Career
He played initially as a nagging, sometimes ungainly but effective defender and built on this base to become a sweeping counterattacking central defender. He began his career at Fitzroy before playing at the Sydney Swans and finally at Adelaide where he was a 2-time premiership player. Caven was the victim of an infamous act of American Federation of Labor-Congress thuggery when Street Kilda"s Tony Lockett struck him viciously in the face and broke his cheek-bone during a game in 1994.
Lockett was handed a heavy suspension of eight weeks for the incident.
In an absurd twist, Caven was forced to issue an apology to Lockett the following week after appearing on comedy television show Denton and, at the urging of host Andrew Denton, bashing an effigy of Lockett with a baseball battalion The following season, Caven and Lockett were team-mates at Sydney.