Footy star Marlion Pickett opens up about his time in jail as a teenager - and how close he came to ending it all while behind bars

Fallen AFL star Marlion Pickett has revealed the one part of prison life that became almost too much to bear, in a candid interview where he admitted taking his own life crossed his mind.

Pickett was jailed as a teenager after being convicted on 17 counts of burglary and one count of aggravated burglary, receiving a two-and-a-half-year sentence and serving time until his release in June 2013. 

After rebuilding his life and football career, he was drafted by Richmond and became a two-time AFL premiership player. 

In June 2023, he was charged with 12 fresh offences, including burglary and stealing, linked to alleged commercial break-ins. 

Several charges were later dropped, and in May 2025 he pleaded guilty to two reduced offences of dealing with and possessing money that was the proceeds of crime. 

Pickett remains on bail and is due to face sentencing in December 2025. 

Now 33, he is retired from the AFL. Now Pickett has sat down with former Tigers teammate Trent Cotchin to speak about his troubled early days and what life was like in prison.  

'Drinking and drugs become a part of your lifestyle and as we all do, we make mistakes, but that then leads to making probably some of your worst decisions,' Cotchin said.

Pickett replied with a simple, 'Yep.'

'That then you serve time, you're going to prison. How bad did the alcohol and drugs get, or was it just part of what you did and then decisions were made after that?' Cotchin asked.

'Yeah, it's probably part of what you did every weekend,' Pickett said.

`[I wasn't] working at time and the people I hang around with were just having fun drinking and doing drugs and stuff. 

'I just kind of wasn't thinking at the time and [wasn't] in the right state of mind. 

'So we just end up committing some burglaries ... on shops and stuff – and ended up in two and a half years of prison.'

Cotchin then asked: 'For me, I'm intrigued by what prison life looks like. I mean, I don't I don't have too many mates that can share that part of their story.

'Give us an insight into the environment that you go into. And I know that there's different kinds of prisons. There's some that are pretty terrible to be part of. 

'There's others that, you know, for some people it's probably a better life in than it is out. Is that fair to say?'

'Yes. Some people get like because they're in and out of prison their whole life and ... they're used to what happens in prison and stuff,' Pickett said.

'So when they get out everything's changed and kind of moved on.'

He said many inmates grew accustomed to getting told what to do and found it hard to adapt to life outside. 

Cotchin then asked: 'What does the average day look like when you're serving time in prison?'

'Oh you get woke up at 6.30, they come around knocking on the windows and turn your light on, say "movement",' Pickett said.

'You've got to put your hand up [so the guards know] that you're still alive.

'[Then] clean your room by 7.00. After your room's clean, you had breakfast and stuff. 

'There's muster [daily process of counting and checking on all inmates], so got to line up outside your door. And yeah, they go check your room, make sure it's clean and stuff. 

'And after that, if you work, you can go to work. And if you're in education and stuff, you go do your education until lunchtime. 

'Then when you come back, do muster again before lunch and that they count you up and make sure everyone's accounted for. 

'Then you have lunch, have your little break, then back to work or education or if you're not doing nothing, just sit around playing cards or basketball or doing gym.'

Cotchin then asked if Pickett felt any isolation or loneliness behind bars.

Pickett said the biggest challenge was not being able to find personal space.

'Sometimes you just want to step away from the people and just like have your own time,' he said.

'Like, there's days that you get upset or you have days 'cause you miss your family or your kids and stuff. 

'And sometimes [things] happen on [the] outside when you ring your missus up on the phone calls and you can't really do much 'because you're locked up, you know.'

Cotchin told listeners that Pickett and his partner Jess had their first child, Marlion Jnr, before he went into prison, and two weeks before he served his time the couple found out they were expecting their second baby. 

Pickett was just a child himself at the time, going behind bars before his 19th birthday. 

'I mean, it's a lot to take in. Was there a point in your time where it was just low?' Cotchin asked.

'My whole prison sentence,' Pickett said.

'There was times where I wanted to commit suicide in there,' Pickett admitted.

'I just felt [like] that when there's there's stuff that happened [on the outside].

'When I like had my first cousins end up mobbing [bullying] my missus in front of my sons and that.'

In 2024, Pickett and his family have moved to the Northern Territory, a long way from temptation, the former bad influences and the glaring lights of the AFL.

He played for the Tiwi Bombers and helped the battling club lift itself off the bottom o of the NTFL ladder.

Pickett has now signed with Eaton Football Club, a team in WA's South West Football League, and will move to the region in 2026 - pending the outcome of his sentencing in December. 

The former Richmond star has now dedicated himself to sharing his stories with Indigenous players and helping them overcome their own personal battles.

'Growing up as an Indigenous person itself is hard - some of us aren't given everything,' Pickett said.

'Some of us gotta work really hard in the background.

'You want to get where everyone else is, but we just gotta do the extra bit to try and make it.'

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