AFL Grand Final 2020: How Dustin Martin went from Castlemaine kid to modern-day great at Richmond
With Dustin Martin on the cusp of Norm Smith Medal history, and Gary Ablett looking for the fairytale ending, our experts make their predictions. Winner, Norm Smith, first goal.
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Dustin Martin the 17-year-old walked on to the Golden Square netball courts.
The cleanskin kid from Castlemaine had arrived at footy training early and decided to warm up with some party tricks.
He had no idea Richmond was watching.
“For 15 minutes I watched Dustin just in front of me – he didn’t know I was there – kicking boomerang goals from the netball court, which was lateral to the footy field,” Tigers recruiter Francis Jackson told the Herald Sun.
“I’d driven up to watch Dustin train – sometimes you can learn a bit watching them train – and I’ll never forget sitting there in the cold at Golden Square.”
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In 2009 an early draft choice beckoned for the Tigers after they sacked coach Terry Wallace at two wins and nine losses.
But Jordan McMahon’s goal after the final siren against Melbourne in Round 18 helped gift the Demons a priority pick in a game everyone bar the AFL accepts that the Dees threw.
Melbourne ended up with the first two golden selections in a draft flush for midfielders, and Martin had rattled to the finish line.
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In Martin’s final three TAC Cup matches he averaged 153 SuperCoach points and collected 32 disposals each time.
But the Tigers – armed with pick No. 3 – had fallen in love with the future megastar a long time before then and ranked him a clear No.1.
“I remember I saw him play as a bottom-age player and thought, ‘my goodness’,” Jackson said.
“His power and speed was just phenomenal. We were all over him.”
In August that year, the Tigers appointed Hawthorn assistant Damien Hardwick as coach over Geelong’s Ken Hinkley and, about four days before the national draft, their prayers were answered.
“We found out Melbourne were picking (Tom) Scully and (Jack) Trengove, and our recruiting department jumped straight in a car, drove up to Bendigo and organised to meet Dustin,” Jackson said.
“We went and played golf at Eaglehawk.
“Dustin had never played golf before and it was a bit like Happy Gilmore, he basically had a run up.
“We had lots of laughs and then we drove back to the Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo and had lunch with his mum (Kathy) and his grandma (Lois) and told him we were picking him, that we had strong advice Melbourne were taking Trengove and Scully and that Dustin was going to become a Tiger.
“They were delighted at that, and we were delighted with Dustin, because we knew he had attributes that were unique.”
Martin’s boomerangs from the Golden Square netball courts can be traced back to a childhood spent attached to a Sherrin.
His parents converted one of the paddocks at the family farm into football field complete with goalposts.
“Before school in the morning he would go out and have a kick. Then he’d come home from school, drop his bag at the door and he’d be out kicking the football again,” Lois said.
“When he was five he had a football in his hand all the time.
“He’d sleep with it and even go to bed with a St Kilda cap on.”
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Martin’s Nan delivered that anecdote to the Herald Sun shortly after he had won his first Norm Smith Medal in 2017, in a week in which Martin also became a premiership player and Brownlow Medallist.
Perhaps he was a touch fortunate in the ’17 Grand Final.
Both Hardwick and Adelaide coach Don Pyke thought Bachar Houli was best-on-ground, as did Wallace, who voted on the medal.
But the AFL world was giddy with “Dusty” fever at the time and it was fitting that he capped one of the best individual seasons ever seen with a trio of medals, having just polled a record 36 Brownlow votes and inked an $8.75 million contract extension.
Last year, it was a different story.
Martin (four goals) was the unanimous choice for a second Norm Smith Medal and, against Geelong on Saturday night, he has the chance to become the game’s first three-time winner of the prestigious award in history.
“Geez, imagine becoming a three-time Norm Smith winner,” said Gary Ayres, the first person to win two.
“Uniqueness and greatness, they’re two words that come to mind.”
Ayres won the medal in 1986 and 1988 and was joined by Andrew McLeod (1997-98), Luke Hodge (2008 and 2014) and then Martin (2017 and 2019) as the only multiple recipients.
Hawthorn heroes Ayres and Hodge both marvelled at Martin’s “elite” consistency.
Ayres, now a VFL coaching legend at Port Melbourne and former Cats and Adelaide coach, said Geelong needed to find someone with size and strength after Martin treated lightweight preliminary final match-up Darcy Byrne-Jones like one of his TAC Cup opponents.
“As an old defender you really want that pressure to be high-octane when the ball is coming in,” Ayres said.
“He’s such a powerful mark and powerful athlete but someone who’s got a little bit more size on Dusty and is just as strong, if not stronger, would be a suggestion from an old ex-coach.”
Jake Kolodashnij looms as the man, although Hodge warned that Martin could burn you twice.
How often does Kane Lambert start forward and spit into the midfield, giving Martin a deadly amount of freedom?
“He’s got some teammates around him that are playing really selfless roles around half-forward who work up for him,” Hodge said.
“He gets to either exploit a midfielder who’s not as strong as him when he sneaks forward, or if he plays forward he can work up the ground and exploit a defender who isn’t as smart around a stoppage.
“Having a bloke who can play mid and forward and do both equally well … it’s a dangerous match-up.”
Hodge won his Norm Smiths two years apart and pocketed his second after his 30th birthday.
It has him thinking Martin won’t be done devouring finals by 10pm at the Gabba.
“For a bloke who’s 29, and if you assess Richmond’s list and where they’re going, I’m tipping he’s going to be playing finals for the next few years,” Hodge said.
“What he could be …. who knows?”
THE DUAL WINNERS
AYRES ON 1986 (Hawthorn defeated Carlton by 42 points)
“Tucky (Michael Tuck) and I had to have a fitness test on the Friday morning. I’d sustained a hamstring injury in the prelim and Tucky, from memory, had a bit of a crook back.
“‘Yabby’ (coach Allan Jeans) drove us down to the back oval at Scotch College. He said, ‘I don’t want anyone to see you, you’d better get changed in the car’.
“It might’ve looked a bit bizarre if people had mobile phones back then. To be brutally honest, I wasn’t far away from tearing the god damn thing.
“I had an injection before the game in the hammy to make sure everything was OK and then having to play on (David) Rhys-Jones, who was a match winner in the second semi-final.
“The injection started wearing off just prior to halftime. I’ve actually gone in and got another jab and within two or three days you should’ve seen the bruise on the back of my hamstring.
“But we didn’t want to lose another one, we’d lost ’84 and ’85.”
AYRES ON 1988 (Hawthorn defeated Melbourne by 96 points)
“We’d come off winning ‘86 and then losing ‘87 to Carlton, and Jeansy had had his brain aneurysm, Joycey (Alan Joyce) steps in.
“I started in the back pocket, but then Chrissy Wittman (elbow) got injured and we were challenged with making sure we had a particular opponent, and mine was Greg Healy.
“I followed him on the ball once Chris went down, and back to the back pocket in the last quarter because Tucky pulled rank.”
HODGE ON 2008 (Hawthorn defeated Geelong by 26 points)
“At Round 17, when we lost to Geelong I ended up moving to halfback. We had a number of really good on-ballers with Mitch (Sam Mitchell) and Lewy (Jordan Lewis) and (Brad) Sewell and Crawf (Shane Crawford), and then half-forwards with Chance (Bateman) and Ossie (Michael Osborne).
“I was lucky enough to get it, but Sewelly was outstanding, Clinton Young was probably best-on before he hurt himself, you had Xavier Ellis who was also outstanding as well. We were on cloud nine because we beat a team that no one really gave us a chance to beat.”
HODGE ON 2014 (Hawthorn defeated Sydney by 63 points)
“I know I got it, but there was Jordan Lewis, there was Sam Mitchell. There were so many guys that could’ve got it.
“Mine were six years apart, so in ’14 it was a mix — Clarko (coach Alastair Clarkson) liked to rotate players around. So I played a bit of midfield, a lot of halfback and occasionally half-forward.”
MCLEOD, SPEAKING IN 2015, ON 1997 (Adelaide defeated St Kilda by 31 points and in 1998 the Crows defeated North Melbourne by 35 points)
“Leading into the ‘97 finals I’d had a reasonably good year, it was probably a breakout year for me and I started to feel comfortable in the seniors playing off halfback.
“If they’d (North) kicked straight we might’ve been in a bit of trouble, I do remember ‘Blighty’ (coach Malcolm Blight) giving us a fair bake at halftime.
“He asked me if I’d go in the middle and he had that look on his face where he looked you right in the eye and wanted to get something out of you. Bring it on, let’s go.”
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