KOZZY Pickett has produced one of the performances of his career after an unusual lead-in to the Anzac Day Eve game against Richmond.

Melbourne coach Steven King revealed post-match that the club granted the star leave to travel to Darwin for his daughter’s birthday despite the five-day turnaround between games.

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King also confirmed that the club was ‘fearing the worst’ when it came to young forward Jai Culley who left the ground in the second quarter with a knee injury.

Culley, who signed a two-year contract extension with the club just two weeks earlier, has a previous history with knee injuries having ruptured his ACL during his time at the West Coast Eagles.

“We're fearing the worst, but he'll get scans tomorrow,” King said in his post-match press conference.

“I'll cross all my fingers and toes that it's a good result, but, yeah, we feel for Jai, but hopefully it's better news than anticipated.”

King said he was in ‘awe’ of Pickett’s performance on Friday night. 

Pickett had a game-high 29 disposals to go with his four goals and a Virgin Mark of the Year contender in an effort that saw him awarded the Frank 'Checker' Hughes Medal for best on ground.

“I was just in awe of his game, to be honest,” King said.

“We afforded Kozzy the luxury to go up to Darwin early in the week to see his daughter for her birthday on a five-day break.

“The way he looked after and managed his body, he came back, trained, and then to do that tonight, it's pretty amazing to watch.

“Kozzy is the package. He's got skill, athleticism, courage, he's got that hardness about him.

“It's inspiring, and it's a real pleasure and a treat for me to coach, because the things he does on the footy field, it's electric.”

For Richmond coach Adem Yze, he was disappointed with his young side’s inability to play out the game.

Melbourne kicked six goals to Richmond’s one in the final term to blow the score out to a 54-point victory.

“We're at this stage right now where we just can't put a four-quarter performance together, especially against the better teams,” Yze said after the match.

“We're disappointed. We're not going to be happy with a competitive performance and our Tiger Army expects more.

“On Monday we'll walk in and take the positives out of the first three quarters and look at the learnings from the last quarter.

“But there just were things in the last quarter that just weren't good enough and we've got to get better.”

Yze said Hugo Ralphsmith had ‘tweaked’ his knee during the match, but insisted that his midfielder should be right for the Tigers’ game against West Coast next Saturday.

“Hugo tweaked his knee a little bit, so he came off late,” Yze said.

“So a little medial, but he's adamant it's OK. So the eight-day break might help there. So we'll obviously assess that over the next 24 hours and get back to you.”