Richmond Tigers make shock call on Marlion Pickett’s AFL future after alleged burglaries in Perth

Richmond has decided premiership winner Marlion Pickett won’t play this week but has not stood him down after his appearance in a Perth court on Monday.

Tigers CEO Brendon Gale confirmed the club made the decision ‘mindful of his welfare’ and said they made it with Pickett who will continue to train and could even be at Saturday’s clash with St Kilda.

Richmond has a bye the following week but Gale said Pickett, who wanted to play this weekend, was likely to return in the Round 16 clash with Brisbane.

Marlion Pickett, pictured leaving court of a string of alleged burglaries on Monday, will miss Richmond’s next match but will not be stood down by the club 

Gale said the club would continue to support Pickett and ‘work on the presumption he’s innocent.’

‘It came as a bit of a shock,’ Gale said.

‘But we’re going to work on the presumption he’s innocent. We’ll continue to support him.

‘These are only allegations. But they are serious allegations. Justice will run it’s course.’

On Monday, Pickett was granted bail by a Perth magistrate after being charged over a string of alleged burglaries in which more than $380,000 was stolen from safes.

The 31-year-old two-time premiership player is facing 12 charges including four counts of aggravated burglary, three counts of stealing and three counts of criminal damage.

Pickett made his debut in this 2019 grand final win, in what was trumpeted as one of the greatest fairytales in the sport at the time

A police prosecutor told the court the alleged offending by Pickett and others involved a series of commercial burglaries resulting in the theft of more than $380,000 in Australian and foreign currencies.

Pickett had told club officials he wanted to play against St Kilda this week, but didn’t appear at training on Tuesday with a media throng confronting players as they arrived.

In court on Monday Pickett’s lawyer, David Manera, said the prosecution case rested largely on allegations deposits were made into the Richmond star’s bank account by his co-offenders and that a camper van rented in his name was driven interstate by the other men.

Neither Pickett nor his manager, Anthony Van Der Wielen, commented after the hearing but in a statement it was made clear Pickett was entitled to the presumption of innocence.

‘We understand and respect the public’s interest in this matter but we also implore all to respect the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, and to allow the legal proceedings to follow their due course without prejudice,’ Van Der Wielen said.

Pickett played the first of his 70 games for the Tigers in the 201 AFL grand final. He is out of contract at the end of the 2023 season.

More to come …