together and instituted a medal for best player in Swan Districts-Peel Thunder games, naming it the Steve Bazzo Medal. It was certainly an honour.”
Retirement as a player at the age of thirty signaled the beginning of a coaching career for Steve.
Colts coach for four years at Peel, during which they were twice premiers, he became assistant coach with the league side from 2006 to 2009. In the meantime, Bazzo had returned to the playing arena with Pinjarra and figured in three consecutive premierships, and as his Peel commitments lessened, took over the reins at the Tigers.
West Perth’s Paul Mifka( “a freak of nature, could play anywhere”), Dale Kickett of Claremont(“wiry, strong, tough, never took a backward step”), and “Butch” Baroni from East Perth(“a hard nut”) were opponents Steve had respect for, but added: “They were all good players.” But there was no argument about best team mate. “Phil Narkle, no doubt.”
A typical country lad, Steve Bazzo was a laid back character, a bloke you’d like to enjoy a coldie with and share a few yarns. Chatting with him, it’s not surprising that he’d pull a story out of the air that was self-effacing. “It was at Claremont Oval, and we had fallen behind. Just after half time, they booted the ball forward. It went over player’s heads into their forward line, and on my pat malone I grabbed the leather."
"I was going great guns, no one within cooee, and there was the Claremont Members Stand in the background as I sailed round the boundary. With the prospect of going on to kick a memorable goal entering the dim recesses of the mind, just for a split second as I produced bounce number four I looked around for signs of approaching cavalry. The bloody ball came up, hit me in the chest, and despite my valiant and desperate efforts to retrieve the situation, dribbled slowly across the boundary line right in front of the home supporters.”
Steve Bazzo was a strong contributor over a decade at Bassendean, and his work at Peel, particularly off the field as coach involved in the development of the area’s promising juniors, is well regarded by the club. As a life member of both clubs, the perpetuation of his name whenever the two sides meet is fitting.
Ozfooty would like to extend our condolences to his loved ones.
