Is Richmond Grand Final GOAT Dustin Martin officially unstoppable after performance against Geelong?
Geelong skipper Joel Selwood says the Cats had a number of plans to try and curtail Dustin Martin’s influence – none of which worked. It begs the question: Can the Tiger superstar be stopped on the big stage?
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Is Dustin Martin at a point where no level of opposition planning can properly foil his influence?
It is a theory Geelong believes might have some truth after being rendered powerless to stop the Richmond superstar’s heroics in Saturday night’s Grand Final.
The Cats revealed they had a number of plans to curtail Martin that were simply obliterated as he kicked four telling goals to clinch his third Norm Smith Medal.
“He was finding the ball in a phone box at times,” Geelong captain Joel Selwood said after Martin ran rampant to confirm his status as one of the greatest finals players the game has seen.
“We had a plan for him. We had a couple of different plans for him. He’s a good player, he’s a hell of a player.”
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Asked if Martin was “unplannable”, Selwood said: “maybe, maybe, yep, maybe”.
Geelong stuck all night with the strong-bodied but agile defender Jake Kolodjashnij, the man the Cats have turned to all season to blunt the impact of the opposition’s best mid-sized forward.
Kolodjashnij hardly disgraced himself, it was just that Martin turned every flash of an opportunity into a series of breathtaking goals.
Martin’s first major stemmed Geelong’s momentum when the Cats were almost four goals clear, just 90 seconds from halftime.
With his momentum moving away from goal, and Kolodjashnij bearing down, Martin somehow hooked the ball across his body.
It proved to be a warning of the highlights to come.
His two goals in the last quarter landed the knockout blows.
One he stepped through traffic from outside 50; the other he slipped a Patrick Dangerfield tackle and snapped from the pocket.
“Jake has played against some really good players this year. He’s won a lot of battles,” Selwood said.
“But he’s going to remember this one, which is unfortunate. That would just make him better, drive him to be better.”
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— AFL (@AFL) October 25, 2020
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1ï¸âƒ£ Dustin Martin.#AFLGF pic.twitter.com/RxqXpgCJ8I
Dangerfield described Martin’s performance as “incredible”.
“He’s a champion of our game,” he said.
“He was dominant tonight. That’s what great players do, they perform when the stakes are at their highest.
“He’s done that consistently over the past couple of years.”
SHAW: HOW I WOULD STOP DUSTY
– Mark Robinson
We’ll call him the Space Invader.
The player — probably Geelong’s Cam Guthrie — who has the job to corral Dustin Martin in the midfield in Saturday’s Grand Final.
It’s not a run-with role, or a full-on tag, or a shoulder-to-shoulder assignment at stoppages.
It’s a corralling role, says Magpies premiership captain Tony Shaw.
The one-time stopper, who won the 1990 Norm Smith Medal, says Guthrie has to stand goal side of Martin, maybe 1.5m or 2m off him, to cut off Martin streaming forward of the stoppage.
It’s easier said than accomplished, of course.
It’s about cutting angles, Shaw says.
“It’s stopping him using space and you are the invader to stop that happening,’’ Shaw said.
“You don’t need body strength if you cut the angles.”
If Martin wins the clearance at throw-ins, and he will, it’s about forcing him to the boundary side.
If Martin wins the clearance in the centre square, and he will, it’s about denying him straight-line running through the middle of the ground.
If Martin is the second receiver at any stoppage, and he will be, it’s about limiting his damage by foot.
Richmond does it to the opposition every week via captain Trent Cotchin.
He plays a defensive mid role, or defensive sweeper, at stoppages and has become a more influential player than he was as a freewheeling mid.
In another era, Joel Corey was Geelong’s weapon in that regard.
Shaw argues it’s the role for one player with teammates to help.
“You have to be smart,” Shaw says. “If you’re going to use it, it will have to be Guthrie or Duncan because they do have some defensive thought process about them.
“If they’re doing team defence, but you’re trying to stop the impact of one of the best players in the competition, everyone’s got to relate around that bloke positioning on Dusty at the stoppages.
“If you can stop the best stoppage player in the opposition side by positioning, your teammates have to understand that.
“It’s about being goal side to him. If you can go with him on speed, you cut down the distance (from him), but if you can’t go with him on speed, you’ve got to open up the distance, it might be 2m off him goal side.
“I’m just thinking, if you’ve got a bloke who has the capacity to smash you around the clearances and really hurt by foot, and that’s Dusty, you’ve got to put time into him and everyone else around the stoppage has to know you’re role has to change to suit that.”
Shaw says Martin has shown time and again he can push off opponents when shoulder to shoulder or he gets the block applied from teammates, so that tactic doesn’t work sufficiently on the two-time Norm Smith medallist.
“If I’m playing against Dusty, and I’m slower than him, you play inside knowing your limitations,” Shaw says.
“You have to have help from your teammates because you can’t cordon everything off, but the main place where you allow him to get the ball is running around the back of the umpire.
“But what he’s not doing is running through the midfield or forward of the stoppage.
“You know the one — he gets it, no one’s put time into him, then he gets around you, he’s running into space and kicks it a mile or hits someone on the chest.
“Dusty running forward is where you get hurt.
“For me, to put my body on him when I lack leg speed as a tagger, he’s just going to smash you, so I’m sitting two metres or three metres inside, probably forward of Dusty a fraction.
“It stops him running forward.”
There’s the midfield/stoppage strategy for Martin.
Which then leaves the forward 50m strategy for Dusty. That is wholly different again.
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