Demons great Garry Lyon reacts to another reported wantaway story

Melbourne great Garry Lyon has commented on the situation surrounding the club and Kysaiah ‘Kozzy’ Pickett.

It was reported by Channel 7’s Mitch Cleary on Wednesday evening that the star small forward, who has family links to both Western Australia and South Australia, has expressed a “level of homesickness” in Melbourne.

Pickett, 23, is contracted with the Demons until the end of 2027 and it is understood that his manager Peter Rohde and the club are confident they can persuade him to stay.

“Kozzy Pickett expressed to Simon Goodwin and Melbourne officials that he was dealing with homesickness in his exit meeting yesterday (on Tuesday),” Cleary said on 7News.

“He will be a name to watch in the upcoming Trade Period with family links in both WA and SA.

“Both his management and the club are confident they can work through his concerns and he will be staying to see out the remaining three years of his contract at Melbourne.”

Former Dees captain Lyon acknowledges this is a “big story” given the uncertainty at the Demons in the wake of a failed 2024 season.

Lyon says he is finding the constant negativity towards his beloved club hard to watch.

“This story was around six weeks that Kozzy was homesick,” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“There was a story that Port Adelaide had made a play for Kozzy. Peter Rohde, who is a former teammate and a mate of mine, is his manager and came out and said, ‘Kozzy’s going nowhere, he signed the contract last year’.

“Now he’s had a baby and if anything has changed since then, hand on heart, I don’t know. I’ve got a message in for Peter, hopefully he can talk to us and explain.

“I did see where it was quoted by Mitch that both club and manager are hopeful that this will sort itself out. But in the environment that Melbourne are in I get how it is a big story.

“Every time I look up at the news there’s a ‘Dees disaster’ headline and that’s really hard to watch as a Melbourne supporter. That’s the world we live in.

“He signed for four years, he’s had a little baby which is great news for them. Six weeks ago Peter Rohde said, ‘Nup, that’s a non-story and he’s staying’.”

Tim Watson asked Lyon if the unsettled nature of some Demons players stems from superstar Christian Petracca’s apparent unhappiness with the club.

Lyon is not too sure how it impacts current Dees but is aware that it may have scrapped Port Adelaide defender Dan Houston’s desire to join Melbourne.

“I think that’s an absolute reasonable question, but I’ve got no idea how to answer it,” Lyon replied.

“I know it affected the Dan Houston trade, I do know that. I understand he was going to put in his intention to come to Melbourne, but he is managed by the same management team (Connors Sports Management) as Christian Petracca.

“There’s one impact that it’s had.”

Petracca and Pickett aside, the Demons will likely lose premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen, who recently requested a trade back home to South Australia.

After a tough campaign which followed a difficult summer, Simon Godwin and the Demons will be hoping to avoid another turbulent off-season.