Two-time premiership Tiger Marlion Pickett will retire at the end of the AFL season, joining an expected long list of departures as Richmond usher in an era of change.
Pickett, 32, will play his 91st and final game against former mentor Damien Hardwick's Gold Coast at the MCG on Saturday.
He was famously a mid-season mature-aged draftee from Western Australia who debuted in the 2019 AFL grand final win, earning Norm Smith Medal votes, then also featured in the Tigers' 2020 flag.
Then a 27-year-old father of four, who did jail time as a teenager, Pickett thought his shot at the AFL would never come.
“It’s been a good journey... I did not even think I was ever going to get drafted,” he said.
“My past and the way I grew up is different to everyone else’s and it was not easy to get drafted. I got overlooked for six or seven years, and 2019 I was about to quit all my dreams.
“I had some people in my corner, and they told me to stick at it … they told me just to give it another year.
"The sacrifices that we made to come across ... it was all worth it.”
Coach Adem Yze paid tribute to Pickett.
"With his story and what he's been able to provide our footy club, he just deserves to be sent off the right way," Yze said.
"For him to be able to walk out with his kids for one last time will be something that we'll be really proud of."
Retired champions Dustin Martin and Dylan Grimes will be celebrated, while journeyman ruckman Sam Naismith has also called time after his fourth ACL tear.
In-demand quartet Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Liam Baker and Jack Graham could also be playing their final game for Richmond.
Bolton has indicated he would be interested in a trade back to Western Australia, despite being contracted until the end of 2029.
"Those discussions will happen at the end of the year, and there hasn't been a formal request for a trade," Yze said.
"We understand that he's got some family and things that are happening outside of footy, that there could be that option, but those sort of things won't happen until the end of the year.
"Until anything changes, we expect them (Bolton and Rioli) to be required players.''
Yze said he planned to embrace an "emotional week", parking the focus on players' futures until after the game.
"We want to harness that emotion and obviously let it all out in that last game," he said.
"Post that, next week, in their exit interviews ... we'll have a function that we can get together and if any of those things start to come out and players make those announcements, we'll be able to send them off the right way.
"But right now, they're Richmond players and terrific Richmond men."
