EIGHT years ago there was strong speculation among the Adelaide media linking Port Adelaide to Scott Lycett.
The Power’s first selection in the 2010 AFL National Draft was 16 and they were widely tipped to go with the then 18-year-old Port Adelaide Magpies ruckman/forward.
It was one of those countless ‘what might have been’ moments in the AFL which didn’t eventuate then but did so earlier this month when Lycett transferred from West Coast to Port as a restricted free agent.
Six of his could-have-been Port teammates from 2011 are still at Alberton to welcome him … Travis Boak, Robbie Gray, Justin Westhoff, Tom Jonas, Hamish Hartlett and Matthew Broadbent.
He will also be reunited with Sam Gray, a fellow country boy with whom he shared a house for a time after moving to Adelaide in Year 11 to finish his schooling at Henley High.
At some stage over the
Lycett, raised at Ceduna on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula and a product of Thevenard Magpies in the Far West Football League, had played six SANFL games with Port in 2010 after eight games in the Under 18s, six games in the Reserves and a standout role for South Australia in the national U18 championships.
He appealed as at least part of the Port plans to replace captain and four-time B&F winner Warren Tredrea, who had retired in July that year after an early season ankle injury.
It was the first of the AFL’s compromised drafts, with the Gold Coast Suns having eight of the first 13 picks ahead of their entry to competition in 2011.
There was much interest in South Australian talent as Glenelg’s Sam Day went to the Suns at 3, Woodville-West Torrens’ Jared Polec went to Brisbane at 5, Norwood’s Daniel Gorringe went to the Suns at 10 and Glenelg’s Seb Tape went to the Suns at 13.
But there it stopped. At 16 Port chose Ben Jacobs, a utility product from the Sandringham Dragons in Victoria’s TAC Cup who had had 47 possessions for Vic Metro against South Australia in the national U18 championships.
Lycett slipped through to West Coast’s third selection in the 2010 Draft at 29 to begin a topsy-turvy eight years in Perth.
While he has returned home wearing the ultimate football prize of a premiership medal his year by year diary tells of the hard times he endured along the way.
Described in the 2011 AFL Guide as “a quick and agile ruckman/forward” and “nimble with good skills and strong hands”, he played one AFL game in his first season, kicking a goal with his first kick against the Bulldogs at Docklands.
Lycett battled against injury and Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox for an AFL role and in his first five
Finally, in 2016, things fell into place. He played 11 of the first 12 games, missing one through suspension, and after a one-week stint in the WAFL played the last 10 games.
He went into the final year of his contract in 2018 at the career crossroads.
If there’s any truth in the old saying ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ then Lycett certainly fits into the tough category after a career-best season in the Eagles premiership.
He was a West Coast standout in Port’s heart-breaking Round 21 loss to West Coast at Adelaide Oval, when Port led at every change before losing Paddy Ryder, Charlie Dixon and Dan Houston to injury and watching in dismay as Jeremy McGovern kicked a goal after the siren.
He had a career-best 40 hit-outs to go with 19 possessions (11 contested), three tackles and two contested marks.
He was one of five Eagles players to play every game in their premiership campaign, averaged 12.5 possessions, kicked 10 goals and despite sharing the ruck duties with first Naitanui and then Nathan Vardy, after Naitanui’s second knee blowout, ranked 11th in the league with 502 hit-outs (average 20.1).
Initially targeted by St.Kilda during the season, Lycett accepted a five-year Port Adelaide offer to return in 2019, when he will be the only premiership player among Ken Hinkley’s playing list.
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