AFL Round 6: The master Dustin Martin meets the apprentice Christian Petracca in a mouth-watering clash at the MCG
It is the game within the blockbuster. All eyes will be monitoring Dusty v Petracca. Mark Robinson dissects the path both have taken to the MCG.
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Mark Ellis can remember waiting in the bar of the Reservoir Hotel in Bendigo as Dustin Martin gave his first ever interview in the hotel’s bistro.
It was 11am on a Thursday in mid-November 2008, about 10 days before one of the more astonishing blunders in AFL draft history.
“I remember that morning,’’ Ellis said.
That day — and probably for every interview that has followed — Martin spoke calmly and softly and with matter-of-fact self belief.
“I reckon I was born to play AFL,” Martin said.
“I don’t think I’m arrogant at all, like, it’s just something I want. I want to play AFL, that’s all I want to do.’’
He was 17. Talk about prophetic.
It’s the most extravagant comment he’s made about himself across a stellar 250-game career.
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Ellis, who had coached Martin at the Bendigo Pioneers, drove the teenager to the pub for that interview. He remembers how edgy he was.
“He didn’t think he was going to get drafted,’’ Ellis said.
“He was worried. When I say worried, you know what Dusty is like, he just loved playing footy but there was all this hype.
“But in my view, he could’ve played AFL football the last year of his TAC Cup.
“Yeah, ‘I was born to play AFL’ … he’s the same sort of kid and all he wants to do is play AFL footy.
“When he did that interview on Fox Footy with Nick Riewoldt recently, that was so good to hear. He just loves playing footy and that’s exactly what he’s like.”
Christian Petracca has never said, publicly at least, he was born to play AFL.
But you could imagine the precocious young lad thinking it.
His under-18 coach at the Eastern Ranges, Darren Bewick, said Petracca “thought he would either play NBA or AFL and he was pretty good at both of them”.
“He had an inner confidence not many boys have and he wasn’t shy in letting people know he was good, not in a show-off posing sort of way, just a real belief,’’ Bewick said.
While Martin was a nomadic youngster — he left Castlemaine to live with his bikie dad in Sydney before returning to the country town — Petracca grew up in Warrandyte on the Yarra.
He first represented Victoria at under-12 level and continued to play for his state throughout his junior years, culminating in winning the Larke Medal for the most valuable player at under-18 national championships.
He, too, was part of a national draft blunder.
In 2014, he was selected No.2 by Melbourne after St Kilda opted to replace Nick Riewoldt with Paddy McCartin with their No.1 selection.
Alan Richardson, then the St Kilda coach, is now director of coaching at the Demons. It’s almost like Richardson lost $100 in IGA and then walked outside and found $200.
There’s another story: What’s the biggest draft mistake? Melbourne taking Tom Scully (No.1) and Jack Trengove (No.2) ahead of Martin (No.3) in 2009? McCartin in front of Petracca in 2014? Richard Tambling at No.4 in the 2004 draft ahead of Lance Franklin at No.5? Or Aaron Fiora at No.3 and Matthew Pavlich at No.4 in 1999?
Anyhow, what a sliding doors moment for St Kilda, Melbourne, Petracca and Richardson.
On Saturday, Petracca plays his 108th game for the Demons. Against Richmond. And against Dusty.
It’s been billed as the Dusty v Petracca showdown, but it is far more than that.
The surging Demons confront the all-conquering Tigers.
Richmond’s self-belief is intimidating, it’s practically a weapon, and the Demons will be asked questions they haven’t been asked this season.
“What have got you today, boys?”
The same question is being asked of Petracca — regardless of that being fair or unfair.
It’s fair because Petracca’s football is elite and he’s Melbourne’s trigger man.
It’s unfair because Martin has been a superstar for five seasons and Petracca for the past 22 games.
Unquestionably, Petracca is riding the wave, as is Bulldog captain Marcus Bontempelli, but until they deliver in finals and, ultimately on Grand Final day, they are eating Martin’s dust, so to speak.
Nevertheless, Saturday is audit day for Petracca and Melbourne.
Saturday are the days why we love football. The contender confronts the champs. The master welcomes the apprentice.
That’s how Ross Lyon likened the Martin-Petracca face-off on Channel 9 on Wednesday night.
“No one has stood up when they’re needed more than Dusty … in Grand Finals and prelims, he’s turned games.’’ Lyon said.
“That’s the key for Petracca. The numbers are almost identical, clearances, score involvements, but what’s the difference?
“It’s going to be the quality of the opposition this week.’’
Asked if Petracca was the closest in the competition to Martin, Lyon said: “With attributes: Power, overhead, ground level, skill. But he’s got to do it in the moments.
“Hopefully (it’s) this week. It’s tight at three-quarter time or half-time and Petracca stands up and takes the moment like Dusty has done.’’
Both of them have a special quality such as recent greats Chris Judd, James Hird, Greg “Diesel” Williams, Brent and Robert Harvey, Simon Black and Scott Pendlebury, to name a couple.
With speed, power or grace, they controlled space as much as they controlled the ball.
It enables them to wrong foot opponents, or dismiss opponents as tackling threats.
It’s the sense of understanding body movement. They assess quickly the limits of the opponent’s movement and work around it.
They seem to make the game stop for them.
Richmond has successfully lived — and still does — the monumental hype surrounding Martin.
Melbourne and Petracca, for now, are different. The Demons do not want the adulation of performance concentrated on Petracca.
They are team first. One percenters. Defence. Role-playing. Selflessness
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was once the same. But he knows different now. He knows there is the team and then there’s Dusty.
“What guys like Dustin do is play the game,’’ he said.
“He doesn’t worry about what external people say or where they place him, he just controls what he controls.’’
That’s Phil Jackson talking about Kobe. Or Bill Belichick about Tom Brady.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin probably thinks the same about Petracca. But he won’t publicly declare it. Because he knows Petracca’s done nothing yet.
A great season doesn’t make a great career. That’s not to say it won’t happen.
Asked if he could see Petracca traits in Martin, Bewick said: “Most definitely. And in his own mind, he doesn’t want to be Dusty Martin, he wants to be better than Dusty Martin.
“That’s a great attitude to have and he’s developed a work ethic that is allowing him to that.’’
Jordan Lewis played three seasons with Petracca and is now helping coach the Melbourne midfield.
He has experienced the transformation in mind and body.
“I see a player who’s totally brought into what the team needs,’’ Lewis said.
“When they talk selflessness, we’re talking Christian Petracca.
“If you watch him at stoppage, you will see him block for a teammate, seem unselfish around goals, always finds the kick inside 50 when he’s not in a position to have a shot.
“He’s a real caring person and that’s the way he plays.
“He didn’t mean to do this, but he always thought he had to perform to satisfy the people he didn’t know.
“Now he’s on the selfless route and is still performing.
“He’s a genuine nice guy, but he’s developed that killer instinct. He’s competitive and he’s filthy when he gets beaten.
“It means something now. Any player at his level won’t be satisfied until they play finals and play well in finals.”
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Ellis coached Martin for a season and half at Bendigo. The half is because Martin didn’t turn up until halfway through a season.
He coached Martin like Hardwick coaches Martin.
“I didn’t have to teach him much,’’ Ellis said. “The beauty of what he did was he played football on instinct and you just let him go.
“I remember he got penalised a lot for doing what he’s famous for, the don’t argue.
“I still recall people saying to me I have to stop him doing it because the umpires were free kicking him, and I said, ‘just watch AFL football, they’re doing it all the time’. He was doing it before he got there.
“Defensively, he wasn’t great, but 17 other players were comfortable with that.
“The coaches wanted him to play on instinct. You just let him go. He would do more damage based on his instinct instead of worrying about whether he was going to chase or tackle someone.
“I remember going to Castlemaine to watch him play before he came to the Pioneers.
“He’d just come back from Sydney. From memory, at half-time he had six goals from centre half-forward.
“To me, and I know defence is a massive part of the game, but he was so enthusiastic and hungry to get the ball, he got it more times than he didn’t.
“It’s great to see what he’s done. He lets his footy do the talking.’’
Bewick and Petracca remain close enough.
A couple of seasons back, Petracca couldn’t quite unite his talent, work rate and performance, so he turned to his Eastern Ranges coach.
“He sent me a text message, saying, ‘can you let me know what we used to do in under-18s and how I used to go about it because I just feel I’m letting myself down and I’m not getting to where I should be’.
“I reckon it was three years ago and he was getting frustrated with himself.
“His wording was, ‘there’s blokes out there who I know I’m better than and I’m not playing anywhere near where I should be’.
“We’ve had a few conversations about it and it just got back to him playing footy, just do what you do really well.
“It was a little bit of, you know, don’t be unselfish in the way you play, it was like he had to do everything right for this team when, I think, his team needed him to be doing everything right for himself to allow the team to play well.
“He’s a terrific kid, he’s one in a million, but he’s only scratching the surface at the moment.’’
The same used to be said of Dusty when he was 25.
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