AFL Career
Baker was drafted in the 1998 AFL Draft at pick 27 in a second round pick to the St Kilda Football Club.
Baker played in St Kilda’s 2004 Wizard Home Loans Cup winning side – St Kilda's second pre-season cup win.
In 2005, he tied with teammate Luke Ball in St Kilda's best and fairest award, the Trevor Barker Award. Previous to this his best ranking was third in 2004. On 28 May 2005, Baker and teammate Fraser Gehrig played their 100th and 200th AFL games respectively.
Baker played in St Kilda’s 2008 AFL National Australia Bank Cup winning side – St Kilda Football Club’s 3rd AFL Cup Win.
Baker played in 21 of 22 matches in the 2009 season's home and away rounds in which St Kilda qualified in first position for the finals series, winning the club’s third minor premiership.
St Kilda qualified for the 2009 grand final after qualifying and preliminary finals wins. Baker played in the 2009 AFL Grand Final in which St Kilda were defeated by 12 points.
The athletic Baker has caused some controversy during his career, playing as a tagger (run with) player rather than a set position player. He used a variety of tactics to prevent his opponent from getting the ball including standing on their feet and repeated hits to their arm.
Baker was selected in St Kilda's two grand final matches against Collingwood in 2010.
As of the end of the 2010 season, Baker had played in 11 AFL finals matches including three grand finals.
Following St Kilda's elimination final defeat on 10 September 2011, St Kilda announced that Baker's playing career with the club was ending. Initially the club said that Baker was retiring but, after this was denied by Baker, the club later issued a reworded statement regarding Baker and several other players.
Read more about this topic: Steven Baker (Australian Footballer)
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
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