Adelaide Crows plan to bring Dustin Martin to his knees in the AFL grand final but insist Richmond isn't a one-man band
RORY Sloane says Adelaide will try to “take down’’ Richmond superstar Dustin Martin in Saturday’s AFL grand final but insists the Tigers are more than a one-man band.
RORY Sloane says Adelaide will try to “take down’’ Richmond superstar Dustin Martin in Saturday’s AFL grand final but insists the Tigers are more than a one-man band.
New Brownlow Medallist Martin looms as the grand final gamebreaker after setting the record for most Brownlow votes in a season (36) at Monday night’s count and producing what AFL great Leigh Matthews has described as “the greatest season in the history of the game”.
Sloane said the favoured Crows would try to make their tackles “stick’’ against the famous Martin fend-offs but that the powerful midfielder-forward was just one of their concerns.
“It’s not just a Dustin Martin team, there’s another 21 guys out there who we will have to focus on,” Sloane said.
“Yeah, he’s a big part of that team and we certainly want to take him down and make sure we stick those tackles when we can.
“But there’s a lot of other parts of football that we need to get right to beat Richmond. It's not just the ‘Dusty’ show’ and that he’s the reason why they’ve got to a grand final.
“Their midfield goes really deep, they’ve got a lot of stars in there and a lot of guys that have played unbelievable years.
“That’s why they’ve played such good footy, because they all chip in and play their role.’’
Sloane however admitted the Crows players have to ensure they hold their tackles to ensure Martin doesn’t split them wide open.
“There’s probably a couple of different (tackling) techniques people might have ideas on,” Sloane said of Martin’s unique ability to brush opponents aside.
“Tackling is a lot about intent and your aggression to just get at blokes.”
Norm Smith Medal favourite Martin was voted best-on-ground by the umpires in 11 of Richmond's 22 home-and-away games and has been its finals star.
He leads the AFL Coaches Association’s Gary Ayres Award as best finals player with 17 votes — two ahead of midfield team-mate and fellow Brownlow Medallist Trent Cotchin.
Sloane, meanwhile, says injured team-mate Mitch McGovern will need to prove his fitness at today’s main training session to put his hand up for grand final selection.
High-flying key forward McGovern missed Adelaide’s crushing 10-goal preliminary final win against Geelong after hurting his left hamstring in the club’s scratch match at Football Park six days earlier.
Sloane said McGovern, who is considered unlikely to play in the grand final, had “nothing to lose” by pushing himself to the limit at training.
“He either gets up and plays or he doesn’t but we’ll give him absolutely every chance,’’ Sloane said.
“He’s been running but he hasn't done a main training session yet, so he is going to have to prove himself.
“He needs to do everything at training and be confident in it (the hamstring) and be absolutely cherry-ripe to play (to be selected).’’