SCOTT LYCETT, as every ruckman should do, is completing the trek around the circle. He is going back to where it all started: Thevenard. Postcode 5690 on the Eyre Peninsula, population 563 and Magpies in football with a most recognisable black-and-white jumper.
"I am definitely playing for Thevenard; no doubt about that," says Lycett, now retired from the big leagues after 146 AFL games - 75 with Port Adelaide after 71 at West Coast.
Almost two decades after Lycett left the Far West of South Australia to chase a dream to be a Port Adelaide senior footballer, Lycett is going home for that special last game as a player. He is retired from the AFL, but not completely done in Australian football. He wants to play for fun ... going back full circle to where it began at Thevenard when the Port Adelaide Football Club was an SANFL entity and marked the Eyre Peninsula as its heartland, equal to anything in the big smoke along the LeFevre Peninsula.
Times have changed since Lycett was a teenager arriving at the Port Adelaide Football Club. Now 31, Lycett also has significantly changed his focus.
"I am retired (from AFL action) ...but I will still play somewhere next year, for fun," says Lycett.
The path to that enjoyable game of football - and the old home at Thevenard - began on Monday (November 6). Five weeks after corrective knee surgery - and a holiday in Bali - Lycett is putting on his running shoes again. He is back in training ... and expects it to be a painful trek through summer.
Lycett has passed up the opportunity to carry on his career in the AFL - to listen to his battered body. It has had enough.
"It is well documented all the injuries I have had the last couple of years," Lycett said.
The problems began shortly after 8pm in the Thursday night game at Adelaide Oval that started round four of the AFL home-and-away season on April 7, 2022. In a duel with Melbourne captain Max Gawn, Lycett damaged a shoulder, forcing him out of the game and into surgery for a reconstruction of the sore joint. He did not play again in the AFL that season.
And 2023 was wrecked by knee injuries, keeping Lycett to just 14 games. His form also suffered, prompting a return to the SANFL after playing the first five AFL matches of the season.
"The doctors are not quite sure how I was able to keep playing," says Lycett. "They are amazed ... and they also are advising I stop.
"If that was not enough, the pretty big indicator (that it was time to stop) was in how I was struggling to get out of cars at the moment. The knees are pretty sore.
"The opportunities were there (to continue in the AFL). But I needed to consider my body and where I am with my life.
"I have moved a lot of times in my life (from Thevenard to school at Henley in the city to West Coast in Perth as a draftee and back to Port Adelaide as a restricted free agent after savouring success in the 2018 AFL grand final). Now, I am putting my health and happiness first.
"There were (AFL) clubs that were pretty interested. I had a medical. I had a chat with a couple of coaches. But I want to put my happiness first. I had to think of the long term.
"In Bali, I couldn't get out of cars. I started to think, 'Imagine what I am going to be like at 40!' I am fresh out of the game now ... I need to think of my future.
"I hit 30 with big surgeries ... reconstruction of my shoulders and my knees. I am not the same player I used to be."
That player was a very proud ruckman who was handy around the goal face, as he proved against Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy in the 2018 AFL grand final at the MCG before making the move to Alberton to supersede All-Australian Patrick Ryder as Port Adelaide's lead ruckman.
"It has been a hard decision ...but I am happy with the call," say Lycett. "There is no doubt I am banged up.
"I am still proud of how I made it back after I had a clean-out of the knee late in the season. I was supposed to start running five weeks after surgery. I was playing in a qualifying final in Brisbane in three weeks - and I thought I did play decent at Brisbane.
"The semi-final against GWS (at Adelaide Oval) I did look quite banged up ... because I was. You will do whatever it takes to play finals and big games. You will do anything to win another premiership. That is what it was all about. And then I needed another clean up of the knee. When the surgeon finished and told me what he did, I knew my time was up. I have pushed my body so far, asking so much of it. I am 31, not 21. Ten years on I cannot ask the same of my body."
Port Adelaide's list management team read the cards the same way moving during the trade period to secure Ivan Soldo from Richmond and Jordon Sweet from the Western Bulldogs.
The No.29 locker was kept open to Lycett.
"I had a contract on the table at Port Adelaide," confirmed Lycett. "But I basically want another job. I can earn that money (on offer in football) in a couple of years rather than one and not put my body through all that for another year.
"If it was about money, I might have considered (playing on). But with where my body is at, I have to make sure my health is alright. That is how it played out (in deciding to retire from AFL football). I could have gone somewhere else. But I am content. I have to put my happiness and health as my first priority now."
Lycett has lived the dream. He made it from a small country town to the Port Adelaide Football Club following the path of other grand Eyre Peninsula recruits such as Greg Phillips and Darren Smith.
"I grew up in the country recruiting zone where Port Adelaide was everything," says Lycett. "I was playing in the country trying to earn the chance to be a league footballer with Port Adelaide. And when it did happen, it was one of the biggest things for me.
"It meant so much to me to come from Thevenard to Port Adelaide.
"Now it has all changed. The country zone is no longer Port Adelaide's (but is assigned to Norwood). If you told me when I was 16 that 15 years later that pathway from the Eyre Peninsula to Port Adelaide would be gone, I would have laughed. In 15 years a lot has changed. But Port Adelaide will do what is best for the football club and I will back them in."
Lycett has fielded calls from SANFL clubs, but not committed to anyone in the State league.
"It is obviously a massive demand to play SANFL," says Lycett. "I have the utmost respect for the SANFL players who give up a lot. They are training three nights a week. Their weekends are gone. It is a massive commitment."
Lycett left Alberton during the 2010 AFL national draft when Port Adelaide called Ben Jacobs at pick No.16, leaving West Coast to swoop at pick No.29. He returned via free agency after collecting an AFL premiership medal in 2018 with an epic grand final clash against Collingwood.
Understanding all that defines premiership success, Lycett was clear when asked what did Port Adelaide need, or need to do, to celebrate an AFL flag again.
"It seems pretty obvious," Lycett responds. "We have played some good footy in the home-and-away season in recent years. And then in finals we have dropped off from what we have shown during the year. In the week before finals, you are supposed to be primed and ready ... ready to go in finals.
"It requires you to stand up in big games.
"It is not about one or two blokes standing up. You need everyone standing up and playing his role. I look back at my time at West Coast. I caught up with the premiership guys at the races in Perth a couple of weeks ago. That 2018 team had a lot of role players. We had some star players, don't get me wrong. But it was the role players who won us the grand final, guys who don't get talked about. Bugger all is said about them through the year, but they made themselves known in the grand final.
"If Port Adelaide can get everyone contributing - that is what you need. Everyone playing their role and doing it really well. That is all it takes in my opinion. If they can do that, then I will hopefully be watching them win a premiership next year."
