Deep dive: Sam Walsh is a star, the Brownlow is Dusty’s to lose and have the Blues found their edge?
It is too scary to even think about for opposition sides – but Dustin Martin has got better. Where would another Brownlow put him among the all-time greats?
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The footballer fresh off a premiership season ominously declaring he can get better is the most boring annual cliche of the summer.
Except for Dustin Martin, winner of a Brownlow Medal and three Norm Smith Medals, it might actually be true.
It’s too scary to believe for opposition sides, and yet as coach Damien Hardwick and teammate Jack Ross explained after his glorious return to the MCG, it’s not just a matter of empty words.
At 29, Martin could be counting his millions and easing into self-preservation mode to ensure he finishes his seven-year contract.
Instead a perfect storm of ingredients in 2021 mean the $10 on offer for Martin to win his second Brownlow Medal has already been slashed into $7 with the TAB and those odds could continue to tumble.
Let’s consider the evidence in front of us.
Martin has never been more at peace in his life with a balance of meditation and mindfulness that has him relishing every moment he spends on the field or training track.
He has never been fitter in his 11 seasons of football as the AFL transforms into a game in which the athletes could dominate like never before, and critically late in contests.
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Richmond’s 75-inside 50s were a new club high, with Martin adding two contested marks to his repertoire against Carlton.
And Martin has never played a more attacking brand to feast on that inside-50 avalanche, not collecting a single one of his 31 possessions behind the centre on Thursday night.
With Martin relishing the big moments like never before, he looks an unstoppable force in the home-and-away season as well after starting slowly and then peaking for the finals last year.
Teammate Ross told the Herald Sun after his own excellent cameo on Thursday night that Martin’s confidence was at an all-time high.
“He is a freak, pretty much. I didn’t think he could get any better than he was, but he’s come back and he’s just in incredible nick,” Ross said.
“He has run all these PBs (personal bests) and is dominating on the track and tonight he was doing what he just does. He is a big moment player and with the longer quarters and the high-scoring game, it is just falling into his hands nicely.
“He is a pretty quiet guy but he is so attached with the whole mental side of the game.
“His self-belief is second to none and in games he does a lot of deep breaths and brings himself back into the present.
“If we are under the pump, he will get us all back into the centre square and tell us all to take some deep breaths and remain calm.
“He’s quiet and not outrageously cocky or arrogant, he is just demanding of the big moments and wants the ball in his hands. His self-confidence is through the roof.”
Consider his performance on Thursday night at a venue that he called the holy grail of football — 31 possessions, 14 contested, four goal assists, 12 score involvements, two contested marks, five marks inside 15, 619 metres gained, five clearances, two centre square clearances, and eight inside 50.
He gave off a point-blank handball for Jason Castagna for a first-half goal and sacrificed another shot late to try to find Jack Riewoldt so could have had five goals.
But then again, you can only get three Brownlow votes for any given game.
His coach knows he has something freakish at his disposal.
“His ball use across the arcs was very good,” Hardwick said.
“With players getting more and more tired you could tell the difference. He has done a power of work on that (part) of his game, his fitness, and it just stood out at the end.
“He is a wonderful player, we are lucky to have him, and he’s a pleasure to coach.”
At the end of 2018, Martin revealed how tough his 2018 season had been as he attempted to replicate his Brownlow Medal-Jack Dyer Medal-Norm Smith Medal season.
“I haven’t told too many people this, but I found 2018 to be really hard,” Martin said.
“I woke with a weird empty feeling inside and it was really strange.
“I had everything I wanted and everything I dreamt of, but I didn’t feel fulfilled or happy. I didn’t know what was going on.”
When Martin is doing Fox Footy TV specials with Nick Riewoldt where he is warm and relaxed and as giving as he is ever likely to be, you know he is in his sweet spot.
The Brownlow Medal that would at least put him in the frame as footy’s greatest player is his to lose.
KANE CORNES, YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT SAM WALSH
Kane Cornes has made a successful and entertaining media career from the kind of hot takes that are deliberately designed to infuriate football fans.
His latest one midway through 2020 was that Carlton picked the wrong player with Sam Walsh at No. 1 in the 2018 national draft.
It’s not worth saying Cornes should eat his words, because making him the centre of the football discussion is exactly what he wants.
So well played, Kane.
But this from Kane last year seems like one of those hot takes he never really believed.
“They got that (draft) pick wrong and I think the Carlton fans probably need to admit that,” Cornes said.
“I’ve been saying it, he’s not a damaging AFL footballer.
“Carlton fans can scream from the rooftops all they like but he kicked it at 56 per cent (efficiency).
“His metres gained are down, he looks to be handballing the ball (more) and isn’t going to be the damaging footballer that Carlton fans believe and have told me that he is going to be.”
Let’s listen to Damien Hardwick instead, who on Thursday night couldn’t stop talking about Walsh as a damaging player in Carlton’s attack-at-any-costs game plan.
“You look at Sam Walsh tonight, the game comes to him. He had 30 (possessions), he just looks incredible, the way he covered the ground.”
Carlton did protect Walsh on a wing for his first 36 games before throwing him into the action, just like Port Adelaide’s Connor Rozee has been protected as a small forward before becoming the mid-forward he will mature into.
In 2020 he was in the centre square only 11 times in 14 games before being given 33 centre bounce involvements in the final three games.
He exploded in those three games and just kept on going against Richmond with 31 disposals as he covered 15.5km with relentless surging runs and a host of telling interventions.
We wondered out loud in the pre-season whether he could be Carlton’s best player by the end of the year.
He has some competition with Patrick Cripps playing like a raging bull against Richmond, but after finishing second only to Jacob Weitering in last year’s best-and-fairest it’s far from out of the question.
THE LOMU-CRIPPS STYLE
Patrick Cripps was in a crash-or-crash-through mood on Thursday night, reminding one social media observer of All Black Jonah Lomu as he tried to steamroll Richmond opponents.
But early on Carlton had the perfect blend of aggression and pressure to at least put doubt into the minds of Richmond players.
There was Lochie O’Brien dropping back into a hole to put his body on the line to win a high-contact free kick, there was Paddy Dow farming out handballs under extreme pressure.
Blues fans will know that aggression hasn’t always been the strong suit of the pair of top-10 picks.
And if Nick Vlastuin eventually bounced back up, Harry McKay deciding to stamp his authority on the contest by crunching the Tigers star in an early marking collision was exactly what David Teague would demand.
Carlton’s forward line has never been high on pressure, but Lachie Fogarty’s early chase-down tackle on Kane Lambert typified what he will bring to the table.
Jack Silvagni followed suit soon after, although the Blues fear his shoulder injury is a relapse of a shoulder reconstruction that he had before he arrived at Carlton.
All of them were incredibly positive signs from a Carlton team again outmatched by Richmond but with real validation that it is on the right track.
ALL-AUSTRALIAN BALTA
Noah Balta will be an All Australian defender at some stage in his career.
It’s just whether 2021 might be 12 or 24 months too early.
Then again, maybe not given the way he stamped his authority on the contest in Round 1.
Harry McKay still kicked 2.3 for the night on a variety of opponents including Balta, but Balta’s four early intercept marks and some full-stretch spoils on McKay spoke of an athleticism almost unrivalled in the AFL.
West Coast’s Jeremy McGovern has him covered, but it’s worth noting Balta has played 31 AFL games and is only just 21.
“He is such a dominant factor in the air and his motto is simple brilliance,” Hardwick said.
“So if the fans could sit there and yell at him, as much as they can, ‘Simple brilliance’, he is going to be an outstanding player.
“The ball is firmly in Noah’s court. How good he wants to be is up to him.
“How hard he wants to work at this game, he is a prodigious talent, he has some work to do in some areas of his game. It’s how much he wants it.
“If he wants to invest in himself, he’s going to be a very hard player to stop.”
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