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But Judge Laurence Levy said the 33-year-old had negotiated \u201cthe deal of the century\u201d with all but two charges dropped.<\/p>\n
Pickett pleaded guilty to the two remaining charges, being handed a two-year sentence suspended for 12 months.<\/p>\n
After the initial charges he had been granted bail and allowed to continue his footy career before retiring after the 2024 season.<\/p>\n
At Wednesday\u2019s sentencing the court heard Pickett\u2019s mental health had deteriorated following the 2022 season when he returned home to WA with wife Jessica and their four children.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were moving from house to house, staying with friends and family \u2026 your father was in poor health \u2026 it was affecting you very deeply,\u201d Judge Levy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were suffering with depression and anxiety … thoughts flooded back to you about your time in incarceration in 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marlion Pickett of the Tigers runs with the ball during the 2024 AFL Round 24 match between the Richmond Tigers and the Gold Coast SUNS at The Melbourne Cricket Ground on August 24, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Dylan Burns\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
A family friend and a former partner of a relative reached out during this period and the court heard this was the catalyst for a relapse into meth use.<\/p>\n
They then allegedly carried out the burglaries with Pickett \u201cdeciding to go along with assisting them with their enterprises\u201d.<\/p>\n
He was paid almost $22,000 after using his Victorian driver\u2019s licence and credit card to hire a campervan which the group used to drive to Adelaide and then Melbourne, exchanging foreign currencies for almost $300,000 Australian dollars.<\/p>\n
References from high-profile figures including former Richmond CEO Brendon Gale helped Pickett avoid jail, as the two charges he pleaded guilty to of received, possessed, concealed, disposed of or dealt with any money or other property that is the proceeds of an offence both carried a maximum penalty of 20 years.<\/p>\n
The court heard Pickett gave away almost all of his yearly AFL salary, which was close to $300,000, due to \u201cloyalty and cultural obligations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were on a knife edge as whether you went into jail,\u201d Judge Levy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need to tell you what jail is all about … (but) you demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are in that respect somebody that should be in a position to inspire others who might come from a similar background to you to achieve what you did.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still have a lot more to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett famously made his AFL debut in the 2019 Grand Final, going on to play in two premierships at Punt Road, featuring 91 times across six seasons.<\/p>\n
He said outside court he wanted to be \u201ca person that people can look up to and do the best for them\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richmond Grand Final hero Marlion Pickett has avoided jail \u201cby a knife edge\u201d after he admitted to helping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-353217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}