The new sons of the 'Scray

[bornadog]

Emma Quayle



Liam Picken hails from Hamilton, while his partner Annie's family lives in Ballarat. Picken is grateful for their support — since long before he became a father four weeks ago — but has had plenty of advice much closer to home, too.
Seven of his Western Bulldog teammates — Brian Lake, Adam Cooney, Dale Morris, Daniel Cross, Ben Hudson, Bob Murphy and Brennan Stack — have sons, with two-year-old Riley Morris, three-year-olds Jaxon Cooney and Cohen Lake and Tyler Cross, 15 weeks, meeting Malachy Picken during the week.
There are a handful of girls, too, with captain Matthew Boyd's daughter Chloe becoming the latest baby Bulldog ahead of last week's game against Fremantle.

Having introduced Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis to this year's team, and with ruckman Ayce Cordy progressing well at Williamstown, the Dogs may have a handful of other father-sons to consider in the coming years.
The current and former 100-gamers have 30 sons between them, with the 17-year-old son of Mark Hunter, Lachlan, playing for the Western Jets this year and spending some school holiday time at the Bulldogs like Liberatore and Wallis did before him.
The club will also look at including the 15-year-old brothers of Wallis and Cordy — Josh Wallis and Zane Cordy — in the father-son program set up and overseen by recruiting manager Simon Dalrympe, which helped enhance the pre-draft development of Mitch and Liberatore.
Picken knows what it's like to pick up where his dad left off — albeit at a new club. Billy Picken played 212 games in 11 years at Collingwood, but Liam was a scrawny kid who had just moved to Melbourne to study finance, work temp jobs in factories and play VFL football for Williamstown when the Magpies decided not to draft him.
Finally — after three pre-seasons and his second summer with the Dogs — he was rookie-listed at the end of 2008. His coach, Rodney Eade, suspects he has never forgotten his hard, early road, while Picken now feels the rejections simply gave him more time to get ready for a longer, more meaningful career.
"He's a hard worker, and I think missing out for four or five years was a kick in the backside for him. He cherishes every moment of playing AFL footy, he's had some hard times and I think he's coped with that pretty well and not seen the need to get stressed about anything," Eade said.
"He doesn't worry about much, but he doesn't want to go back to where he came from. That's why he never wants to miss a training session and never wants to miss a game. There were times in the pre-season where he was working a bit too hard in the heat, but we'd tell him that and he didn't want to do any less.
"He just doesn't want to miss out on anything.

[bornadog]

Another good article in today's Sunday Age from Emma Quayle.

[GVGjr]

Another good article in today's Sunday Age from Emma Quayle.

There was another good article in the Leader that went into a few more specifics as well this week. Can't find a link.

[Pickenitup]

What a story by Emma How good of a person is Liam Picken

[GVGjr]

This isn't a bad article either



http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1226046424487

[ratsmac]

If the whole team had endeavour like Liam Picken we would sit at 2 wins and 3 loses.

[LostDoggy]

Have I missed it? Have we got another Father Son in Pickers or did he have a Daughter.
If a girl, maybe in 17 years girls will be able to play AFL too

[AndrewP6]

Have I missed it? Have we got another Father Son in Pickers or did he have a Daughter.
If a girl, maybe in 17 years girls will be able to play AFL too

Yep, they had a boy - Malachy Thomas Picken

[LostDoggy]

Yep, they had a boy - Malachy Thomas Picken

Thanks Leyland man minus the 7. I new I missed something

[KT31]

If the whole team had endeavour like Liam Picken we would sit at 2 wins and 3 loses.

As we do ?