Pickett a redemption story made for HollywoodJon Ralph
Herald Sun
27 September 2019Marlion Pickett’s astonishing journey from a Perth prison cell to an AFL Grand Final debut is the kind of story they turn into Hollywood movies.
AFL clubs just don’t throw footballers into that footy cauldron in finals on debut any more, let alone the biggest day on the AFL calendar.
Yet Pickett’s stunning rise from WAFL hopeful to best-afield in the VFL Grand Final has created Grand Final day’s most captivating story.
It would be brilliant if the only element was a debut on Grand Final day at the age of 27.
Yet the layers to this story make it beyond inspirational.
He will play on Grand Final day only seven years after being released from jail for a string of burglary offences.
He is on an AFL list only because the AFL’s new mid-season rookie rule brought in this year gave him a chance to realise his dream.
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And the South Fremantle tyro will run out despite tearing a finger tendon only days before that mid-season draft as his manager Anthony Van Der Wielen frantically called in favours to get the best surgeons on the job.
Hollywood movie?
Might as well turn it into a ten-part Netflix series if Pickett can do what he always does.
Which is rise to the occasion and find a way to silence the doubters that have been there all the way along his journey.
Pickett isn’t just doing this himself after more than two years in jail, he is doing it for his partner Jessica and four children who have relocated to Melbourne along with him.
As Pickett told the Herald Sun only minutes after being drafted mid-season, it was the dramatic intervention of his brother in jail who set him on the right path.
“This means a lot for my family. Everything I do is for my kids and partner so they don’t have to worry about growing up like I did. Everything I do is for them,” he said.
“I have been out since 2012, so the first week I go out I walked into South Fremantle.
“I have been honest with clubs. The past is the past and I can’t change what I have done but I can change who I have become.
“(Jail) was hard but it was a learning curve. If I didn’t go in there I might have got into worse trouble.
“My older brother was in there and he gave me a talking to. He said you shouldn’t be in here, he gave me a little clip. (To play an AFL game) would mean a lot, to represent my kids and my partner.”
Pickett had only played two WAFL games this year given the initial finger tendon injury and the recurrence when the Tigers took the chance.
But Richmond had studied his form for years — including his slashing three-goal performance for South Fremantle in last year’s WAFL qualifying final.
As the minutes ticked down to the May 27 mid-season draft Van Der Wielen was petrified that the two interested clubs in Richmond and Essendon would go shy.
Yet as Richmond’s recruiting boss Matt Clarke said, Pickett had owned his story and long since repented.
Add his name to the list of reformation projects that include fellow WA indigenous talent Sydney Stack when no one else believed they were worthy.
His WAFL coach Todd Curley believes he will handle it like he has ever other challenge since walking into the South Fremantle football club on a mission to turn his life around.
His manager Van Der Wielen says of his playing style: “He hits as hard as Byron Pickett but he plays with a lot of grace”.
Richmond fans got to watch that on show in the VFL qualifying final when he took one of footy’s great marks, going back with the flight to mark while battered by a pack of players while seemingly closing his eyes.
Now he gets to do it on footy’s great stage with everything on the line.
After all he has achieved to get to the Tigers, don’t bet against him rising to the occasion one more time.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/marlion-picketts-journey-from-a-perth-prison-to-a-grand-final-debut-is-made-for-hollywood-writes-jon-ralph/news-story/fbeffc378db588be78cf60c9d83fef46
