Australian Story's 'Making his Mark' - Tonight on ABC @ 8:00pm

[one-eyed]

Making his Mark

ABC
Thu 27 Feb 2020, 4:49pm

Introduced by Richmond Tigers Forward Jack Riewoldt

When Marlion Pickett took to the field in the AFL Grand Final late last year, it set the scene for one of the most heartwarming moments in the sport’s history.

For 28-year-old Pickett it was the culmination of a journey that began more than seven years ago when he was behind bars in WA's Wooroloo Prison Farm.

Pickett credits partner Jessica Nannup and his four children for creating the incentive to turn his life around and follow his passion for footy.

But the journey wasn't easy and Pickett was overlooked in successive AFL drafts. It wasn't until Richmond coach Damien Hardwick took a punt on him that his fortunes turned around.

Now, as he gears up for the new season, all eyes are on what he will achieve next, both on and off the field.

Airs Monday March 2, 8pm (AEDT), on ABCTV and iview.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-27/making-his-mark/12007718?section=sport

[one-eyed]

'I was a shocking coach': Hardwick says Richmond had no choice but to change

Australian Story
By Belinda Hawkins
Sun 1 Mar 2020, 3:49pm

For Richmond's star player, Dustin Martin, a criminal past shouldn't be an impediment to an AFL career.

"People make mistakes," the media-shy 28-year-old told Australian Story. "And they learn from it."

Martin himself has been sanctioned for off-field behaviour and his father was deported to New Zealand because of his criminal record.

But Richmond's decision to draft convicted felon Marlion Pickett mid-2019 struck Martin as the ideal blueprint for the AFL's future.

"I was just super proud of the footy club for giving him a second chance," the dual premiership-winning Brownlow medallist said.

"We should do that more often."

However, Richmond's punt on Pickett did not happen overnight. It was the culmination of years of change inside the Tigers' bunker.

Pickett had been plying his silky skills in the WAFL for South Fremantle since he was released from prison in 2013.

And while Pickett won his second WJ Hughes medal as the state league club's best and fairest in 2018, he was knocked back by a string of AFL clubs including West Coast, Essendon, St Kilda and Gold Coast before joining the Tiger Army.

Pickett stayed with Martin when he first crossed from the west, and soon found out it wasn't just footy the pair had in common.

"He was very quiet, as am I," Martin said.

"There wasn't too much conversation going on in the household which I think we both liked.

"Obviously different backgrounds and we probably both haven't taken the easy road to here, so, I could definitely relate."

And since his fairytale debut in last year's grand final mauling of GWS, Pickett hopes his story gives cause for reflection.

"I was trying to show the clubs that overlooked me that I was a chance if they took me," the 28-year-old said.

"The past is past I can't do nothing about it … and that's what I said to them."

"But only Richmond took the punt," he said

'I was embarrassed': Coach Hardwick's darkest times

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said timing played a significant role in drafting Pickett.

While Pickett had caught the eyes of Richmond's recruiting team, he was for a long time lumped in the "too-hard basket".

That is, until the AFL dusted off it mid-season rookie draft for the first time since 1993.

"In 2016 there's no way Marlion Pickett gets in the door," Hardwick told Australian Story.

"An Indigenous boy from WA who has experienced what he has done … I would've just thought this is all too hard.

"There's no way this is going to work; there's no way I'm bringing in a player that's been incarcerated."

After three successive years of failing to get past the first week of finals and a poor start in 2016, it was an extremely difficult time at Punt Road.

Never more so than when GWS belted Richmond by 88 points in round 19, a miserable day for Hardwick's men which saw the Tigers register their lowest score — 3.5 (23) — in 50 years.

"That was as tough a year as I've ever had … emotionally and physically," the drought-breaking premiership coach said.

"I was that embarrassed of what had become of us in the footy club.

"It just became a really, really crappy place to be."

Hardwick says he was largely to blame by becoming increasingly tougher on his players.

"I became a shocking coach," the former hard-nut defender who won flags with both Essendon and Port Adelaide said.

"I became unapproachable to my playing group, distanced myself from my mentors, and distanced myself from the coaches."

But, Hardwick admits, you can often learn your most valuable lessons in the darkest hours.

And after taking time out to study leadership and decision-making at Harvard, the 47-year-old says his approach changed ahead of the 2017 flag — Richmond's first since Malcolm Fraser was prime minister.

"We don't all have to fit the same box," Hardwick said.

"We can let people be who they are, we can embrace them for the person that they are."

Stack the first step in Richmond transformation

In late 2018, Richmond took a chance on a gifted Indigenous teenager from WA in Sydney Stack, who had a difficult upbringing.

"There was quite a bit going on with Mum and Dad, and Dad in and out of jail," the 19-year-old livewire told Australian Story.

"It just clicked in my mind that I didn't want to live that life," he said.

And while Hardwick had already experienced plenty from four decades of life and a 207-game AFL career, the Richmond coach still had something to learn from Stack.

"Sydney has taught me a lot about myself," he said.

Stack had a rocky start and was overlooked by clubs in his first year as an AFL contender.

"He wants to get the very most out of every single day," Hardwick said.

"Now, 80 per cent of the time, that doesn't get Sydney into trouble, but there's 20 per cent of time that it does. He just loves life."

Hartley's punt on Pickett after Grigg retirement

Just as Richmond was taking on Stack, his soon-to-be teammate Pickett was starring in WAFL matches — one way of getting noticed by those in the top flight.

"Essendon had interviewed Marlion countless times, probably more than any other club," Pickett's manager and South Fremantle board member Anthony Van Der Wielen said.

"It was almost absurd the amount of times that they had interviewed him and his family, the people around him, our coaches, our football people."

The Bombers passed him up.

But in 2019 a confluence of circumstances went Pickett's way.

The AFL announced it was reinstating a mid-year draft.

And Shaun Grigg, one of Richmond's 2017 premiership heroes, had been for a long time struggling with a hamstring injury.

The veteran tall asked Richmond's player and list manager Blair Hartley if he had any plans to bring someone in mid-season.

Hartley told Grigg, who had at that point ticked over 30 years of age, that they were keen on someone.

Grigg's next question was, "Is that somebody able to play this year or is it a young developing player?" he said.

But Hartley told the 200-gamer it was a someone who could drive the club toward a finals assault.

"So it was a pretty easy decision for me to give up my spot," Grigg, the now-development coach at Geelong, said.

This opened the door for Pickett, but weeks before the newly reinstated AFL mid-season draft, Pickett broke his finger for a second time.

"I thought my AFL dreams were gone," the Noongar man said.

When Richmond took Pickett as pick 13, Grigg was taken aback — this recruit did not seem match-ready.

"I was a little disappointed," Grigg said. "He had an injury a couple of days before the draft, but I backed the club's decision."

'This kid might be able to help us win'

Pickett became a standout for Richmond's VFL side.

Following a season of underachievement, the Tigers made both the VFL and AFL Grand Finals, echoing achievements of 2017.

The senior team copped a blow when Nathan Broad and Jack Graham both sustained injuries.

Pickett wasn't a contender for a spot at this point. Instead, Hardwick pulled teenager Jack Ross and half-back Kamdyn McIntosh from the VFL side's earlier grand final appearance in a bid guarantee one of them could step into the senior side.

"Obviously, they're incredibly disappointed," the Tigers' coach said in reflection.

"But also reasonably excited that they are a chance to play at the AFL level the following week."

The next day Ross and McIntosh join those pencilled in for the first 22 in the coaching box while Richmond's reserves edge out Williamtown in a nail-biter.

Pickett registered 20 touches, nine tackles and a goal, as well as taking home the Norm Goss medal as best afield.

"I sat there and I thought, 'this kid might be able to help us win'," Hardwick said.

McIntosh was a 2017 premiership player, but Ross was playing in his first season.

Hardwick spent the week agonising over whether to play Pickett, who looked like a jet when running around in the WAFL or VFL but was untried at the top level.

Pickett hoped he and Stack might make the emergency list, but nothing more.

The jungle drums started in the locker room among some of the senior players, with the likes of Dustin Martin, forward Jack Riewoldt, skipper Trent Cotchin and five-time All-Australian defender Alex Rance mentioning Pickett's name.

But then veteran Indigenous star Shane Edwards asked the senior players what they would do if it was round 16. And Riewoldt piped up that he would choose Pickett.

"So that was our motto really," Riewoldt said. "If it was round 16, we would pick Marlion."

It took Hardwick and the match committee until Thursday — two days before the grand final — to make the same decision.

Martin was in Hardwick's office when Pickett was taken out of a meditation session to be told the good news.

"He was pretty shocked," Martin said. "He took a big, deep breath. It was a really special moment and I'm glad I was a part of it."

Grand final glory

Pickett then made history as the first VFL or AFL player to debut on grand final day since 1952.

"It wasn't just like he was gifted a game," the now-retired Rance said.

"He earned it, he showed up, and played a cracking game as well. So, he's proved himself more than anyone."

First, there was that blind turn.

It left Giants' midfielder Lachie Whitfield momentarily dazed, was followed by a smooth delivery to small forward Jason Castagna, and immediately put the AFL world on notice.

Jack Riewoldt remembers seeing the first-gamer swallow a handball from lumbering Tigers ruck Ivan Soldo at the centre bounce.

"I'd actually started to run towards Marlion to call for the ball," the triple-Coleman medallist said.

Pickett himself remembers having space after receiving from Soldo.

"I was on my own," he said. "Then in the last probably three seconds someone come on my left side. I just spun around [Whitfield] then so I could hit my forward up."

Martin, now one of the most decorated players of all time, was as impressed as the crowd by the manoeuvre, something he said would leave him on his backside.

"It certainly gave us a spiritual lift," he said.

And in the third quarter Pickett hit the scoreboard.

Riewoldt and the other forwards assumed Martin, inside-50, would go for goal and were getting ready to defend the ball if he missed.

But the Norm Smith-winner had other ideas.

"I kind of just gave a little nod, kicked it to him, and he marked it."

A whisper went around as the debutante lined up.

"If he kicks this it's stacks-on basically," Riewoldt said.

The 262-game power forward was standing in between Pickett and the goals when he kicked his first major.

"Everyone starts charging in," Riewoldt said. "I can't remember being that happy in a game of footy."

But it also saw the Tigers bust open the dam wall in the third quarter.

"All of us were so proud, so emotional," Martin said. "It put us on the biggest lead I think we'd been all day."
'It's just one game'

Pickett has taken the newfound glory in his stride.

"Even though it's the biggest game of the year," he explains, "I'd just been through so much growing up that I didn't really get overwhelmed about it.

"I was just enjoying the moment — footy's footy.

"I'm more nervous talking to media before or after the game."

Sydney Stack, however, saw the bigger picture.

"All Marlion needed was a chance," Stack said.

"I figure that Indigenous players need more support in what we do. We don't have the perfect life, but we try and we overcome a lot of stuff.

"And I guess that's what brings me and Marlion so close — we're just so connected and proud of who we are and what we've achieved."

Pickett finished with 22 disposals, eight inside-50s, three clearances and a goal in the AFL's 2019 decider, an effort which saw him finish third in the Norm Smith medal count behind Dustin Martin and Bachar Houli.

But as the 2020 season gets underway on March 19, he's quick to temper expectations.

"It's just one game of football," he said.

Australian Story's Making his Mark airs Monday, 8:00pm (AEDT), on ABC TV and iview.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-01/inside-the-richmond-bunker-2020-afl-season/11973570

[one-eyed]

'I was robbing shops to support my kids': Marlion Pickett is back behind bars for all the right reasons

Australian Story
By Belinda Hawkins
ABC
Mon 2 Mar 2020, 12:09pm

Marlion Pickett sees the barbed wire stretching along the high wall and starts to shudder.

Memories start flooding back and the Indigenous AFL star isn't sure what he'll find when he goes inside.

Banksia Hill Detention Centre is a sprawling complex on the outskirts of Perth.

The last time Pickett came here he was 15 years old and just at the start of a criminal career that spanned six years, three years of which he spent behind bars.

Now he wants to work with some of Western Australia's most violent youth to make a positive change.

"If I had someone I look up to come in and visit me when I was in here, things would've been different," Pickett told Australian Story at the prison.

"That could have helped me to get somewhere I wanted to be."

Western Australia's Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall — the state's prison boss — said WA had the highest rate of Indigenous incarceration in Australia.

State Corrective Services Minister Francis Logan called it a "shocking indictment on WA".

"It's about dislocation. It's about dispossession and it's about family breakdown."

And Pickett's family is typical. His brothers did time, his partner's father, mother and brother all did time.

"If I didn't go to prison when I did, I probably wouldn't have learnt what was wrong and what was right," he said.

As the 28-year-old signs in, the reception guard hands him a security buzzer to press in case he's attacked. And then he steps out on to a stretch of concrete between two high fences that is monitored by many security cameras.

He's met by Deputy Superintendent Mark McDonnell, who knew Pickett as a detainee in 2007, describing him as a pleasant young man who was "fairly easy to manage".

One more gate and they're in the gym where a group of inmates are shooting hoops.

The talk turns to last year's AFL Grand Final when Richmond thrashed Greater Western Sydney. And when Pickett made AFL history by being the first player in 50 years to debut in the biggest game of the year.

These kids are footy nuts and star struck.

"What's Dusty Martin like?" asks one. And why not? The Brownlow medallist is Richmond's best-known player.

And Pickett stayed with him for three weeks when he first left Perth to start training with Richmond.

"You think he's a loud fella when he plays footy, but off the field, he's really quiet," the new Tiger said of Martin.

So is the lanky midfielder who strikes up an easy rapport with the teenagers.

One inmate tells Pickett he has been here 14 months and has six months to go.

Pickett doesn't judge, lecture or carp.

"The best thing is to stay out brother," he says. "You don't have to change who you hang with; just learn to say no and do you."

It took Pickett a lot of false starts to learn that lesson.

Turning to crime to support growing family

Not long after he was released from juvenile detention, Marlion Pickett met Jessica Nannup at a family gathering in Perth.

She was 15 and quiet. He was 16 and even quieter. They clicked.

She was his first real girlfriend. Ms Nannup kept running away from home to be with him.

Then, like an outer suburban Romeo and Juliet, their families tried to keep them apart.

Pickett's parents were moving the family to York, 90 kilometres east of Perth, in the hope it might keep the six children away from bad influences.

Pickett gave his mum an ultimatum: "It was either Jess come with us, or me and Jess head our own way," he said.

And Pickett got his way.

"I didn't want to acknowledge Marlion because I was upset with them both," Ms Nannup's eldest sister Leekesia Nannup said.

"I thought they was making all the wrong decisions."

Pickett was drinking, dabbling in drugs and partying hard.

By 17, Ms Nannup was pregnant with her first child, Marlion Junior.

When he couldn't get work, Pickett took to crime to support them.

"I was thinking if I break into a shop it was safer for the family … than selling drugs from home," he said.

After several nights out robbing shops across Perth, police came knocking and arrested him.

Two weeks later, the young mother discovered she was pregnant with their second son.

In 2010, Pickett was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years in jail.

"Sometimes I asked Jess why didn't she leave me," Pickett said. "But then she said she didn't want to — the kids would grow up without a father."

'The past is the past': Pickett's pitch to AFL clubs

Ms Nannup wondered if her partner would ever go straight. She'd watched family members get second chances and blow them.

But when Pickett left prison in 2013, the 21-year-old headed straight to the South Fremantle Football Club and asked if he could train with them.

Since he was a little boy his dream was to play with one of the AFL clubs in the big league.

Pickett's pro bono manager, Anthony Van Der Wielen, also a South Freo board member since 2017, said many in the club doubted whether bringing in a convicted criminal made sense.

But Pickett soon proved doubters wrong.

"He was not only a leader of the Aboriginal players in our football club, he was a leader of everybody," Van Der Wielen said.

"If you played alongside Marlion Pickett, we felt our players walked a little bit taller. They felt protected. They felt a little bit stronger and a little bit bolder."

And AFL talent scouts started taking notice of him.

Pickett told Australian Story that over the next five years, he met with the West Coast Eagles, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Essendon and St Kilda. But the discussion invariably got back to his rap sheet. And he got overlooked every year.

Pickett simmered in an impotent fury.

"The past is past," he recalls telling the clubs. "Nothing I can do about it, but if I do get an opportunity, I will take it with both hands."

But in 2016, Pickett was once again fronting court — this time on assault charges. The footballer claimed someone racially abused him and took a swing at him before Pickett retaliated.

Had the District Court jury found him guilty, the young father's AFL dream would have been over.

But on the day the trial was due to start, the prosecution dropped the charges.

In 2018, Pickett fought even harder to prove himself, winning South Freo's best and fairest and getting named in the WAFL's Team of the Year.

By now, Richmond had broken its 37-year premiership-winning drought and was looking seriously at the midfielder.

The Victorian club's recruiting manager, Matt Clarke, said Richmond's only concern was how it would help settle in Pickett's partner and four children.

When the AFL announced it would have a mid-season draft, for the first time since 1993, Richmond took the plunge and picked him.

Pickett had just left hospital after breaking his finger for the second time and was at home with his family when the news came through.

"He was shocked," Ms Nannup said. "I actually ran out the house and started shouting.

"He was quiet, scratching his head. I think he was just more worried about going to Melbourne."

After blitzing the VFL grand final, Richmond decided to hand Pickett his debut with the seniors at the AFL grand final.

Critics, like former Richmond great Kevin Sheedy, said the decision was "very dangerous".

But on the day, Pickett proved them wrong, with 22 disposals, eight inside-50s and three clearances to his name on the stat sheet.

And when he kicked a decisive goal in the third quarter, Richmond players mobbed him.

"All of us were so proud, so emotional," Dustin Martin said.

Pickett picked up four votes in the Norm Smith medal count, placing him behind only Martin (15) and Bachar Houli (six) as best on ground.

Pickett 'tailor-made' for mentoring

Back in Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre, Pickett feels different about the place he spent his first Christmas away from home, knowing he can leave.

Singing to himself, he scours the prison footy team photos for familiar faces.

Deputy Superintendent Mark McDonnell suggests the detention centre would like to display Pickett's number 50 Tigers jersey; he's lost in his memories and doesn't respond.

But as Pickett leaves, he tells Mr McDonnell he wants to come back regularly, so the young men know he is there for them. The warden is rapt.

"If that can instil hope and motivation …for them to go on and turn their lives around, only good can come of it," Mr McDonnell told Australian Story.

The Corrective Services Minister backs him.

"We'll do whatever we can to make sure we get it up and running," Mr Logan said.

The Commissioner first wants to ensure Pickett's ongoing involvement is embedded in the youth justice system.

"The last thing we need to do is to let these kids down," Mr Hassall said. "Because they've had a lot of failures and they've had a lot of people that let them down in their lives."

But Richmond's triple-Coleman medallist, Jack Riewoldt, is sure Pickett is tailor-made for the job.

"People can attach themselves to Marlion because he could be them," Riewoldt said.

"If you strip back the neck tattoos and everything that comes with him, he is one of the most gentle people I've ever met — the perfect role model for any kid who may have thought that they couldn't do something."

As Pickett gears up for the start of the 2020 AFL season later this month, his belief in what persistence can achieve is unfailing.

"Some people say what's happened to me is a fairy tale," he said. "But if you're looking for a change and a better life then it's up to you if you want to change it."

Watch Australian Story's Making his Mark, 8:00pm (AEDT), on ABCTV and iview.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-02/how-marlion-pickett-became-an-unlikely-richmond-tigers-leader/11954784

[Francois Jackson]

BRILLIANT

[mightytiges]

BRILLIANT

x2

What a great episode of Australian Story  . The more you learn about Pickett's story the more incredible it is.

Plenty of honesty too from Dimma about his change in attitude from 2016.

[Tiger Khosh]

It’s up on YouTube for those interested.

https://youtu.be/7pPDgVHTFhc

[pmac21]

Yes great TV. 
He must now go ahead and forge new paths and not live off that one game.
The commentators hopefully will not mention his past and his story every time he gets the footy like they did on Sunday.
Here's hoping he has a great season and I am sure he will get a lift from Cotch, Dusty and Sugar in the guts with him.