Dashing Pickett a Tiger for life

MARLION Pickett’s lifechanging premiership heroics will be capped with life membership at Richmond’s annual general meeting on Monday December 9.

And with Pickett already back training at Punt Road and settling into Melbourne life, his friends are wondering what he is capable of achieving in his first full season of AFL.

Pickett’s single AFL game saw him become a premiership player who ran third in Norm Smith Medal voting, with the flag automatically making him eligible for Tigers life membership.

He will join Tom Lynch, Liam Baker, Shai Bolton, Jayden Short and Ivan Soldo as first-time Tiger premiership players who didn’t play in the 2017 premiership.

Mid-season recruit Pickett’s fortune came in comparison to St Kilda legend Trevor Barker, who played 230 AFL games without a single final.

The Tigers will again declare a phenomenal profit off the back of bumper revenue, the league’s highest home attendances (59,987) and merchandise sales from the premiership.

Last year’s club net profit was $4.21 million after a $3.06 million profit in the 2017 season, with the Tigers last year stating their cash reserves of $13.7 million.

Richmond’s $60 million redevelopment of Punt Road will be helped by that financial haul, with the Tigers still seeking extra government funding for the upgrade.

The development will house the club’s indigenous academy — the Korin Gamadji Institute — as well as Bachar Houli’s Academy for young indigenous players.

Pickett and his wife Jess have settled into Thornbury with their four children after he signed a one-year deal with the Tigers late in the season.

Pickett’s ability to elevate his game on the big stage stunned the football world.

But his manager Anthony van der Wielen said yesterday it was exactly the kind of performance he had churned out in the WAFL.