Marlion Pickett is an AFL footballer who plays for the Richmond Tigers. After a troubled youth, including a stint in jail, Marlion was the first AFL player to win a premiership in his debut game since 1926. His story is told for the first time in his new autobiography Belief, written with novelist Dave Warner.
Today on the blog, we have a piece by entertainment journalist Matthew Denby, who interviewed Marlion about his troubled past with drugs and how he overcame his struggles to achieve Aussie Rules stardom. Read on …
Marlion Pickett (Photo by Tina Smigielski).
The rise of Richmond Football Club favourite Marlion Pickett hasn’t been an easy one, with the star overcoming a string of trials along the way – including a fateful dalliance with the drug ice.
The star, who has successfully transformed his life following stints behind bars to become one of Australia’s most beloved and successful footballers, reveals in his new book, Belief, how he overcame the dark influences of his past.
Describing an extended family environment while growing up in Western Australia that was tainted by drug abuse, Marlion confesses that illegal substances were a presence in his life from an early age.
‘Everything would start well,’ he remembers of the family get togethers that were a feature of his childhood.
‘There was lots of food and laughing. A lot of drink and drugs too. We kids would be running around with our cousins having fun, riding bikes, playing games. It always ended in a fight. The uncles would be fighting or Dad would be fighting.’
‘I just accepted it, you know, as normal. The drugs, alcohol, fights, that was just what happened. Mum and Dad were good and all, but in terms of family members, it was alcohol and drugs all the time.’
By the time Marlion was 18, drugs had become a direct part of his own life. Drinking alcohol and experimenting with the drug ice, Marlion’s life began to spin out of control. With the drug all over Freemantle, he found it hard to resist.
‘Gave me a rush at first, then I felt calm,’ he recalls. ‘Your problems didn’t matter anymore. At least, not till the next smoke.’
He would take the drug and then sleep for days. Soon he graduated to dealing to fund his lifestyle – although he refused to sell to anyone under the age of 18. ‘Older people, people my age, men, women, some white people. It was everywhere,’ he remembers.
His experiment with dealing came to an end with his growing distaste over the business – and he didn’t want drugs around his young family. But the ice lifestyle played into his ill-fated decision to participate in a break-and-enter at a shopping centre.
‘Somebody said, “Let’s do some shops”, something like that,’ he remembers.
His subsequent stint in prison was enough to straighten him up, and set him on the road towards redemption. Marlion had had enough of the ‘bullshit’, and as his football career beckoned, alcohol and drugs were consigned to the past.
—Belief by Marlion Pickett (Simon & Schuster Australia) is out now – limited signed copies are available at Booktopia, but only while stocks last!
This book is part of our 2020 Christmas Gift Guide! You could win 1 million Qantas Points when you order any product featured in our Christmas Gift Guide between 2 November and 14 December, 2020.*
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Belief
Limited Signed Copies Available!
From prison to premiership glory; this is Marlion Pickett’s extraordinary story.
It’s the third quarter in the biggest game of the season. A young man lines up for goal. The 100,000 strong crowd leaps to its feet and roars as Marlion Pickett sends the ball soaring through the goalposts for his first ever major, celebrated by every teammate, a tradition upheld even on Grand Final day. It was the 2019 AFL Grand Final, and Richmond’s Marlion Pickett was making history as the first player in over...
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