Call from prison put Marlion Pickett on road to redemption

When Brent Dawkins was preparing for Christmas with his family in 2010 he received a phone call he will never forget.

Tigers duo Sydney Stack, left, and Marlion Pickett at the AFL grand final parade in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

Former South Fremantle football operations manager Brent Dawkins was preparing for Christmas with his family in 2010 when he received a phone call he will never forget.

Dawkins was just a couple of months into the job when he received an automated voice prompt asking him if he would accept a phone call from prison.

On the other end was Marlion Pickett, the Tigers sensation who will remarkably make his AFL debut for Richmond in Saturday’s grand final against the Giants.

“I thought, ‘I don’t know who this is but that I had better take the call’ and, sure enough, it was Marlion,” Dawkins said.

“He had called up to tell me that he had gotten himself into trouble but that he had great interest in football and was really keen on continuing his football once he was on the outside.”

Dawkins laid eyes on Pickett for the first time that October when, just a week after taking the job, he decided to take a look at a game between disadvantaged youth being held at Fremantle Oval.

An old lesson kicked in for the long-term recruiting scout for the Dockers, who went on to work in a football administration role with Fremantle.

“I was always told that no matter what game you are going to watch, be it the Redan under-19s or a WAFL game, to keep your wits about you, because you just never know who might be there,” he said.

And it was not long before Dawkins was pinching himself in disbelief.

Among the crop of youngsters playing in the Reclink game were two clear standout talents.

One was Pickett, who is now a father of four.

The other was Tim Kelly, who has become a true star of the game with Geelong over the past two years. The All Australian Cat finished fifth in this week’s Brownlow Medal count.

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“The standard of the game was not super high quality but those two really stood out,” Dawkins said. “You would never have thought at the time that they would get to the level they have got to but it was clear they would have been good enough to play in the WAFL.

“To get two kids from that one little game at Freo Oval, what an unbelievable story.”

Dawkins immediately checked to make sure they were both living in the South Fremantle recruiting zone and sent them letters inviting them down to Colts training.

Kelly was there from day one, his determination and diligence evident immediately. Pickett, in contrast, was a clear talent but only arrived for one training session prior to the surprise Christmas call he made to Dawkins, who only met him in person twice but became a regular sounding board over the phone.

The catalyst for the calls to Dawkins was an older brother of Pickett who told the future Tiger he had the talent to find a way out of trouble once he was released.

“I remember one phone call where he called to tell me he had won the best-and-fairest for the team he was playing with inside,” Dawkins said.

“He was calling me from jail and the next thing he is playing in an AFL grand final.”

Dawkins had moved on to a scouting role with the Giants by the time Pickett was released after spending a couple of years in jail for a series of offences including burglary. Dawkins was watching a WAFL reserves game when he noted a player whose name and number was not listed in the football program.

It was Pickett at the very start of a distinguished career with the Bulldogs that ended when he was recruited by Richmond in the first AFL mid-season draft held in 26 years.

His ascension to the highest level is among the greatest grand final stories in decades, as respective grand final coaches Damien Hardwick and Leon Cameron acknowledged on Friday.

“We backed in our gut. It is a great story and a lot of people will tell you that, but the reality is that this kid can play,” Hardwick said. “We are really excited to give him an opportunity. He has worked incredibly hard to get that and he has played some really good footy along the way.”

Those who have known the 27-year-old since he was a boy are delighted by the change of fortune for Pickett, who will receive his jumper from Shaun Grigg, coincidentally a former Redan footballer whose mid-season retirement opened a spot on the list for the newcomer.

As a teenager, Pickett made an immediate mark while playing country footy for the York Roos, a club that produced Hawthorn premiership player Chance Bateman and current Carlton player Zac Fisher.

Matt Jones, who now coaches the Roos’ reserves side, played alongside Pickett and his three brothers Tyson, Sheldon and Tom, including on the day Marlion made his debut for the club.

It’s fair to say the young Pickett impressed on debut, kicking seven goals off the half-back flank.

“Everyone was blown away by how good he was. They were unbelievable footballers, all the kids, but Marlion was the standout,” Jones said.

Prior to that, Pickett played junior footy in WA’s southwest for the Manjimup Tigers, one of three football clubs in a town with a population of only 7000.

Photos from that era show a lanky, mop-haired Pickett wearing a similar jumper to the one he will don today for Richmond.

His junior coach Brett Chatley said it was immediately evident an “exceptional” footballer was in their midst.

“His skills were just well above everyone else,” Chatley said.

“As a coach, if you ever needed someone to pull the team out of trouble, it was always him.

“He was very shy, but once he got on a footy field, he just let everything loose.”

The town’s mayor Paul Omodei said seeing a former Manjimup player running out on Saturday would be a big boost for the footy-mad town.

“Having someone from here playing in the grand final is great for our district,” he said.

“We are a very big football area, it’s almost like a religion and it is a big part of the culture of the district.”

Former Fremantle star Dale Kickett, who like Pickett is a Noongar man, now works closely with young men at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre.

Many of those young men are in a similar position to that in which Pickett found himself all those years ago when he made that phone call to Brett Dawkins.

He said Pickett’s story would help inspire others who may be doing it tough.

“It’s a story we can all draw on to use as inspiration for the young blokes that we deal with, not only in sport but in whatever they want to do,” Pickett said.

Todd Curley was Pickett’s coach at South Fremantle for more than four years.

The story of perseverance was one that Curley hopes will resonate with other young footballers who, through injury or circumstance, don’t grab their first opportunity.

“Hopefully it will help other kids who get overlooked and think their chance is gone by their early 20s,” he said.

“Hopefully they will hang around and dig in, and clubs will continue to give those older boys a chance.”

Curley said Pickett was reserved but would lead by example on the field.

“I know if I was lucky enough to play in a grand final, I’d be feeling pretty comfortable having Marlion walk out alongside next to me.”