Mark Robinson: Why Dustin Martin is the most intriguing player in 2023
After two down years due to injury, it’s time for Dustin Martin to show the football world he’s still the man, writes Mark Robinson.
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Footy is about hope, belief and hunger.
A month from round 1, the fans are salivating, the coaches are chomping and the players, the most crucial of all participants, have just about built their platforms which will harness the confidence in their bodies and minds.
How can you judge hunger for the season ahead? Individually and collectively?
The youth might not have the tools just yet, but they are determined to make round 1.
Brisbane’s No. 1 draft pick Will Ashcroft is 18-years-old. The Lions have played three intra-club matches and he has been best on ground in all three games. His hunger is insatiable.
What of the champs? Geelong starts the season as notionally the best team in it — although AFL great Malcolm Blight leans towards the Lions by a “bee’s whisker’’ — and it remains to be seen if the mountain the Cats climbed last year will be as appealing this season.
It’s difficult to back up. The Bulldogs in ’16, West Coast in ’18 and Melbourne in ’21, fell apart in their quest for consecutive premierships.
Unquestionably, Geelong’s campaign in ’23 will be more arduous than last year. That’s the law of the jungle
Where’s Melbourne? And the Tigers? Will Collingwood thrive on belief again? Sydney on the rebound? And what does Carlton have to offer? And the restocked Lions have no excuses after a boom recruiting off-season. Time will tell
Of all the players in the competition, the most intriguing is Dustin Martin.
He is physically fit, but that’s not the query. How mentally fit is he? At 31, turning 32 in June, do the hunger games still arouse him.
Martin’s been a phenomenal player, probably ahead of Chris Judd, Gary Ablett and Lance Franklin as the best this century. Clearly, he’s the best finals player and isn’t that what it’s about?
There’s a documentary just released on Netflix called Bill Russell: Legend.
It is a sporting and social justice expedition into the Boston Celtics centre, otherwise known as a demi-God at the Garden.
Russell’s main individual opponent through the 1960s was Wilt Chamberlain. Russell won 11 NBA titles and Chamberlain only two.
A Bleacher Report article written just 10 days ago said: “Wilt was the better player in the regular season, whereas Russell flourished in the playoffs.
“Wilt was non-existent in clutch or key situations, whereas Russell thrived in the intense situations.
“Wilt averaged 50 points a game in the 1961-62 season, that same season Russell was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. Wilt was all about the stats, and how many points or rebounds he got. Russell was simply obsessed with winning and winning titles.
“Chamberlain only cared what critics thought of him. Russell only cared what his teammates thought of him.’’
That last sentence is Dusty to a millimetre.
Coming off an average season last year — for Martin — when he tragically lost his father which derailed the start of his season and then suffered injury, Martin looked like a man lost in the world, if his footy was our only judgment.
A year on, is the boy lost now a champion found?
If it’s another Brownlow year, which to be frank is unlikely playing mainly forward, Martin will have claims to the title as the best ever. Another Norm Smith Medal, cement it.
Blight isn’t ruling anything out with Martin this year.
“One of the things I know about the great ones is that once you reach a standard, you really don’t want to let it drop,’’ Blight said.
“In fact, I would suggest if you could ask him, he’s probably working on things which he wants to get better at. Most of the great ones, even Joel Selwood and what he did in the first quarter of the grand final, he didn’t want to let go. The really, really good ones want to get better.’’
Blight has seen Martin’s training vision and listened to Tigers people in press conferences and is enthused by the possibilities ahead.
“I know he has reached the mountain a number of times, and I know there’s other outside interest some times, but it would seem he will hopefully have a clear run at it,” Blight said.
Blight thinks Martin will play mainly forward, allowable because of the recruitment of Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper from the Giants.
He loves Dion Prestia but has concerns about his body, and believes Trent Cotchin is a wingman and or high half-forward, in a role not dissimilar to how Kane Lambert played: Be troublesome for the opposition, while keeping an eye on Shai Bolton’s and Martin’s midfield opponents.
“I’ve always felt that Dustin and this sounds funny, but he was never a 40-plus possession man was he?’’ Blight said.
“He was 20-25 at best and kick you three goals, that beautiful mix and maybe they’ve got that back. And they probably needed some infusion in that midfield area.’’
Blight unabashedly has faith in Martin conquering his mental challenge.
“Oh yeah,’’ he said. “I’ve decided now, at 30, you’re only warming up in footy now. I reckon what used to be 30 is now 33.’’
Hunger won’t be an issue for young Ashcroft, either, Blight says.
The Hall of Fame Legend worked with Ashcroft’s dad Marcus at the Suns and witnessed Will as an early teenager.
“Will was running in the Academy … when he was 12, 13, or 14, he was virtually winning the races against the 16-year-olds. That’s how good his want and hunger was,” Blight said.
That immense running capacity has been noted in Ashcroft’s first off-season at the Lions. Likened to Carlton’s Sam Walsh and Gold Coast’s Touk Miller, the Lions had smiles when, in one of the intra games, Ashcroft won a clearance in the deep back pocket and got on the end of the same play and kicked the goal.
“One of the things with kids is you have to be careful with them,’’ Blight said. “If you try to put them in the midfield straight away … there’s massive big bodies there. That happened with Jason Horne-Francis. The club wanted to play him in the midfield and he wasn’t really ready for it.
“I reckon it takes you a while unless you’re an out and out freak. It took Petracca, Oliver, Dustin Martin … they’ve taken their time to go through the midfield. Otherwise, you burn them a little bit. Sam Walsh is one of my favourite players, but that back operation doesn’t surprise me. He’s been banging in there, but he’s slight. Butters and Rozee are the same at Port Adelaide. Don’t play them too early in there. Let them visit there, don’t let them stay there.
“I’ve watched Ashcroft because of my relationship with Marcus, and mate, he’s a jet. But how you handle him will be the trick, don’t burn them too early’’
Five-time premiership winner Dermott Brereton is less enthused than Blight about Martin’s possibilities this year.
Always honest with his thoughts, Brereton said: “Through that premiership era, the expectancy was he could rise to another level and he did it. And it’s not going to be that anymore. He will win the odd game, but time doesn’t wait for anyone.’’
Brereton, with a failing body from about 26-years-old, knows about playing with pride. It is a motivator, but it’s also a reality check.
“It’s funny when that balloon of pride gets pricked, when people start to see that you’re on the wane and you try to claw on to a status you previously held, and you try to do everything possible to stay there. But a lot of blokes play angry when they are old,” Brereton said.
“If Dustin is seriously fit, what do I expect from him? Not as much as his dominant years, but there will be moments where he wins the game.’’
He sees Martin being managed this year, so he’s cherry ripe for September, and suspects he will be a roaming forward, and not the stay-at-home deep forward, and nor will he be a dominant forward.
“There’s a misnomer, and every year it is said, ‘oh when Carey finishes playing centre half-forward, he will go to full-forward and kick 100 goals, when the great Gary Ablett Jr finishes on the ball, he will kick 80 for the year as a forward … it never happens,’’ Brereton said
“I don’t think the Tigers can make him the No. 1 forward when you’ve got Tom Lynch and still Jack Riewoldt there. You can’t make Dusty your No. 1 go-to who will kick 60-70 goals. He can kick you 30 or 40 with mismatches but you can’t play him as your king pin up forward because he doesn’t mark overhead, he doesn’t get high off the ground.
“Every great player we’ve ever seen from the midfield or further up the ground, when they say he will go to full-forward, they never dominate like we think they will.’’.
Gary Ablett Sr was one who did it in the early 1990s. Leigh Matthews probably another in the late ‘70s and early 1980s. And Adelaide’s Darren Jarman had a couple of cracking grand finals in 1997/98
In the face of Brereton’s opinion, Champion Data stats show Martin, in the 2017-2020 period, played 63 per cent midfield and 37 per cent forward, and was rated the No. 1 one-on-one player in the competition, winning 49 of his offensive contests.
In 2021-22, he was 42 per cent midfield and 58 per cent forward — a jump of 20 per cent forward — and won 57 per cent of his offensive contests, which also ranked him No.1.
In effect, he played fewer games and raised his percentage, which is phenomenal.
“Dustin will be a star, but he won’t be the second half of the 2020 grand final against Geelong,’’ Brereton said, recalling Martin’s Norm Smith match.
“Put it this way, what he’ll be able to put out this year and if it was from someone else on the rise, we’d be fawning over him. Because it’s Dusty we’ll set the bar a lot higher.’’
TIGERS UPBEAT ABOUT DUSTY PROGRESS
The Tigers have been beaming about Martin across the pre-season.
Senior official Neil Balme told the Herald Sun this week Martin’s attitude towards “being part of the group and his training has been wonderful’’.
“He’s bought in, he’s in really good shape and I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t have a very influential year. He looks terrific,” Balme said.
And mentally?
“You never know but he seems good to me, he seems really good to me. He’s always a pretty quiet bloke, he doesn’t say a lot, but every time you talk to him, he’s with you. I think he’s very engaged,” he said.
“In its own funny way, the fact we recruited those two kids from GWS (Taranto and Hopper) as midfielders, it makes Dusty’s job much easier.
“He doesn’t have to drive the midfield, he can be what he needs to be, which is explosive wherever needs to be. If he’s in the midfield, good, if he’s forward then good. He’ll have an enormous influence.
“He’s always believed in his responsibility to himself and to his team, that’s never been an issue. It’s just that he’s talented and sometimes he doesn’t play as well as we think he can, because it’s not the easy game that it looks. No, he’s in a very good place from that point of view.’’
Across the board, the Tigers are in Martin’s corner
On December 5 last year, Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale said: “He’s been training pretty hard … he’s a proud athlete and he’s a proud man and he’ll look forward to getting back in the swing of things, that’s for sure.”
Teammate Liam Baker said on January 19: “Dustin is back, he is fit and he has got a full pre-season in, which is exciting for us. Out on the track he is big and strong, and pushing people around.’’
Coach Damien Hardwick said on January 24: “He had a terrific session this week, we played a quarter of match practice and he moved well, used the ball well, so we’re very excited to see how he goes. Once again, he has missed a lot of footy over the last 18 months so it will take a little bit of time to get back to full fitness.’’
Assistant coach Andrew McQualter said on January 31: “We’re rapt that he’s been able to do all the training this pre-season. He hasn’t really missed a session at all, so hopefully it’s a really exciting year ahead for him.”
Let the Hunger Games begin.
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Originally published as Mark Robinson: Why Dustin Martin is the most intriguing player in 2023
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