He also stands under the ball and takes his eye off it when an opponent is approaching and drops it in the first quarter and then his next effort is standing at the front of the pack and dropping a fairly uncontested mark. The first one is really poor, the second we could give him the benefit of the doubt with the wet ball.
Neither of those are anywhere near the level of the head duck under the ball on the wing though. It's as bad as you would ever see at AFL level.
Yes he is tough and hard lots of times but he also has lapses in effort that are unacceptable and need to be eradicated from his game.
and yet, with a kick separating who plays off for the 2020 premiership,
with a 200cm/100kg man bearing down on him at full speed,
Marlion eradicates it from his game?
could it be, if this flaw exists, that it is a pragmatic technique to ensure that he is at the finish line, plying his trade (which has essentially been proven as willing his side to win big, close games?)
His best quarters of football have come in the final stanza of the 2019 VFL qualifying final (2 point victory) , 2019 VFL grand final (3 point victory), 2020 AFL preliminary final (6 point victory). This isnt fiction. This is olden style fact.
Marlion Pickett wins tight finals.
im going to say that again, because it is the rarest footballer that does this.
Marlion Pickett wins tight finals
My argument is not that Marlion is flawless.
My argument is that nobody is,
and I am campaigning to open peoples eyes to the beauty of his football.
which is without precedent in my eyes.
Im not saying he is the most beautiful footballer ive ever seen,
but that the unique beautiful brutality with which he plays our game, and his ability to find another level of work rate and physicality deep within big, tight games
I have never seen before
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