Grand Final 2021: Melbourne’s indigenous star Kysaiah ‘Kozzy’ Pickett has overcome many obstacles to play AFL
Kysaiah Pickett has drawn comparisons to Cyril Rioli and it is easy to see why. A member of the Dees mosquito fleet reveals the extent of his obsession.
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They were the dawn workouts that fuelled the legend of Kysaiah Pickett.
A series of running sessions and F45 workouts that proved to his teammates he wasn’t a quitter.
Granted permission in February to return to Perth to mourn the passing of his mother, his two-week quarantine stop in Adelaide was seen as a fork in the road.
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Would the second-year indigenous star hand back all those gains of a summer or show he was made of something sterner?
As his housemate Christian Petracca told the Herald Sun this week, it was the making of Pickett in his teammate’s eyes.
“The biggest thing we saw on (fitness boss) Darren Burgess’ WhatsApp group was him posting video of Kozzy doing F45 sessions, waking up at 5am to do running and kicking sessions,” Petracca said.
“When he came back I have never seen a player light up the track more than he did. He has been unbelievable.”
On Saturday night Pickett will run out onto Perth Stadium with the football world believing a convenient narrative.
They see in Pickett a breathtaking star with the physicality of uncle Byron — the 2004 Norm Smith medallist — and the sidestep of the brilliant Cyril Rioli — the 2015 Norm Smith medallist — having proved in that pre-season episode he has the resilience to overcome the odds.
They don’t know the half of it.
As the AFL’s national diversity pathways manager Paul Vandenbergh says, 20-year-old Pickett has spent his entire life sidestepping the potholes that should have curtailed his AFL dream.
It was Vandenbergh who was videoing those dawn sessions, and who says Pickett’s path to AFL was one of the rockiest he has ever witnessed.
“He has had one of the most challenging upbringings I have ever seen to get drafted and still emerge to be a star,” Vandenbergh said.
“He can turn himself into such a huge role model. He would have seen some really challenging events growing up. We are all incredibly proud of what he has been able to achieve and you almost feel like everything that happens from here is a bonus.
“He had the challenge of his parents separating, living in remote WA, going to Perth, being adopted by Byron’s sister, who he called mum as well.
“Then coming to Adelaide, living with Byron, being a fair way back in his education. And whether you are indigenous or not, if you are so far behind in your education you always feel like you need help and the easy option is to quit.
“But that’s the biggest part of Kozzy, he never once showed he wanted to give up his schooling.”
So no, Kysaiah Pickett has never once been a quitter.
Revealed for the first time today is the extraordinary story of the village of support that made him the player he is today.
THE FATHER
Kevin Kropinyeri says his famous footballing son has grown up in a “love bubble”.
A cocoon of support that has lifted him all the way from birth to the grandest of AFL stages.
Kropinyeri is now a renowned comedian and artist who has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Melbourne comedy festival.
But he and Pickett’s mother, Olivia, were unable to care for Kysaiah after he eventually became the product of their first meeting all those years ago.
Pickett had two “mums” through his childhood — birth mother Olivia and his “old mum” Rebecca, whose death he was grieving when he returned home last year.
She took care of Pickett along with her partner John Ryder in Perth before he moved back to South Australia to be with uncle Byron at around 15 years of age.
“He has always had a lot of love around him,” Kropinyeri said this week.
“He is a good kid … well, I should say he is a good young man.
“Olivia and I were pretty sporty and we actually met at a basketball carnival. Olivia was an athlete and she was strikingly gorgeous.
“As I always say to my son, he was made from love. I was head over heels …”
Pickett was born in Port Lincoln but at around three or four years of age he moved in with Rebecca, Byron Pickett’s sister, back in Perth.
“I will only speak for myself, not Olivia, but I was in a place where I had to find myself,” says Kropinyeri.
“I turned my life around when Kozzy was little. I was born into debt personally and have had to work hard to get to where I am today and I turned my life around at the age of 30, which was 18 years ago.
“So his aunty Rebecca raised him. It’s very important that we pay homage to her.
“We lost her this year and she’s the main person we need to recognise. We called her old mum, and she did an amazing job raising my son and giving me open access and allowing me to build a really strong relationship with my son.”
Olivia remains in West Australia, where she has battled her own challenges and periods of ill health.
Pickett is one of eight siblings on Kropinyeri’s side and seven on the Pickett side, with amateur footballer Kevin first seeing his son’s gifts early in his life.
“I got the shivers when I saw him playing at eight or nine, he was really hard. He just played so hard and the hardness comes from the Pickett side,” he said.
“And he could also turn on a ten cent piece. He is a quiet person but once you get to know him he’s a shit stirrer and a practical joker.”
Kropinyeri will be at Perth Stadium on Saturday, thrilled to see his son display his gifts on a grand stage.
“I played A grade country footy and I played in six losing grand finals so for him to play in a grand final in the pinnacle of Australian sport, I would love to see him win.
“I just know if he can get a couple of clean early touches, he will do well.”
THE SCHOOL YEARS
Rebecca legally adopted Pickett who spent his formative years in West Australia in Perth and wheatbelt town Quairading.
But with Rebecca unwell, he moved to South Australia to stay with uncle Byron, who became a legal guardian.
It was the perfect football education given Byron’s spectacular football pedigree as a dual premiership player, Norm Smith medallist and 240-gamer with North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Melbourne.
“Byron is such a close confidante,” says Kysaiah’s manager Peter Rohde, the former Western Bulldogs senior coach.
“He is like his best mate. When they are together they are like giggling schoolboys. It’s not really a father-son relationship.”
The pair lived in the Adelaide suburb of Birkenhead in a crowded and at times chaotic house.
Vandenbergh was at that stage running Port Adelaide’s indigenous programs and keeping an eye on Kozzy, who was part of the club’s academy given his links to the Pickett family.
“Rebecca became unwell and they were living in Perth and she wanted to go back to Quairading and Byron was keen to support him and get him to Adelaide,” Vandenbergh said.
“It was definitely challenging at times. There was a house full of people. There were challenges with food and bills but they always made it work for them. Kozzy always had a good network of friends and family.”
At times he turned up at school without having been fed or without lunch or school books as he fell further behind at the local high school, with Port Adelaide’s academy a rare haven for him.
It was the furthest scenario imaginable from the red carpet unfurled for so many budding AFL stars as they go from junior squads to NAB league to private school to AFL.
He was eventually enrolled at elite private school Prince Alfred College — in Adelaide — on a scholarship where he became a boarder and eventually completed Year 12 over two years.
Vandenbergh says new research shows there is a 350-hour personal development gap between indigenous and non-Indigenous players, with the league attempting to close that gap with new programs they hope to launch next season.
Pickett never wavered in his desire to follow uncle Byron’s pathway to the AFL despite so many changes in his living conditions and circumstances.
He connected further with dad Kevin in his late teens and often visited him at his home at the Raukkan Aboriginal community 80km southeast of Adelaide, which features on Australia’s $50 note.
He became part of the AFL academy, with Kevin flying over to Wellington to surprise him when playing with the Luke Power-coached side.
By 2019 Melbourne secured him at pick 12 in the national draft, desperate for a crumbing small forward and having handed over their 2020 first-rounder in a targeted strategy to nab Pickett.
THE EMERGING STAR
Rohde says Melbourne has always trusted Pickett while at the same time surrounding him with care through a team including indigenous welfare boss Matthew Whelan.
Forwards coach Greg Stafford and player development manager Shannon Byrnes have been integral to his development.
“Every time he has had to go away from Melbourne he has come back really fit,” Rohde said this week.
“In Round 1 last year (after the Covid shutdown) he stayed in Perth and was in the indigenous community for about eight weeks and Melbourne might have been really nervous.
“He came away for three weeks for old mum’s funeral in WA and had to be in quarantine here so you could say it was a massive gamble for Melbourne.
“But he missed the pre-season games, played a VFL trial game the week before the AFL season and then was straight back into the team.”
Former Port Adelaide defender Alipate Carlile, who owns the F45 gym with Vandenbergh, has described Pickett as the perfect mix of Byron Pickett and Cyril Rioli.
Pickett lives in a Melbourne house with Petracca, Toby Bedford and Charlie Spargo.
Not long ago Byron and Kysaiah quietly got a pair of tattoos together.
But as Spargo revealed this week, it is Rioli’s highlights that are on repeat rather than his uncle’s heroics.
“At home, he watches Cyril highlights on repeat,” he told the Herald Sun.
“He could probably tell you every goal that Cyril’s kicked in his whole career. Literally, I walk out of my room and there’s a TV in the living room and he’s got YouTube up on that and it’s just Cyril Rioli highlights all the time. He would have seen every goal he’s ever kicked.
“So there’s no wonder people see similar traits in him. You just see when he’s in that flow state, he’s not thinking about what’s happened or what’s going to happen. He’s in the moment and he just does crazy stuff.”
Petracca raves about his defensive instincts of his housemate.
“He is so confident in his own ability, he understands who he is as a player,” Petracca said.
“The biggest shift from this year to last year is his energy in defence. All of his goals are off the back of him wanting to work for the team.”
Rohde says Pickett has taken up some of Petracca’s flashier tendencies.
“He’s pretty humble. He is into fashion and he loves the new runners. He likes the diamond earring and his fashion. He likes the designer sneakers from overseas, he was expecting a box of Nike boots over the weekend along with Petracca this week,” Rohde said.
Vandenbergh says Melbourne’s support has never wavered, even if they might have had some nervous moments given this summer’s absence.
“I take my hat off to Burgo (Burgess) and Goody (Simon Goodwin) and Choco (Mark Williams) for allowing him to come back to Adelaide,” Vandenbergh said.
“Sometimes you need to support indigenous players differently. To take those videos and then send them back to his teammates I was really proud of him.
“He always had a smile on his face, even though his mum had passed away. He had this smile on his face and I just thought, ‘This boy’s resilience is through the roof. It would be an incredible book, if you could delve right into his background’.”
Kevin Kropinyeri will be there with Kysaiah’s older brother on Saturday night full of admiration for his son but also the many people who have stepped up to have an influence in his life.
“I have a loving relationship with my son and I am so proud of him,” he said.
“He’s become an independent young man with a lot of people in different stages of his life have helped him get to where he is.
“His grandparents, Byron Pickett Sr, my mum, Aunty Rebecca — and he wouldn’t be here without me and Olivia as well — so there has been much love and respect.”
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