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Welcome to the Tigers Marlion Pickett!

tigerlove

Tiger Legend
Aug 9, 2014
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Marlon played a bit of his VFL time in the backline. I thought he looked a bit like a fish out of water in that possie and he didn't really shine until he was given more time in the middle. And he came back from injuries. I think fully fit and with an AFL level pre season under his belt he could be extremely influential in 2020.
 

DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
10,523
17,874
Melbourne
I've already said I think Pickett will go backwards to go forwards this season.

It is easy to get swept up in the hype but my take on him in the VFL was he tried to do too much with the ball for the pace of the next level and I still felt that was evident in the Grand Final, despite the total lack of pressure.

I suspect teams will quickly focus on applying increased tackle pressure on him and he will find the going tough.

My tip is he will be adjusting his game in the VFL by the midway point of the season.

May well be the case, and you would think more than likely. But he did have a damned good first game, and in a GF no less. He could only play the opposition he faced.

I reckon he will handle the increased tackle pressure but the lack of time and space in most AFL games will be difficult.

Pretty determined to make it I reckon so expect him to be thereabouts this year. He will put in the work and has the skills. But that is no guarantee.

Hope he develops and plays a good 3-5 years for us and sets himself and family up for a secure future.

DS
 
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TigerMasochist

Walks softly carries a big stick.
Jul 13, 2003
25,567
11,443
I've already said I think Pickett will go backwards to go forwards this season.

It is easy to get swept up in the hype but my take on him in the VFL was he tried to do too much with the ball for the pace of the next level and I still felt that was evident in the Grand Final, despite the total lack of pressure.

I suspect teams will quickly focus on applying increased tackle pressure on him and he will find the going tough.

My tip is he will be adjusting his game in the VFL by the midway point of the season.
Geez TBR. The bloke missed over half the season with a broken mitt, came over from W.A. n had to learn to play with a completely new team n different game style. Best two games he played for us were VFL flag n then AFL flag. Reckon your being ridiculously harsh on the bloke, he's stepped up to the mark on every occasion so far. Can't see anything to stop him being at worst a very solid AFL mid for us.
 
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taztiger4

Shovelheads- Keeping hipsters off Harley's
Jul 13, 2005
7,814
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Richmond Victoria
Marlon played a bit of his VFL time in the backline. I thought he looked a bit like a fish out of water in that possie and he didn't really shine until he was given more time in the middle. And he came back from injuries. I think fully fit and with an AFL level pre season under his belt he could be extremely influential in 2020.
really ?,

Thats where he played all his WAFL footy until Tim Kelly left & he went into the midfield
 
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caesar

Tiger Legend
Feb 9, 2015
7,972
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I've already said I think Pickett will go backwards to go forwards this season.

It is easy to get swept up in the hype but my take on him in the VFL was he tried to do too much with the ball for the pace of the next level and I still felt that was evident in the Grand Final, despite the total lack of pressure.

I suspect teams will quickly focus on applying increased tackle pressure on him and he will find the going tough.

My tip is he will be adjusting his game in the VFL by the midway point of the season.

You think this bloke won't handle the pressure?, he'll eat it for breakfast IMO. That VFL Grand Final was as pressure a game as there was and he lazily pocketed the Norm Goss medal.
With a reputation as hard as a cat's head and with the life he has travelled and you think he will be worried by a tagger or two, pfft!
Been one of the standouts pre-season too if we see him in the VFL i would be astounded.

Alwa's good re-reading Pickett articles:)

How to describe the 27-year-old footballer Richmond has selected to play his debut AFL game in Saturday’s grand final? “He’s one of a kind,’’ says his manager Anthony Van Der Wielen. “He’s hard as a cat’s head and unflappable. He has been through a hell of a lot in his life. I don’t think this will rattle him at all.”

 
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tigertim

something funny is written here
Mar 6, 2004
29,892
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I imagine Marlion, after 100 state league games and 1 AFL GF, at 28 yrs of age, after the experiences he’s lived through, playing with the best club in the country, will be fine adjusting to tough AFL games of footy.
 
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TigerFlag2017

Tiger Legend
May 16, 2007
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There are "tough guys" like Toby Greeen.

Then there are tough guys.

I know which category Marlion fits into.
 
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ToraToraTora

Two outta three ain't bad.
Mar 21, 2005
12,662
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QLD
If anything Pickett will find it easier at the top level. Will enable him to fully show off his skill set, and he's surrounded by class and the toughest hardest team in AFL footy. We will give him heaps of time and space, but he knows how to collect his own pill anyway. He's a cut above players like Macca and Naish talent wise. Will play 22 H&A.
 
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tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
24,150
19,618
Fish is a fantastic mover who has the ability to send opponents the wrong way, a rare gift.

Apart from Fish's blind turn in the GF he also sent Kelly the wrong way. A couple of minutes before Marlion drilled that goal he won a centre clearance, Dusty called for it, but Fish just feigned to handball leaving Kelly floundering like a school boy while he kicked the ball deep into the forward line.

Fish is one of the most natural players I have seen, I can't see him having too much trouble with the grind of AFL footy.
 
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Harry

Tiger Legend
Mar 2, 2003
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If anything Pickett will find it easier at the top level. Will enable him to fully show off his skill set, and he's surrounded by class and the toughest hardest team in AFL footy. We will give him heaps of time and space, but he knows how to collect his own pill anyway. He's a cut above players like Macca and Naish talent wise. Will play 22 H&A.
Correct. Reckon he'll play better with better players around him.
 
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caesar

Tiger Legend
Feb 9, 2015
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I think we are making the same case here.

He has come from so far back I can't see how he doesn't still have plenty of learning to do before he is able to adjust to AFL level footy. The Grand Final performance was amazing but there's a big difference between a one off performance and grinding it out week after week.

I see him as being like a test batsman who bursts onto the scene with a century, but then opposition sides take notice, find a weakness and 10 tests later he is back in the Sheffield Shield honing his game.



I'm not questioning his ability to handle pressure or his toughness, I'm wondering more about how quickly he can adjust to the speed and structure of an AFL game.

I know the easy answer is look at the Grand Final but that was a Grand Final in name only, GWS's pressure parkers were lower than an Auskick game.

For example Pickett loves to do plenty when he has the ball and we all loved his blind turn, but I guarantee every assistant coach in the competition coded the tape to show that in the opposition meeting before playing his this season.

Teams will make a point of breaking the usual convention of corralling and have a mantra to press on him on every occasion. They will know he doesn't have training years under his belt so they will pummel him at every opportunity in order to fatigue him.

He will never have taken as many bumps in a game of footy in his life as he will in every game next year. Teams will make him take every step they can to blow him up. GWS won't have placed anywhere near that sort of focus on him for the GF.

That's just a couple of examples of the scrutiny you just don't find in the WAFL or VFL and it bound to take some adjustment.

It may well be that he has the sheer talent to overcome all of that but given he will be coming from a long way back in fitness base he will be a very, very special player if he is able to seamlessly continue to perform at senior level.

I hope he can and does but I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Who doesn't love a good debate;).

3 points in GF where there was extreme pressure, can't remember all the quarters and timing, (that would mean me having to watch the GF all over again for validation:)))

So as memory serves, 1st quarter converging players, got kick away, yes it was a grubber but resulted in Rioli goal.
Another on half back several players converging, calmy assessed and underground handball into space finding a player.
Running full pace to the boundary line with 2 GWS players in pursuit pushing him out of play, insanely was able to hook it back into play with his left.

Versus the one where he "tried to do too much" with a shimmy and got caught and should probably have been ball.

I love players who try to do too much but have the ability to do it. Shedda is one and Shai I think will become another.

Back to that article when he was a 17 year old.

They started him in the backline and watched him bolt the length of the field, dodging and selling dummies and making an entire opposition team look silly.

Nothing much has changed made Whitfield look silly:)

And quote from Jay Clark from MatchPlay training Thursday


Grand Final hero Marlion Pickett showed he has more tricks than a brilliant blind turn, pulling out a wicked sidestep on another darting run down the middle early on in the piece.

I can verify in that bit of play he made a few Tiger players look a bit silly too :)

Bring on 2020 and let the fun begin.
 
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TT33

Yellow & Black Member
Feb 17, 2004
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Marlion seems to me, to be the sort of player who "steps up a level" when he steps up a level. He just lifts to the required intensity, the same way that Stacky did.
 
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spook

Kick the f*ckin' goal
Jun 18, 2007
21,912
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Melbourne
It's not like he's come straight out of the prison league. He's played more than 100 state league games, including winning two B&Fs (and a 2nd, and a 3rd), making a WAFL Team of the Year, and of course the Norm Goss Medal on top of other outstanding finals performances in both Perth and Melbourne. Plenty of South Freo players and fans rate him equal to or better than Tim Kelly, and he seems to be going ok.

Marlion's a gun. I get people's desire to be conservative in their expectations, but many of the same said we shouldn't pick him for the grand final. They were wrong. They'll be wrong again.
 
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tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
24,150
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Who doesn't love a good debate;).

3 points in GF where there was extreme pressure, can't remember all the quarters and timing, (that would mean me having to watch the GF all over again for validation:)))

So as memory serves, 1st quarter converging players, got kick away, yes it was a grubber but resulted in Rioli goal Rioli goal.
Another on half back several players converging, calmy assessed and underground handball into space finding a player.
Running full pace to the boundary line with 2 GWS players in pursuit pushing him out of play, insanely was able to hook it back into play with his left.

Versus the one where he "tried to do too much" with a shimmy and got caught and should probably have been ball.

I love players who try to do too much but have the ability to do it. Shedda is one and Shai I think will become another.

Back to that article when he was a 17 year old.

They started him in the backline and watched him bolt the length of the field, dodging and selling dummies and making an entire opposition team look silly.

Nothing much has changed made Whitfield look silly:)

And quote from Jay Clark from MatchPlay training Thursday


Grand Final hero Marlion Pickett showed he has more tricks than a brilliant blind turn, pulling out a wicked sidestep on another darting run down the middle early on in the piece.

I can verify in that bit of play he made a few Tiger players look a bit silly too :)

Bring on 2020 and let the fun begin.
Another one where he was under pressure was in the last 1/4, if he held onto the ball for another second he gets sandwiched. Somehow he knew Lambert was behind him running forward, he got a 10 metre handball away and Lamby didn't even have to brake stride.
He has that rare instinct that some players have.
CARN THE TIGES!!!!
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
14,792
Watching the RCD highlights in the VFL GF Fish features prominently and is all class. He makes his own space.

If oppo teams do choose to focus on dishing it out and pressuring him it will work out badly for them i reckon. Either he will make them look foolish or our other mids will take advantage.

Barring injury he's a lock this season.
 
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tigerlove

Tiger Legend
Aug 9, 2014
16,601
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really ?,

Thats where he played all his WAFL footy until Tim Kelly left & he went into the midfield

I didn't see him in WA so don't know his his history but when I saw him at VFL last year just didn't seem to play well in the backline. Really excelled when he went into the middle.
 

spook

Kick the f*ckin' goal
Jun 18, 2007
21,912
26,417
Melbourne
Watching the RCD highlights in the VFL GF Fish features prominently and is all class. He makes his own space.

If oppo teams do choose to focus on dishing it out and pressuring him it will work out badly for them i reckon. Either he will make them look foolish or our other mids will take advantage.

Barring injury he's a lock this season.
3pcmla.jpg
 
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CarnTheTiges

This is a REAL tiger
Mar 8, 2004
25,348
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Victoria
There’s also mental pressure. Don’t think he was under pressure to kick that goal? It looked like an easy goal, right? Ask Castagna to do the same thing. He’s got ice water in his veins.