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Melbourne coach Steven King has revealed that Kysaiah Pickett spent time in Darwin earlier this week for his daughter’s birthday.
Pickett responded by putting in a best on ground effort in tonight’s match.
“We afforded Kozzie the luxury of going up to Darwin earlier in the week to see his daughter for her birthday on a five-day break,” King said.
“The way he looked after and managed his body – then to do that tonight, it is pretty amazing to watch.
Demons coach Steven King admits he expects that scans will show Jai Culley will miss the rest of the season with a serious knee injury after the wingman went down injured tonight.
“It doesn’t look great whenever player goes down like that,” King said.
“Unfortunately, we are fearing the worst, but he will get scans tomorrow, and I’ll cross all my fingers and toes that it is a good result.
“We feel for Jai, but hopefully it is better news than anticipated.”
Tigers coach Adem Yze wants his players to leave the MCG with a “bad taste in their mouths” after being overrun in the last quarter by Melbourne tonight.
The Tigers fell to 0-7 on the season, although Yze hopes the return of Tim Taranto next week, combined with Tom Lynch’s return tonight, should make his side stronger.
“We are disappointed. We expect to play a four-quarter performance. I do expect our players to walk out of here with a bad taste in their mouths,” Yze said.
“We are a winning football club, we are not a losing football club. We won’t be happy with [just] a competitive performance; we expect more.
Kysaiah Pickett has declared he wants to be the best player in the AFL.
“I want to be the best and I feel like I can take my game to the next level,” Pickett told Fox Footy.
“That’s what the best players do, they want to keep getting better and better and that’s what I want to do. I want to be the best in the comp.”
It’ll be interesting to see what the MRO thinks of his high bump on Jacob Hopper earlier in the night though. Hopper played on, which will help Pickett, but it’ll still be a fascinating watch. The contact did look light, and Pickett was trying to evade a sliding player, but we’ll see.
Dees star Kysaiah Pickett couldn’t help but laugh as he watched replays of his mark of the year contender.
“Far out,” Pickett told Fox Footy.
“That’s not bad, eh?”
Pickett also spoke about his desire to play more time in the midfield and the work he has done to make sure he can run out games in that demanding role.
Melbourne’s class proved too much for a plucky Richmond, but not before the Tigers threw an early punch that briefly rattled the Demons.
Richmond brought the energy and edge in the opening stages, harassing Melbourne into mistakes and matching them around the contest. Their pressure was sharp, their intent clear — and for a time, it looked like they might turn the night into a scrap on their terms.
But Melbourne don’t need much of a window.
Once the Demons found their rhythm, the game shifted quickly and decisively. Their ball movement sharpened, their composure returned, and their superior class began to tell. What had been a contest became an exercise in control.
Dees skipper Max Gawn has praised the performances of Kysaiah Pickett this season including his Frank Checker Hughes Medal win tonight.
“We’ve seen it at training for a long time but he’s gone away and worked on his tank and now he plays as a full-blown midfielder,” Gawn told Fox Footy.
“He’s taken a hanger, kicked goals and I don’t know what the disposals were.”
Gawn also said his back was a bit sore but he was happy to see young teammate Max Health get some more time in the ruck.
