Dustin Martin: How Castlemaine kid became one of the game’s greatest ever players
His exploits on the field are legendary but he is notoriously private about his personal life, offering few insights into his life away from sport. So who is Dustin Martin?
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Widely regarded as one of the greatest ever to play the game, Dustin Martin has achieved virtually everything there is to achieve at the highest levels of football - and he’s not done yet.
But while the 31-year-old’s exploits on the field are legendary, Martin is notoriously private about his personal life, offering few insights into his life away from sport.
As Callum Twomey from AFL.com.au writes, this is the paradox of Dustin Martin. A man about whom we “simultaneously know everything and nothing”.
In his 2019 book, Dustin Martin: My Story So Far” the self-effacing footballer hinted that he was somewhat confused by the public’s interest in him.
“I don’t really know why everyone is intrigued by me; I just want to play footy,” he wrote.
EARLY YEARS
Martin, otherwise known as “Dusty”, was born to Shane Martin and Kathy Knight in the small Victorian Goldfields town of Castlemaine on June 26, 1991. One of three children, Martin has two brothers; Tyson and Bronson.
His father, who was Maori, arrived in Australia when he was 21 and played football at Harcourt and Kangaroo Flat in the Bendigo league but, according to Dusty, “he wasn’t any good at footy”.
Martin left school after Year 9, in part because his parents separated and his father was living in Sydney.
JUNIOR FOOTBALL
Martin’s passion for football was evident from an early age.
“I was like any young kid, loved his footy. Mum and Dad introduced me to Auskick when I was five or six and I’ve loved footy ever since,” Martin writes in his book.
He began playing junior football in the under-10s at Campbells Creek, just a short drive down the road from his home in Castlemaine.
Even then he was exciting to watch and at least some of the adults around him could see he was destined for greater things.
“When he played in our juniors you could tell that he had something special,” Steve Adamson, who coached Martin in the under-12s told the Bendigo Advertiser in 2017.
“As a 10-year-old he could kick so well on both his left and right foot… who does that at 10 years of age?.”
At 18, Martin played a full season with the Bendigo Pioneers before he was drafted to the AFL.
DUSTY HITS THE BIG LEAGUE
Martin was drafted to the AFL in 2009, making his debut in round one of the 2010 season.
Before that, he sat down with the Herald Sun’s chief football writer, Mark Robinson, in a Bendigo pub and explained that playing on the national stage was his destiny.
“I reckon I was born to play AFL,” he said.
Bit arrogant? Robinson asked.
“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.
“I just want it so bad. I don’t care where I play, as long as I get the opportunity.”
So off he went to Richmond, to do the thing he always felt he was born to do.
Martin has been a powerhouse at the Tigers, helping the club win three flags over the last five years, including their first in almost forty years in 2017.
He was on fire that year, picking up the Best and Fairest, the Brownlow Medal and the Leigh Matthews Trophy for the most valuable player in the AFL, as voted by his peers.
Martin said he was “incredibly humbled” to become the first Tiger ever to receive the award.
Some have called his performance in 2017 the greatest individual performance in a season by any player, ever.
CONTROVERSIES
Martin’s achievements on the field have meant he has attracted close public and media attention around his life off it.
Martin gropes woman’s breast
In late August, 2022, shock video emerged that showed Martin groping a topless woman’s breast from behind.
The video appeared to have been recorded at a strip club but it was not clear when, or where, the incident happened.
In the video, Martin reaches around the semi-naked woman’s body to jiggle her right breast while she sits on another man’s lap.
The AFL said it was aware of the video and was investigating.
‘Chopstickgate’
In December 2015, Martin was accused of threatening to stab a woman in the face with a pair of chopsticks at a Japanese restaurant.
The AFL and Victoria Police conducted separate investigations into the claim and ruled that while he was drunk, the Richmond midfielder had not committed a criminal act and had no case to answer.
“There is no evidence to support the allegation that Dustin Martin physically threatened the complainant,” the AFL said in a statement.
Richmond also opted not to sanction Martin over the incident “as no threat to harm occurred”.
“Nonetheless, the club is disappointed that Dustin was intoxicated on the night,” the-then Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale said.
“When challenged by the complainant for being disruptive, he was argumentative and used obscene language”.
The woman at the centre of the incident told the Herald Sun she was “pleased to see they have treated my concerns seriously and launched this review”.
Pressed about the incident on The Footy Show in 2017, Martin admitted to being drunk at the restaurant where the incident occurred but denied he threatened anyone.
“I’d just been out during the day at a music festival, had a bit too much to drink and was at a restaurant,” he said.
“It (the incident) wasn’t much, certainly didn’t threaten anyone”.
Asked whether he felt attacked and that his treatment by the media was unfair, Martin replied
“It is what it is, it’s in the past now - it was a difficult time at the time”.
In an apology, issued via the club, Martin said: “Regrettably, I was intoxicated and that, in itself, is completely unacceptable.
“I do, however, take responsibility for my behaviour and I am deeply embarrassed.
“If anything I have said or done has caused anyone to feel threatened, then that is totally inappropriate.”
Drug sledge
In 2019, Martin found himself in the AFL’s bad books after he sledged GWS ruckman Shane Mumford who, the year before, was seen on video snorting a white powder.
Mumford was fined $25,000 and suspended for two weeks.
During a clash between the Tigers and the Giants, Martin directed a sledge towards Mumford, flipping him the bird and making a snorting gesture with his finger and nose.
He appeared to say “have another line, you loser”.
The AFL requested a “please explain” and Martin was fined $7500- $5000 of which was suspended until 2020.
He also tweeted an apology, which commentators Mark Robinson and Gerard Whateley slammed as insincere.
“How wishy-washy is that? What a joke. The whole thing’s been a joke,” Robinson said.
“And he only did it because he was told. If he was going to apologise he would have apologised an hour after the game”.
DINNER WITH SYDNEY IDENTITY
In 2020, the AFL expressed concern after Martin was photographed having lunch with major gambling figure and former brothel owner Eddie Hayson in Sydney.
Heyson was once investigated for allegedly using inside information from NRL players for his gambling exploits - allegations he strenuously denied.
There was no evidence of any wrongdoing or anything untoward about Martin’s catch-up with Hayson.
But as News Corp’s Glenn McFarlane wrote, the fact the dinner was raised with NSW Police after a tip-off from sports watchdog Sports Integrity Australia “wasn’t the image the AFL needed as it prepared to close the book on 2020”.
An AFL spokesman said of Martin’s catch-up with Hayson at the time:“The AFL, through ongoing education and briefings, constantly reminds players and clubs about the need to take care and be mindful of who they associate with”.
DUSTY LOSES HIS DAD
Martin suffered a personal tragedy in late 2021 with the passing of dad Shane in New Zealand.
Shane was deported to New Zealand in 2016 on character grounds, because of his ties to the Rebels motorcycle gang.
He had been the president of the Rebels’ Camden chapter in Sydney and was pictured in his colours at a bikie funeral.
Shane, who was 54 when he died, was deported as part of a crackdown on bikies by then-Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
As the Herald Sun reported, Shane hired top barrister James Forsaith to fight his case and in 2017 Mr Forsaith forced Mr Dutton to concede in Federal Court in 2017 that his deportation was based on a legal error.
However, Shane was still not allowed back into Australia because Mr Dunnot threatened to cancel his visa upon arrival.
Dustin had a close relationship with his father and made frequent trips to New Zealand to visit him before the Covid pandemic.
“I love my dad and he’s made me the man I am today,” Dustin said in an exclusive interview with Fox Footy’s Nick Riewoldt just a few months before Shane’s death.
“I’ve got full belief he’ll (be) back here to watch us win another flag.
“That’s my dream to be able to have the old man up there (in the grandstand) with the rest of my family and watch the Tigers win another flag.”
But his dad never got back to Australia.
As news.com.au reported, a coroner found Shane died at home after suffering a heart attack with drugs for treating depression and pain and steroids in his system.
Subsequent post-mortem tests found his heart was enlarged and was twice the size of an average man’s heart when he died.
At the time of his death, Shane was reportedly facing violent criminal charges after he allegedly punched a women in the face, threw her around a bedroom and squeezed her around the neck.
He had pleaded not guilty to charges of male assaults female, strangulation, burglary and illegal possession of steroids.
LOVE LIFE
Martin has kept his love life under wraps but in April, 2021 a rumour linked him to Australian model Jessica Gomes.
According to the rumour, the pair caught up for dinner several times but it was not clear if they were dating or just friends.
Gomes declined to comment, as did Martin’s agent.
THE FUTURE
At 31, Martin remains a major asset to both the Tigers and the game itself.
Despite speculation about his future at the Tigers, he remains the highest paid player in the competition, with an annual salary between $1.2m-$1.3m.
As News Corp’s Glenn McFarlane, Jon Ralph, Jay Clark and Marc McGowan wrote in their 2022 AFL Rich 100, Martin has only played eight games in 2022 after hurting his hamstring against West Coast in Round 16 but is expected to return in time for the finals and undoubtedly have a massive impact if and when he does.
But what about Dusty’s future beyond September?
Martin still has two years to run on a seven-year, $9m contract with Richmond, which is desperate to keep him in the yellow and black.
But the star player has also been the subject of speculation he may retire, or play out his career in Queensland or Sydney.
“Dusty loves Sydney,” Martin’s agent Ralph Carr said in 2021.
“He’s there a lot and he originally lived in Camden with his dad. You’ve got to live there to really know how good it is.”
Pressed on whether that meant Dusty would end up at the Swans, Carr said: “I can’t say, that’s a big question. He’s got two years to go at Richmond and it’s too early to say where he might finish up.”
He believed Martin still had several more years of footy left in him and could become “Australia’s version of Tom Brady”, the NFL champion who is currently playing his 23rd season, aged 45.
“He’s capable of playing until he’s 36 or 38,” Carr said.
“The way his body is he can be Australia’s version of Tom Brady.
“They’re talking about him as the greatest ever and I don’t think anyone will beat his record of three flags and three Norm Smith Medals.
“He wants to play for as long as he possibly can.”
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