Justin Bianchini: How Senior Australian of the Year Brother Olly Pickett took us to footy premiership in 1979

The Senior Australian of the Year once took us to a footy premiership with the same qualities he’s now been recognised for nationally.

It was 1979 and Brother Olly Pickett was our under-15s coach, losing just one game on our way to a flag at the then Perth Oval, the former home of WAFL club East Perth.

We Christian Brothers Highgate boys knew him from when we spent a year in his manual arts workshop the previous year at St Mark’s College, Bedford.

I welded a set of cricket stumps in metal work while others did the same or made tables in the woodwork class.

He taught us how to make a smooth weld and to use the saws, drills, all the equipment, safely.

In fact, safety was a big thing for Brother Olly as I’m sure it is in the Wangara Wheelchairs for Kids workshop he co-founded at which he and his team of volunteers have spent years building thousands of wheelchairs for kids with disabilities all over the world.

We were stepping from a sometimes-stifling school environment into an adult world.

He commanded our respect as young men with his nous and encouragement.

So when it came to playing under him in 1979 we were excited, knowing the contagious, positive leadership we were in for.

Hailing from Melbourne, he knew football. But in pursuit of excellence, he would go to East Perth and steal the latest training drills to introduce to us. We learnt to train sharply, sprinting in at the end of each drill. He never shouted.

He was committed to us, so we committed to him. A tight bond like that between Collingwood players and coach Craig McRae in the premiership year of 2023, or West Perth footballers with the legendary John Dimmer in the 1990s.

Our team included future Carlton backman Steven Da Rui (sorry Dennis Cometti and selectors, he should have been named in the WA Italian team of the century), Mark Blakely, father of former Docker Connor and Swan Districts stalwart Nathan, and future WA magistrate Andrew Maughan.

A game report in verse would be written up and posted to the school noticeboard for us to read first thing Monday morning.

I kicked five goals from full forward one day — somehow the ball flew over Da Rui at centre half forward into my arms — and in his report, Brother Olly compared me to Maurie “Mocha” Dunstan from Collingwood.

I’d never heard of Dunstan but I was chuffed. My teammates and I grew in confidence with each mention in those reports and each bit of praise at training or on match day on our way to a premiership. It was a success built not without a deep respect Brother Olly instilled in us for our opposition.

It came as no surprise then when another group of his former Christian Brothers students from St Pat’s Geraldton nominated him for Senior Australian of the Year after finding out about his work at Wheelchairs for Kids.

A truly inspiring, innovative leader who gets everyone working on the same page, including the businesses around him at Wangara, many of which — like the former owners of Wangara Self Storage — donated their goods and services over the years.

He’s not one to rest on his laurels.

Talk of his achievements is always deflected back to the collective goal.

In the workshop at Wheelchairs for Kids he gets around in the same shirt as everyone else, stamped with the word “volunteer”.

Bringing a new life, dignity and joy to kids with disabilities around the world remains the goal.

That was clear at the end of his speech on Saturday, when he quietly appealed for more donations “no matter how big or small” so the organisation could add to the 61,000 wheelchairs it has built in 25 years since his retirement from school teaching.

“We hope” to make 6000 wheelchairs a year from the end of 2026.

There’s no stopping him.