Not every great success in Australian sport had a smooth ride to the top.
From switching codes to swapping clubs to changing lives, these are the massive turning points that helped define some of Australia's greatest athletes.
Ellyse Perry
Ellyse Perry is a phenomenon of Australian sport. Incredibly gifted and driven and with the ability to play two sports, concurrently, at the highest level. On July 22nd 2007, she made her Australian cricket debut. Less than a month later she made her Australian football debut. This was the start of a cross code tug-of war that lasted half a decade as both codes vied for Perry's services.
She made her mark winning cricket World Cups and scoring in football World Cups but the balancing act of serving two sports became too much. The turning point came in 2015, as the women's T20 competition, the WBBL, was launched. It marked the end of her football journey and the start of a period of unprecedented success in cricket. Her batting in particular took off -- before her retirement from football Perry averaged 31 in Test matches and 38 in one-day internationals; since that point she has averaged a staggering 177 in Tests and 61 in one-dayers. The following years saw more team glory with Australia and a host of personal accolades as Perry became the best all-round player in the game.
Michael Dickson
The 2014 AFL draft night was a big one. Future Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca was pick 2. The Collingwood pair of Jordan de Goey and Darcy Moore were top-10 players. For the Sydney Swans it was a measured draft with the grand finalists looking to add quality not quantity. Academy player Isaac Heeney was the standout pick. A fellow academy player was overlooked. And it turned out to be the turning point in the career of Michael Dickson.
An Swans academy member from the age of 13, Dickson plugged away for the Swans reserves and saw himself on the team sheet for the 2014 NEAFL Grand Final. It would prove to be his high point in the sport. Overlooked in the draft, the 18-year-old Dickson travelled to Melbourne to join the renowned Pro-Kick team in an effort to carve out a new career in NFL. Within months he was on the plane to Texas, where three years of success with the Longhorns saw his name finally read out at a draft. Pick 149, round 5 for the Seattle Seahawks. Now having just completed his fourth year in Seattle, Dickson has play-off appearances and a Pro-Bowl under his belt.
Tim Cahill
Writing his name in Australia football folklore time and time again, Tim Cahill has gone down in the history books as an Australian sporting great, with World Cup moments, an Asian Cup winner and storied international career that took him to the position of the Socceroos' leading scorer of all-time. But it almost never happened. The son of a Samoan father, Tim's talent was spotted early -- very early -- and the then 14-year-old was offered the chance to represent the island nation in an under-20 tournament.
Cahill made two substitute appearances, and continued with his career moving to England and earning a spot in the Millwall set-up, impressing for the Londoners to the point that in 2002 he was courted by the Socceroos and the Republic of Ireland. However FIFA, the world governing body, stepped in, insisting that Cahill was -- in international football terms -- Samoan.
After a protracted18-month saga that included threats of legal action against FIFA from Cahill and a political push by Soccer Australia and football media in Australia including Les Murray, a FIFA executive at the time, the turning point came. FIFA changed their eligibility laws, and the door was open for Cahill. On March 30th 2004, he made his international debut for Australia as a 75th-minute substitute for Mark Bresciano, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ash Barty
Tennis almost lost Ash Barty. Despite a burgeoning doubles career with Casey Dellaqua, Barty's singles troubles and the general grind of the pro circuit saw the 18-year-old announce that she'd be taking a break from tennis "to experience a normal life". Over the next 18 months Barty would experience that normal life and plenty more! She moved into district cricket and was selected for the Brisbane Heat in the then fledgling WBBL. Despite a relatively modest return, the break did wonders for Barty.
She returned to the WTA tour in May 2016, and within a year she a WTA tour winner and the world number 17. Two years later Barty, the one-time Brisbane Heat batter was French Open Champion and tennis's world number one.
Johnathan Thurston
A standout Queensland school rugby league player, Johnathan Thurston nevertheless struggled to get the attention of NRL clubs due to his 179cm frame. Could a player that small survive in a sport increasingly dominated by man mountains? Unable to get a deal with Queensland clubs he signed with the Bulldogs, where he was stuck behind halves duo Braith Anasta and Brent Sherwin for three seasons.
The turning point came when he took an offer to join the North Queensland Cowboys in 2005. Letting Thurston go would be a decision the Dogs would regret almost immediately. In 2005 he won the Dally M Player of the Year award -- the first of four in his career -- and he also went on to the win the Golden Boot award three times, the Provan Summons Medal twice and the Clive Churchill Medal in the Cowboys' 2015 premiership win. One of the greatest players of the 21st century, Thurston played 37 State of Origin matches for Queensland as part of their eight-year series winning streak, plus 38 Tests for Australia.
James O'Connor
After debuting at Super Rugby level as an 18-year-old, James O'Connor's early forays into professional rugby were full of off-field incidents. But he is perhaps best remembered for the infamous "I want to build my rugby brand" comment after announcing he was departing Western Force for Melbourne Rebels, the line reflective of a young man who simply wasn't ready for life as a sporting celebrity. In the end, the then-Australian Rugby Union tore up his contract after O'Connor created a scene while drunk at Perth airport the morning after the Wallabies had beaten Argentina 14-13. O'Connor moved on to play at English club London Irish, before a failed return to Australia with Queensland Reds again saw him head to the northern hemisphere.
The former wunderkind then hit rock bottom when he was arrested for cocaine possession in Paris alongside Ali Williams. It proved to be the moment that helped O'Connor turn his career and life around, as he later headed for Saviour World, an organisation that offers "Knowledge for Men" in the "mind, body, soul and life". From there, O'Connor began to forge a path back to the Wallabies with a successful stint at Sale, who eventually released him from the final year of his contract so he could pursue a berth at the 2019 World Cup. The Queenslander achieved that goal and is now playing some of the best rugby of his career with the Reds, O'Connor poised to play a key role in Dave Rennie's squad at next year's global showpiece.
Marlion Pickett
The Marlion Pickett story is truly remarkable. A troubled upbringing in WA which, as he has bravely opened up about in the past, included moments of family violence and drug and alcohol abuse, led to Pickett dropping out of school in his teenage years and instead electing to burgle cars and shopping centres to make ends meet. A string of offences meant the now 30-year-old spent two-and-a-half years incarcerated in a period that was no doubt life-defining, with the reality of life behind bars teaching the Aussie Rules lover with a young family of his own about right from wrong.
Pickett was released from prison in 2013 at the age of 21 and pursued football with state-league club South Fremantle, where he became a WAFL Team of the Year representative and club best and fairest winner by 2018. Multiple AFL clubs overlooked the talented midfielder for six years, but one of the biggest clubs in the land, Richmond, took a punt on him at the 2019 mid-season draft in May. Just months later -- and after a stellar performance for the club's reserves side in a VFL Grand Final -- Tigers coach Damien Hardwick would drop a bombshell during AFL Grand Final week when naming Pickett to become the first player since 1952 to debut in a premiership decider, which in turn created the first player since 1926 to win a premiership in their debut match. And just 19 games later, Pickett was a two-time premiership-winning Tiger when they saluted again in 2020.