Marlion Pickett


Marlion Pickett is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League. At age 27 and after a six and a half season career with in the West Australian Football League which included a club best and fairest award, Pickett was drafted by with the 13th selection in the 2019 mid-season rookie draft. He won the Norm Goss Memorial Medal as best on ground during Richmond's reserves side's premiership in 2019 before making his debut in a victorious AFL grand final the following week. Pickett was the first player to debut in a VFL/AFL grand final in 67 years and the first to win a premiership in his debut game since 1926.

Early life, junior and state-league football

Pickett spent his early childhood in the Perth suburb of Balga, were he first played football from age six before his family relocated to Manjimup in the South West region of Western Australia. He played junior football in Manjimup through his early teenage years, before being sentenced to six months in juvenile detention for committing grievous bodily harm 15 years of age in 2007. Upon his release he played junior football with York, before earning an invitation to play colts-level representative football with in 2010. Pickett was never able to take up that offer however, after he was convicted of and jailed for 18 months for numerous non-violent criminal offences including burglary.
While imprisoned in 2012, Pickett played amateur football at the Wooroloo Prison Farm as part of a program covered by the ABC's 2014 documentary television series, Outside Chance.
In 2013 following his release from prison, Pickett made his debut for South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League, kicking three goals along with 26 disposals and nine marks on debut. He spent the remainder of the season playing on the wing and at half-forward and was a member of the club's reserves-grade premiership victory that season.
In 2015 he was moved to the half back line and was rewarded with state team selection in the Western Australia representative team and also finished third in South Fremantle's best and fairest award.
Pickett faced further criminal charges off field in 2016, after he was alleged to have caused grievous bodily harm in March 2015. He was never taken to trial however, after prosecutors dropped the charge in November 2016. On-field, he was again selected in the state team and finished second in South Fremantle's best and fairest count.
2017 saw Pickett play all but two matches in South Fremantle's home and away season, before contributing to the clubs preliminary finals run.
Until 2018, Pickett had played primarily as a half-back, but that season he moved into the midfield following the departure of recently AFL-drafted teammate Tim Kelly. He was regularly named by The West Australian as among South Fremantle's best players in matches that year and finished the season having won the club's best and fairest award and being named to the WAFL Team of the Year while averaging 21.8 disposals per game. He contributed a stand-out performance in that season's qualifying final against, kicking four goals from 26 disposals.
Following the 2018 WAFL season, Pickett attracted the recruiting attention of AFL clubs including, and and was projected by ESPN to be taken by with the 62nd pick in the forthcoming national draft. He was ultimately passed over by all AFL clubs in both the national and rookie drafts that year.
Prior to the start of the 2019 WAFL season, Pickett was labelled the competition's fourth best player by The West Australian. He failed to play a match in the early part of the season however, after suffering a pre-season finger injury. In May 2019, Pickett met with and recruiters and underwent an AFL medical screening prior to the upcoming mid-season draft. Just two matches into his WAFL return and days before the mid-season draft, Pickett suffered a break to the same finger that caused him to miss the start of the season.
He played 98 games and kicked 37 goals for South Fremantle over six and a half seasons in the WAFL.

AFL career

2019 season

Pickett was selected by with the 13th selection in the 2019 mid-season rookie draft in late-May 2019.
He underwent surgery to repair his broken finger sustained in a WAFL match earlier that month, and was expected to be unavailable for match play for up to 10 weeks. Pickett participated in aerobic conditioning work throughout that period and began full contact training in the last week of July. He made his reserves-grade debut for Richmond's VFL side in the first weekend of August, kicking one goal and recording 20 disposals. Pickett was named an AFL-level emergency in each of the following two weeks, but ultimately played each week in the reserves in a dual role as a midfielder and half-back. He remained with the reserves into their VFL finals campaign, kicking two goals and recording 21 disposals in a qualifying final win over. Pickett was named as an AFL emergency the following week for the qualifying final against Brisbane, before contributing 16 disposals and seven tackles in a VFL preliminary final win over Port Melbourne.
He again missed out on AFL selection in the club's top-league preliminary final against Geelong a week later, but did play in the VFL grand final that same weekend against Williamstown. In what earned the club its first reserves premiership since 1997, Pickett recorded 19 disposals, nine tackles and a goal in a best-on-ground performance that saw him award the Norm Goss Memorial Medal. In the week that followed, Pickett burst into AFL selection consideration as a potential replacement for injured midfielder Jack Graham. When Graham was officially ruled out, Pickett was called up to make his debut in the 2019 AFL Grand Final against Greater Western Sydney, becoming the first player to make his first-team debut in a grand final since Keith Batchelor for Collingwood in 1952. When he helped to his side to a 89-point victory in that grand final, Pickett also became the first player to win a premiership in his debut game since 1926. He was among the best players on the ground in the win, finishing third in the Norm Smith Medal with four votes, after a performance which included 22 disposals and a goal. Pickett's season at Richmond concluded after one AFL match and six in the VFL, with premierships at each of the top-flight and reserves-grade levels.

2020 season

In the 2019/20 off-season, Pickett was awarded Richmond life membership for playing in the club's 2019 premiership-winning team. He completed a full load of pre-season training and maintained a place in the club's best 22 through each of its two pre-season series matches, before earning selection in the season-opening match against Carlton. Pickett recorded 14 disposals and an equal match-high five tackles in the win, played under extraordinary conditions imposed on the league as a result of the rapid progression of the coronavirus pandemic into Australia. In what the league planned would be the first of a reduced 17-round season, the match was played without crowds in attendance due to public health prohibitions on large gatherings and with quarter lengths reduced by one fifth in order to reduce the physical load on players who would be expected to play multiple matches with short breaks in the second half of the year. Just three days later, the AFL Commission suspended the season for a period of at least 10 weeks after multiple states enforced quarantine conditions on their borders that effectively ruled out the possibility of continuing the season as planned.

Player profile

Pickett plays at AFL level as an inside midfielder, but previously also played as a half-back during a long state-league career. He has a combination skill set that makes him good at winning contested possessions inside stoppage contests but with the speed and poise for ball carrying in uncontested contests, as well as a strong vertical leap.

AFL statistics

Honours and achievements

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Pickett is a Noongar Aboriginal Australian man.
He is a cousin to former, and player Byron Pickett.
Pickett was imprisoned between 2010 and 2012 for multiple criminal offences committed during his teenage years, including burglary. He has four children.