Footy great Tim Pickup found ‘in fine health’ at leagues club
UPDATE: Following an extensive search, footy great Tim Pickup has been found alive and well at North Sydney Leagues Club after he went missing from his northern beaches retirement home on Monday evening.
Following an extensive search, footy great Tim Pickup has been found alive and well at North Sydney Leagues Club after he went missing from his northern beaches retirement home on Monday evening.
Northern Beaches Police search coordinator, Insp Mick Sweeney announced shortly after 5pm that Mr Pickup had been found in “fine health” but did not offer any further details as to how he arrived at the leagues club.
“I haven’t spoken with the officers who found him yet — but I understand he is in fine health,” Insp Mr Pickup said.
“I was able to contact his son as soon as I heard.”
Police officers, State Emergency Service volunteers and a helicopter had on Tuesday been searching bushland around Narrabeen Lagoon for rugby league great Mr Pickup.
Mr Pickup, 70, who lives at the RSL Lifecare retirement village — the War Vets — in Narrabeen, has dementia.
The skilful five-eighth, who played a total of 99 first grade games for Canterbury Bankstown and North Sydney, was last seen just after 6pm on Monday at the War Vets on Lakeshore Dr.
Police said there had intially been reported sightings of the league great at Collaroy and Narrabeen on Tuesday morning.
A SES spokesman said it had deployed three search teams in the area around the southern end of the lagoon.
“Police have set up the command centre and we are helping them as required,” the spokesman said at the time.
Police search coordinator Mick Sweeney said family and friends were hoping Mr Pickup may have “popped out for a beer” to one of his favourite venues, the Collaroy Beach Club.
The Manly Daily understands Mr Pickup has gone missing up to three times previously from his medium-risk aged care room at the War Vets facility.
Insp Sweeney said someone may have opened the coded electric sliding doors to let Mr Pickup out.
“It seems like someone has intervened and let him out as a courtesy,” he said.
RSL Lifecares said it had been working closely with his family and the police to assist with his safe return.
“Tim looks well, is fit and does not require assistance with walking,” it said in the statement.
Family members told police that Mr Pickup liked walking and that family and friends were searching for him at locations he had recently visited.
Insp Sweeney said although Mr Pickup did not have an Opal travel card with him, he may have been able to catch a bus to the city.
“Sometimes bus drivers will let elderly commuters on who don’t have bus passes as a courtesy, so we are not ruling that out,” he said.
“He’s in good condition and the weather is warm, but it’s not excessively hot, he has money to buy a drink and he is of the mind to be able to look after himself.
“We believe he is still mobile and out and about.”
“Tim is quite confident and an adventurous person but he will get to the
end of a carpark and forget how to get back.”
.
The Men of League Foundation, a voluntary organisation that supports former players, said it had heard the news of the search for Mr Pickup.
Mr Pickup had attended a number of Foundation events on the northern beaches in recent years and had been visited by its volunteers at his home at the War Vets.
“We have heard the news of Tim’s disappearance this morning, and on behalf of the entire rugby league community, we are hoping for his safe return,” said Stephen Lowndes Men of League Foundation CEO.
“Our thoughts are with his family during this stressful time,” Mr Lowndes said.
Ken Vessey, a wellbeing officer from the Men of League foundation has
been visiting Mr Pickup, a former AMP financial advisor, for the past five years as part of the organisation’s support program.
Mr Vessey said he last saw the former Bankstown Rugby League board member, who played 11 games for Australia from 1972 to 1975, late last year.
“I was very surprised to hear the news about Tim, and very upset actually,” he said.
Mr Vessey said the rugby league community was shocked to hear about Mr Pickup’s disappearance.
“I sent his son a text to say the family is in our thoughts, and he wrote back thanking us for our well wishes…he said there has been a few sightings, so I think that gives him some comfort.
“Tim’s an accomplished footballer and a highly successful person off-field, he’s quite academic.
“He is a wonderful person; a great sportsman and he doesn’t have a bad
streak in him. The whole of the rugby league community will be in
disbelief and are hoping and praying for his safe return,” he said.
Mr Pickup played for the Manly Rugby club for three seasons beginning in 1966, after the family moved to the peninsula from the western suburbs.
He made first grade at the Marlins when he was just 17.
Mr Pickup played 11 Tests for Australia and played six times for NSW in the pre-State of Origin era.
He was CEO of the Adelaide Rams during the Super League era in 1995.
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Pickup was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2000 for services to Australian Sport. In August 2006 Pickup was named at five-eighth in the North Sydney Bears’ Team of the Century.
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