Norm Smith Meddalist | Byron Pickett (16.09.2026)

Mark Duffield (0:05)

Goal square is unattended, he can go for, oh, he's gone for Brode, he's gone for Brode, and he's got the back, now it's a long kick going for a goal. Under the hammer, gets the handball away, Gorman with one hand, and hit the Pickett's, and hit it hard, and down he went.

SPEAKER_2 (0:20)

Clayton concedes some ground, back to Pickett, who loads up with a spiral top, Who don't?

Mark Duffield (0:43)

Ah, yes, he played 204 games for three clubs. North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Melbourne. He played in two Premierships.

He had quite the highlight reel. To introduce him, I'm going to hand over to Doctor Sean Gorman.

Sean Gorman (0:58)

Thank you, Duff. Thank you. This is a great moment in media history in Australia. I would like to introduce everyone to Brian Pickett, the great Brian Pickett. How are you, Brian? Yeah, good.

Good, mate. I couldn't help myself there, Choffy. You know how it is, mate.

Mark Duffield (1:15)

I'll put you over to the professional.

Mark Duffield (1:17)

Of course it is Byron Pickett, not Brian. I'm hoping you would reciprocate with a, I'm very well, thank you, Shane.

But we didn't quite get that out of you. Byron, welcome to the show, mate. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on. Just such an incredible highlight reel as a player and a significant career as well. A career that actually changed the rules of the game and the way it is played. Tell us your recollections of your career across the three clubs. I guess, the ones you won the flags with in particular, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide.

Byron Pickett (1:55)

Yeah, thanks for having me guys. And yeah, I wasn't switched on saying thanks to Shane. But that's all good. But yeah, starting from the Kangaroos. I mean, I say this to a lot of people, I reckon I was lucky to be a part of the Kangaroos, the dynasty at that stage. I think they were, I think, the team of the century. Not the century, the decade. Team of the 90s. Team of the 90s, sorry. But yeah, I've always, you know, said that I was lucky. I was a little bit lucky to be in that team. I think one thing that really helped me was with the start is, yeah, obviously got drafted and I just, my first year I was in, yeah, obviously played 97 in the twos for the Kangas, North Melbourne, and that following pre-season, you know, for the 98th season, I, yeah, I actually trained pretty hard and I really wanted to, you know, I always planned at that stage to play at least one game in my second year, in 98

What happened, what followed that year was I, I had a good pre-season and I'm, you know, I played, ended up playing every game that year and for the next couple of years after that, which is just a credit to obviously myself and the coaches believing in me.

With the, you know, after putting a solid pre-seasons.

Mark Duffield (3:40)

So am I right in saying you started as a defender? Is that right? Before you shifted forward?

Byron Pickett (3:46)

Yeah, yep. Started, started defender. When I played back in Lincoln, formerly Parker, I was actually one of the tallest in my team. I was actually rocking, but yeah, I had a good, obviously had a good leap, a leap as well, so that helped, you know. I mean, playing, playing juniors back in the country, you know, there's no structure or there's, you know, not a lot of stuff than probably what there is now, nowadays. But yeah, that, that helped me in my, my development and probably, you know, playing back line. I played, played wing, a little bit of wing and mostly back line, Colts at Port Adelaide Magpies in the Sanford. And then coming through to obviously getting drafted to, yeah, to the big league, obviously started there in the back line and then gradually moved forward.

Yeah, so I just had to adapt, I suppose, like, like a lot of players do these days.

Mark Duffield (4:46)

Tell us about your two coaches, because you coached under two of the, well, one, Dennis Pagan, was incredible for the way he ran the program at North Melbourne, but also Choco Williams, one of the really charismatic coaches of his time in the game, too. Give us your thoughts and memories of them.

Byron Pickett (5:05)

Yeah, on the coaching side, I think they coached pretty similar.

Just the way they were very honest, straight up, you know, not so how the coaches do it these days, but back in the day, you know, if you did something wrong, or you needed to do something, they'll tell you straight down the line, whether it be a good thing or not, you know, that you've done, or that you missed, or you didn't do. Yeah, in that sense, they were both tough old school coaches. And I've really, with my, all the three clubs that I played at, I actually, I've always respected my coaches.