Player Watch #4 Dustin Martin

[SplintWhisky]

We need to rest Dusty so that he can play 300 at the G against Hawthorn on what is fast becoming a prime time slot on the Saturday.

 

[tora tora tora]

Last night on Talking Footy, Cotch mentioned Martin has been struggling mentally since his dad died. Sounds like he needs a break but we have so many injuries that we still need him to play.

did not really see a drop off in Dusty's form in 2023. 2nd in the Club B&F,


2024, Dusty's been carrying a known injury. Pretty much explains the form drop off.

 

[db26]

the loss of his dad and that injury took a toll , and you got a media here so disrespectful. He owns nothing to Richmond. True champion and never seen a player player lift another gear in finals like he did. Only goats do that in any sport big game players. Whatever he does I respect. Media here chasing a story out of nothing starts with Cornes. Must make them bleed Dusty has never gave them nothing.

 

[voorhees]

my God, the amount of ' i have achieved nothing ' gutter media flogs all lining up to have a swing at Dusty is disgraceful..
You have never seen a player slow down in his later years??
Barrett is a complete knob

 

[PaulBulluss]

the loss of his dad and that injury took a toll , and you got a media here so disrespectful. He owns nothing to Richmond. True champion and never seen a player player lift another gear in finals like he did. Only goats do that in any sport big game players. Whatever he does I respect. Media here chasing a story out of nothing starts with Cornes. Must make them bleed Dusty has never gave them nothing.

Dusty made the AA short list last year and should've made the 22. What's happening now isn't down to his dad and that injury.

 

[JackNah_8]

Disappointing the media are now targeting Martin


Most likely he is carrying an injury and probably due for a rest

 

[SavDog23]

gonna melt hard if we don't rest him and he plays game 300 in f***ing adelaide

 

[JackNah_8]

Talks that he might rested rd 13 to play 300th at mcg

And he won't be doing an interview or press conference for his 300th game

 

[tigersnag]

Disappointing the media are now targeting Martin


Most likely he is carrying an injury and probably due for a rest

The only thing that is 100% certain is that Mick McGuane's brain is soft.

Too many knocks and alcohol I'd say.
Perhaps starting from an extremely low base to begin with doesn't help. Genetics. Born with shit for brains was Micky.

 

[Ctl]

Planning for his 300th to be against hawthorn at the MCG according to the midweek tackle on fox

 

[Meteoric Rise]

Disappointing the media are now targeting Martin


Most likely he is carrying an injury and probably due for a rest

So McGuane, who was gone at the game at 28 years of age, and immediately set about achieving the world donut consumption record, thinks Dustin Martin is soft.

 

[LTT]

View attachment 1965714

“I never said I want to be alone. I only said ‘I want to be let alone.’ There is all the difference.”
Reclusive movie star Greta Garbo, 1955.

Dustin Martin’s desire to be left alone, in the manner of Greta Garbo, has been as defining a feature of his career as the fend-off, which is a well-worn, but fitting metaphor for Dusty’s aversion to the crowd.

Richmond champion Dustin Martin: will he change his colours?CREDIT:ARTWORK: MONIQUE WESTERMANN

Martin’s extreme shyness and dislike of the spotlight – bar his glowing presence on game day – is one of the reasons why there’s been a view in clubland that he could be prised out of Richmond.

Martin’s seven-year mega contract expires this year. Richmond have not put a contract on the table, in large part because Dusty hasn’t made any decisions about his future.

Martin has three immediate options: 1) Re-sign with the Tigers for 2025 and play on; 2) cross to another club, almost certainly in the northern states; 3) retire, after reaching 300 games and be remembered as a one-club great of the code.

Since 2022, if not earlier, Gold Coast have been mooted as the logical destination for Dusty if he decided he wanted out of town.

Note that there’s never been any hint that Dusty had any issue with the Richmond Football Club. Rather, it’s whether he’s had enough of living in the footy fishbowl in Melbourne.

The argument for Dusty exploring a move to the Suns has centred on the fact that they’re a getaway club, where AFL isn’t obsessively followed and even a high-vis superstar can find sanctuary, like Garbo.

The Suns also have significant ex-Richmond people at the helm, headed by former coach Damien Hardwick, with football bosses Wayne Campbell (performance) and Craig Cameron (list/recruitment) also knowing Martin well from their days at Tigerland.

That Martin has had contact with Gold Coast officials is hardly surprising, given the longstanding relationships.
But what is often lost in this discussion and speculation is whether, in fact, the Suns really need Dustin Martin.
They don’t.

For a number of reasons, the Suns should not pursue Dusty, should he decide he wants to leave Victoria. He’s not the right fit. To stick with the movie star motif, it would be like casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet.

Martin would be turning 34 next year and while he would certainly improve the Suns’ forward line for a year – assuming he is relatively fit and motivated – it would represent an extremely short-term move for Hardwick and company.

Gold Coast have one of the best lists of under 24-year-olds in the competition. But their peak contention period is still at least two years away (probably longer, considering the demography of recent premiers).

Dusty is unlikely to come cheap, either. He’s been paid well over $1 million since 2018 and even if he came for, say, $700,000, that money would be better utilised in the crucial task of retaining Matt Rowell, Ben King, Noah Anderson and others.

Hardwick aside, Martin would be the biggest figure to arrive at Gold Coast since Gary Ablett. Unlike Ablett, Dusty would not be willing to front the media or sell the club.

His sheer presence, however, would bring additional media to the Suns, which the AFL wouldn’t mind.

The Suns, though, have just brought in four teenage locals via their academy – headed by the enormously talented talls Jed Walter and Ethan Read. Once those kids mature, they can be the shopfront – Gold Coast’s answer to Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney – in a non-footy market that has struggled to support elite sporting clubs.

While Martin would engender excitement among young Suns teammates, and he is capable of mentoring, he does not represent the kind of on-field general and leader that four-time Hawthorn premiership great Luke Hodge was at the Brisbane Lions.

As it stands today, the Suns are unsure of whether to make a bid for Dusty, who has struggled with his body at times this year, missing games and some training sessions. Is he there in spirit? It’s a reasonable question.

There is no question that the death of his father Shane in 2022, who had been exiled from his son in New Zealand, was an enormous blow to the reticent champion.

He would suit the Swans or Giants more than Gold Coast, in terms of age and premiership profile and positional needs (he could take Heeney’s old forward role at Sydney), but one doubts that the Giants would have the cap space, and it is unclear whether the Swans would want such a short-term investment.

Martin’s shunning of the bright lights, paradoxically, has rendered him a mystery that merely heightened the public’s fascination with him – a conundrum that Greta Garbo endured. Almost every autograph seeker at Punt Rd wants Dusty’s scribble on their gear.

Richmond will offer him a decent deal, if he decides to play on with the club he helped transform and which is attempting a new frontier under Adem Yze and facing the expected exit of CEO Brendon Gale to the Tasmania Devils.

Like most football followers, this column would prefer that he bows out as a Tiger, rivalling Kevin Bartlett and Royce Hart for the mantle of Richmond’s greatest since World War Two.

Garbo’s wish sums up Martin’s relationship with the game. That he wants to be left alone does not mean that he is alone. Richmond have been another family.

Martin’s future is up to Martin. The Suns should just leave him alone.

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.

Good assessment.

 

[LTT]

I feel he wants to get to 300 and pack it in.

Agree. He has 3 games to get to 300. There are 10 games left in the season and he is clearly playing injured to some extent. If he is going to play on past 300 why doesn’t he take a break and get fully fit. I would be surprised if he plays beyond 300 games much less next year

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Agree. He has 3 games to get to 300. There are 10 games left in the season and he is clearly playing injured to some extent. If he is going to play on past 300 why doesn’t he take a break and get fully fit. I would be surprised if he plays beyond 300 games much less next year

There's a strong chance he's only playing every game at the moment because we're decimated with injury and our cupboard is bare.

 

[Forensi Tiger]

Which two players do we predict will chair him off in his 300th?

 

[JackNah_8]

Which two players do we predict will chair him off in his 300th?

Depends who is playing.

Doubt Martin will want that though, he is low key

 

[barracoutta]

Which two players do we predict will chair him off in his 300th?

if we lose he wont be chaired off - he wont allow it full stop - we aren't norf

if we win - its most likely grimes and nank

 

[Nostradumbass]

I see that drunk Mick mcguane called him soft. Jesus wept

 

[GN272]

Will Dusty's 300th be one of his last ??? - what are the chances of a retirement annoucement shortly after ??

 

[Wooden Robot]

Listened to RSN most of Tuesday and was interested in what Mark Hunter - former Bulldogs - had to say. Didn’t call Dusty soft but said it was natural for players near the end of their careers to go into self preservation mode and to look after their bodies a bit more than they did when they were younger. I see this with Dusty.

 

[RobsJourney]

Apparently 6 clubs are after Dusty. Assuming Essendon is one of them, who are the other 5?

Nah in all seriousness anyone know who the 6 are?

 

[Punt rd end]

There's a strong chance he's only playing every game at the moment because we're decimated with injury and our cupboard is bare.

This 100%
The physios were working on him when we were at the G last and he could hardly jump but they don't show that on the tele

 

[thegcat]

Apparently 6 clubs are after Dusty. Assuming Essendon is one of them, who are the other 5?

Nah in all seriousness anyone know who the 6 are?

You’d think in Dusty out Shiel. Not a bad upgrade. Or as full time forward at the Dees

 

[Punt rd end]

You’d think in Dusty out Shiel. Not a bad upgrade. Or as full time forward at the Dees

Maybe he could be a full time forward at another club other than the Dees, hmmm Richmond might have a spot

 

[Roachy8]

All this talk of Dusty playing somewhere else is making me sick..

Especially when Bummers are mentioned.