Enough with the excuses.
Enough with playing this down.
Its time to get real. Who the hell does this tool think he is ?
Martin has been given special treatment by the Club from Day 1. As we saw with Fev, giving a guy special treatment just because he's a good player, in the long term, creates a monster and is massively detrimental to the playing culture of the Club. I mean, a grown man still having to be 'babysat by Club Leaders, even after 7 years in the AFL system... Come on, that's just pathetic.
Education wont do the trick. He's had plenty of that. All AFL players get hour after hour of it pumped into them. You telling me that he doesn't understand that drunkenly abusing, intimidating and threatening a woman is wrong ? Come off it!
Fines, suspensions, and treading sensitively around his 'lifestyle' haven't, and wont work.
Enough is enough.
The only way he ll learn, and the Tigers can move on, is to take a stance and cut him loose.
You cant allow one player to consistently hold the Club to ransom with his idiocy. Not only that, but after all the stuff the AFL has been, and is trying to do in terms of appreciating and respecting women, this incident has made them look like total fools.
If what the victim of this incident is saying is true, and there's no reason to believe she's lying, then Martin is is deep deep strife, and shouldn't be afforded any special treatment just because he's an AFL star.
Martin's been cuddling, and people have generally accommodated his 'choice of lifestyle' for 7 years.
Whether or not Footy is the only thing keeping this guy away from a life of crime and jail should be irrelevant.
He obviously enjoys that life, or enjoys the idea of it, so if that's the case, let him have it.
Let him understand that for once in his adult life, he has to be held fully accountable for his actions. He has to be treated as Dustin Martin the person who hs done wrong in the eyes of the law, not Dustin Martin the protected AFL star.
Jail time, or criminal convictions and community service, are the only way dodgy flogs like Dustin Martin can learn their lesson and begin the long journey to rehabilitation.
If the AFL are as serious as they say they are about respecting women, then whether or not he'll be allowed to play again should be the least of Martin's worries.