Marlion Pickett sees the barbed wire stretching along the high wall and starts to shudder.

Memories start flooding back and the Indigenous AFL star isn't sure what he'll find when he goes inside.

Banksia Hill Detention Centre is a sprawling complex on the outskirts of Perth.

The last time Pickett came here he was 15 years old and just at the start of a criminal career that spanned six years, three years of which he spent behind bars.

Now he wants to work with some of Western Australia's most violent youth to make a positive change.

"If I had someone I look up to come in and visit me when I was in here, things would've been different," Pickett told Australian Story at the prison.

"That could have helped me to get somewhere I wanted to be."

The road to Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia. ( Australian Story: Belinda Hawkins )

Western Australia's Corrective Services Commissioner Tony Hassall — the state's prison boss — said WA had the highest rate of Indigenous incarceration in Australia.

State Corrective Services Minister Francis Logan called it a "shocking indictment on WA".

"It's about dislocation. It's about dispossession and it's about family breakdown."

And Pickett's family is typical. His brothers did time, his partner's father, mother and brother all did time.

"If I didn't go to prison when I did, I probably wouldn't have learnt what was wrong and what was right," he said.

Pickett wants to motivate teenage detainees to change their lives. ( Australian Story: Belinda Hawkins )

As the 28-year-old signs in, the reception guard hands him a security buzzer to press in case he's attacked. And then he steps out on to a stretch of concrete between two high fences that is monitored by many security cameras.

He's met by Deputy Superintendent Mark McDonnell, who knew Pickett as a detainee in 2007, describing him as a pleasant young man who was "fairly easy to manage".

One more gate and they're in the gym where a group of inmates are shooting hoops.

The talk turns to last year's AFL Grand Final when Richmond thrashed Greater Western Sydney. And when Pickett made AFL history by being the first player in 50 years to debut in the biggest game of the year.

AFL Richmond Tigers player Marlion Pickett visits the young detainees at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre. ( Australian Story: Belinda Hawkins )

These kids are footy nuts and star struck.

"What's Dusty Martin like?" asks one. And why not? The Brownlow medallist is Richmond's best-known player.

And Pickett stayed with him for three weeks when he first left Perth to start training with Richmond.

"You think he's a loud fella when he plays footy, but off the field, he's really quiet," the new Tiger said of Martin.

So is the lanky midfielder who strikes up an easy rapport with the teenagers.

One inmate tells Pickett he has been here 14 months and has six months to go.

Pickett doesn't judge, lecture or carp.

"The best thing is to stay out brother," he says. "You don't have to change who you hang with; just learn to say no and do you."

It took Pickett a lot of false starts to learn that lesson.

Pickett is now focussed on a successful AFL career to support his four children. He takes time out to have fun with daughter, Shaniquae. ( Australian Story: Belinda Hawkins )

Turning to crime to support growing family

Not long after he was released from juvenile detention, Marlion Pickett met Jessica Nannup at a family gathering in Perth.

She was 15 and quiet. He was 16 and even quieter. They clicked.

She was his first real girlfriend. Ms Nannup kept running away from home to be with him.

Then, like an outer suburban Romeo and Juliet, their families tried to keep them apart.

Pickett's parents were moving the family to York, 90 kilometres east of Perth, in the hope it might keep the six children away from bad influences.

A young Jessica and Marlion. ( Supplied: Marlion Pickett )

Pickett gave his mum an ultimatum: "It was either Jess come with us, or me and Jess head our own way," he said.

And Pickett got his way.

"I didn't want to acknowledge Marlion because I was upset with them both," Ms Nannup's eldest sister Leekesia Nannup said.

"I thought they was making all the wrong decisions."

Pickett was drinking, dabbling in drugs and partying hard.

By 17, Ms Nannup was pregnant with her first child, Marlion Junior.

When he couldn't get work, Pickett took to crime to support them.

"I was thinking if I break into a shop it was safer for the family … than selling drugs from home," he said.

After several nights out robbing shops across Perth, police came knocking and arrested him.

Two weeks later, the young mother discovered she was pregnant with their second son.

In 2010, Pickett was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years in jail.

"Sometimes I asked Jess why didn't she leave me," Pickett said. "But then she said she didn't want to — the kids would grow up without a father."

Pickett takes time out with his family in Perth during summer break ahead of pre-season training. ( Australian Story: Simon Winter )

'The past is the past': Pickett's pitch to AFL clubs

Ms Nannup wondered if her partner would ever go straight. She'd watched family members get second chances and blow them.

But when Pickett left prison in 2013, the 21-year-old headed straight to the South Fremantle Football Club and asked if he could train with them.

Since he was a little boy his dream was to play with one of the AFL clubs in the big league.

Long-standing South Freo board member and Pickett's pro-bono manager since 2017, Anthony Van Der Wielen, said many in the club doubted whether bringing in a convicted criminal made sense.

But Pickett soon proved doubters wrong.

"He was not only a leader of the Aboriginal players in our football club, he was a leader of everybody," Van Der Wielen said.

"If you played alongside Marlion Pickett, we felt our players walked a little bit taller. They felt protected. They felt a little bit stronger and a little bit bolder."

And AFL talent scouts started taking notice of him.

Pickett told Australian Story that over the next five years, he met with the West Coast Eagles, Fremantle, Gold Coast, Essendon and St Kilda. But the discussion invariably got back to his rap sheet. And he got overlooked every year.

Pickett simmered in an impotent fury.

"The past is past," he recalls telling the clubs. "Nothing I can do about it, but if I do get an opportunity, I will take it with both hands."

But in 2016, Pickett was once again fronting court — this time on assault charges. The footballer claimed someone racially abused him and took a swing at him before Pickett retaliated.

Had the District Court jury found him guilty, the young father's AFL dream would have been over.

But on the day the trial was due to start, the prosecution dropped the charges.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 56 seconds 1 m 56 s Sydney Stack and Pickett quickly formed a friendship after making the move to Melbourne to join the Tiger Army. They still keep in touch with their 'host mother' Sue Damico.

In 2018, Pickett fought even harder to prove himself, winning South Freo's best and fairest and getting named in the WAFL's Team of the Year.

By now, Richmond had broken its 37-year premiership-winning drought and was looking seriously at the midfielder.

The Victorian club's recruiting manager, Matt Clarke, said Richmond's only concern was how it would help settle in Pickett's partner and four children.

When the AFL announced it would have a mid-season draft, for the first time since 1993, Richmond took the plunge and picked him.

Pickett had just left hospital after breaking his finger for the second time and was at home with his family when the news came through.

"He was shocked," Ms Nannup said. "I actually ran out the house and started shouting.

"He was quiet, scratching his head. I think he was just more worried about going to Melbourne."

Pickett was the first AFL player to make his debut in a grand final since 1952. ( AAP: Michael Dodge )

After blitzing the VFL grand final, Richmond decided to hand Pickett his debut with the seniors at the AFL grand final.

Critics, like former Richmond great Kevin Sheedy, said the decision was "very dangerous".

But on the day, Pickett proved them wrong, with 22 disposals, eight inside-50s and three clearances to his name on the stat sheet.

And when he kicked a decisive goal in the third quarter, Richmond players mobbed him.

"All of us were so proud, so emotional," Dustin Martin said.

Pickett picked up four votes in the Norm Smith medal count, placing him behind only Martin (15) and Bachar Houli (six) as best on ground.

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Pickett 'tailor-made' for mentoring

Back in Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre, Pickett feels different about the place he spent his first Christmas away from home, knowing he can leave.

Singing to himself, he scours the prison footy team photos for familiar faces.

Deputy Superintendent Mark McDonnell suggests the detention centre would like to display Pickett's number 50 Tigers jersey; he's lost in his memories and doesn't respond.

But as Pickett leaves, he tells Mr McDonnell he wants to come back regularly, so the young men know he is there for them. The warden is rapt.

"If that can instil hope and motivation …for them to go on and turn their lives around, only good can come of it," Mr McDonnell told Australian Story.

Pickett wants to continue to mentor detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre. ( Australian Story: Belinda Hawkins )

The Corrective Services Minister backs him.

"We'll do whatever we can to make sure we get it up and running," Mr Logan said.

The Commissioner first wants to ensure Pickett's ongoing involvement is embedded in the youth justice system.

"The last thing we need to do is to let these kids down," Mr Hassall said. "Because they've had a lot of failures and they've had a lot of people that let them down in their lives."

But Richmond's triple-Coleman medallist, Jack Riewoldt, is sure Pickett is tailor-made for the job.

"People can attach themselves to Marlion because he could be them," Riewoldt said.

"If you strip back the neck tattoos and everything that comes with him, he is one of the most gentle people I've ever met — the perfect role model for any kid who may have thought that they couldn't do something."

As Pickett gears up for the start of the 2020 AFL season later this month, his belief in what persistence can achieve is unfailing.

"Some people say what's happened to me is a fairy tale," he said. "But if you're looking for a change and a better life then it's up to you if you want to change it."

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