‘Superman sitting at half-forward’: Shane Edwards lauds great mate Dustin Martin ahead of 300th game

Shane Edwards played 230 games with Dustin Martin. He charts Dusty’s path from being too shy to say a word on a lift home to the voice everyone listened to at Tigerland.

On Dustin Martin’s first day at Richmond – after he was drafted with the No. 3 pick in the 2009 AFL draft – Shane Edwards gave him a lift home.

“I just remember he sat in the back; he actually didn’t sit in the passenger seat with me, he sat in the back in the middle,” Edwards told this masthead.

“And he wouldn’t tell me which directions to get home. So I just got in the car and I’m driving and trying to make conversations with him and he would only give me one-word answers. He even let me drive past his street without telling me to turn into it.

“And I just thought ‘far out, how is this kid going to even call for the ball?’.

“But the next training session, he just had the ball on a string and he was only 18.

“So it took him a while to warm-up and to be comfortable around the guys, but when he did he was just the king of the locker room.”

On Saturday at the MCG against Hawthorn, Martin will join Edwards, former teammates Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt and club greats Jack Dyer, Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke in playing 300-games for the Tigers.

Dustin Martin with fellow Richmond 300 game players Kevin Bartlett, Shane Edwards, Trent Cotchin, Jack Riewoldt and Francis Bourke in front of a statue of Jack Dyer. Picture: Michael Willson

In keeping with his career, the 32-year-old has tried his best to shun the spotlight and the attention that has come his way with the milestone.

But Edwards, who played 230 games with Martin and is now in a player development and recruiting role at the Adelaide Crows, said he believed his former teammate would find the milestone special.

“I think so, so one thing I know about Dusty is that he gets pretty bad FOMO, he doesn’t like missing out,” Edwards said.

“So when we joke around about how he is not in (the 300-game club), he gets pretty funny about it and I think it actually might give him a tiny bit of motivation. But knowing how much he doesn’t want to put himself in the limelight – and the extra media stuff he would have had to do – he probably would have preferred to skip (game 300) and go to 301.”

It sums up Martin, and the mystery that surrounds footy’s silent superstar – by choice.

Edwards said he has been asked what his former teammate is like “for the past 10 to 12 years”.

Dustin Martin kicks the ball as Shane Edwards of the Tigers looks on at Punt Rd in 2020. Picture: AAP/Scott Barbour.

“He makes you smile because he is just so shy; he is just a really nice and humble kid who is super shy and has everyone staring at him – especially in Melbourne,” he said.

“He loves to hang out in his inner circle and the people he trusts and that’s where he comes out as a super funny, charismatic, really cheeky fella.”

On the field, Martin is the ultimate big-game player with an unprecedented three Norm Smith Medals from his three premierships with the Tigers.

“It was just having that feeling of having, you know, like Superman sitting at half-forward and at any moment if he gets enough opportunities he is probably going to win the game for us,” Edwards said. “I guess it was on the rest of us to make sure the team was competitive in the game and keeping our head above water and giving him enough chances to let him do his thing. He was literally unbeatable, for a few years there he didn’t lose one contest centre-forward; he was just incredible.”

But Edwards said his influence at the club off the field was one that grew considerably.

“He started his career barely saying a word and just going out there and doing it and everyone else talking about him,” he said.

Richmond’s Dustin Martin directs traffic behind Shane Edwards in 2019. Picture: Michael Klein

“He would never talk about himself; that was something he never did. Then he turned into someone that was in our leadership group meetings towards the end and giving (the) leaders advice and almost being a calming presence among us older guys.

“He went from never replying to anyone’s messages to – at the end of our successful period – he would be sending messages into the group chat about what he was going to do in the game and how much he is going to attack the opposition and put pressure on and that sort of stuff.

“I think he finally learnt how much impact he actually has; it was in the middle and towards the end of our successful period and with whatever game was on that night, most of the players have a nap at the same time during the day at their own house and you would wake up to a message in our WhatsApp group of Dusty saying how much he’s looking forward to going out there and playing with his mates and he has going to have the opposition pretty scared out there. And you wake up and go ‘oh wow, I can’t wait to be a part of this’.

“It just sets the ball rolling for the attitude of the game.

“I don’t even know if Dimma (Damien Hardwick) knew that or that Dusty knew the impact he would have – just with those messages – cause you would tell him and he would roll his eyes, like you were joking.”

Dustin Martin celebrates with Shane Edwards after kicking a last quarter goal at then-Etihad Stadium in 2010.

Yet this place in Richmond, and AFL football folklore, came close to not happening with – on two occasions – Martin looking like he would be a chance of joining first Greater Western Sydney (2013), and then North Melbourne (2017).

Edwards conceded there were moments where he thought the Tigers would lose their superstar, but deep down they shouldn’t have been concerned.

“There were moments where you start to get a bit worried and you think, ‘what if he actually leaves us?’,” Edwards said.

“But knowing him, and knowing his personality, I just felt there was no way he’d want to go and try and meet another 40 blokes and deal with having to become friends and finding new mates and having to deal with people who don’t know how to handle him as well.

“He was very comfortable at Richmond in that regard so when I look back I think it is ridiculous I even thought he might leave, but to lose a person like that (from) your footy club would have been horrendous for Richmond. Thank god he stayed.”

Dustin Martin and Shane Edwards celebrate with Jack Graham after he kicked a goal during the 2017 AFL Grand Final against Adelaide. Picture: Mark Kolbe/AFL Media/Getty Images.

His record in grand finals means that there’s a special place for Martin in the Richmond history books as a Tigers legend. Edwards said it wasn’t just what he did in on the big stage.

“There’s a lot of talk about how dominant he was in grand finals, which absolutely he was. He was the best player in all of them, but he was actually probably the best player in all of our finals,” he said. “So I think we might have played 10 to 12 finals over that period and I think he got the most coaches’ votes in all of them.

“So it was not just that one day in September when he raised his game or put us on his back; it was every game to get there as well. I hope everyone remembers him for his whole career, not just the three Norm Smiths, because he has done a heap of stuff.

“Another thing I have noticed about him – he was really good at turning his nerves into excitement. When we talked about mindfulness and meditation and that stuff, we would talk about how those feelings are linked, being nervous and excited.

“And he was just really good at it. Whenever he got nervous, he turned it to excitement (in anticipation), like ‘it is going to be a tough game, I can’t wait to play’, (that) kind of thing.

“He just had that aura about him and he reckons, he has said this before, that the sound of the crowd when he is near the ball – he could actually feel that – and whether there was a crowd there or not, he felt that in his head.”