Player agent Liam Pickering growing into one of the most feared and most powerful AFL identities
A PLAYER manager has never moved three players for $24m. It’s unheard of. Frightening. Then came Liam Pickering. This is why he’s one of the most feared people in footy.
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SO, James Aish, the wunderkind from Brisbane, has postponed contract talks until the end of pre-season.
That’s kind of new. Usually, contracts are postponed until the end of the season.
If Aish comes out early in the new year and says talk are on hold until the end, then Brisbane will be worried.
They’re worried now, to be honest.
There’s another factor involved. It's called the Liam Pickering factor.
Pickering and Paul Connors are the two biggest names in player management. Their players wanting to leave get to the clubs of their choice, whether they’re contracted or not.
Pickering is the big dog and perhaps the most intriguing.
He shocked the footy world organising Gary Ablett to Gold Coast for an estimated $7 million.
He blinded the footy world by organising Lance Franklin to Sydney for $10 million.
And obliterated the footy world by organising Tom Boyd to Western Bulldogs for $7 million.
He even got four years for close to $2 million for Levi Greenwood.
I don't know if Pickering is good for football, but he’s certainly outstanding for his clients.
If you had to compile a list of the most influential people in the game, Pickering is arguably in the top 10.
We say intriguing because if you had to compile a list of the most feared people in the game, Pickering is on the podium.
It’s because he moves players for astronomical dollars.
He rips the heart out of one club and is a lifesaver for the other and that makes him dangerous and exciting and clinical.
Indeed, he is the wolf of player management.
For a person who played 124 games for North Melbourne and Geelong, and was a Cats best and fairest winner, he is well aware of the words such as loyalty, and team, and sacrifice which underpins performance. As a player manager, though, he is far more ruthless than he was as a player.
When the Boyd news broke, Pickering said: “He wants to come home — and he’s going to come home. Whether it’s this year or next year — that’s what’ll happen.''
In that regard, Greater Western Sydney was the enemy and Pickering went for the kill.
It worked. GWS moved, Bulldogs got their man and Pickering got a nine-gamer for $7 million.
Clearly, the size and scope of the contracts for Ablett, Franklin and Boyd suggest that he and their new clubs had worked for several months on securing deals.
While some in the industry say he has the finger on the pulse of the new frontier and should be applauded — and he should be — others says he tells clubs one thing while working on a completely different scenario.
There’s never been a player manager who has moved three players for $24 million. It’s unheard of. Frightening, really.
At four per cent management fees that a touch short of $1 million.
Good on him and good luck to him, for he has had some serious issues to contemplate recently.
He’s on to his third management company in as many years. He left IMG, recently departed Strategic Management and has now set up Precision Sports and Entertainment Group.
Strategic Management owner Jason Sourasis is expected to launch legal action against Pickering in the coming weeks.
In 2014, he also lost Franklin and Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury as clients.
Those hits seemingly have bounced off Pickering.
The Boyd deal shows he is adventurous, clinical and unquestionably the big dog of player management.
Brisbane already knows that. When Aish asks to leave at the end of next year, as expected, the wolf will be at their door.
Originally published as Player agent Liam Pickering growing into one of the most feared and most powerful AFL identities
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