Naven was born in 1969 in the English town of Wigan before his family moved to Perth, Western Australia.
In the same year, he and his twin brother Craig were selected in the Australia Under-16 national team that reached the quarter-finals of the World Under-16 championship in China.
After having a spell with Malaysian side Sarawak, he captained the Perth Kangaroos team that became champions of the Singapore League in 1994.
Over the course of six years, his determined and tough-tackling style of play established himself as one of the club's truly iconic figures, making more than 140 NSL appearances and taking out the Most Glorious Player Award in 2000.
In early 2020 Naven returned to Perth[11] as the newly appointed Youth Development Officer with Football West.
In October that same year, president Oriani Colli announced that Naven would be Chris Coyne's replacement as head coach of Bayswater City.