Dustin Martin told Mark Robinson at age 17: I was born to play AFL
HE’S the AFLPA MVP and Richmond’s best hope of ending a 37-year-old flag drought. But that’s no surprise reading Dustin Martin’s comments days before the 2009 draft. READ ROBBO’S INTERVIEW
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LAST night Dustin Martin was voted by his peers as the best player in the AFL this year — by 557 votes.
In two weeks he is expected to be a Brownlow medallist, and could be preparing for a Grand Final as Richmond’s best hope of breaking a 37-year premiership drought.
REVOLUTION: HAVE THE TIGERS CHANGED FOOTY?
That’s no surprise to the man himself — just ask 17-year Dusty. Two weeks before the national draft he sat down in a Bendigo pub with Mark Robinson. And his answers make very interesting reading in 2017.
Here’s Robbo’s article from eight years ago ...
THERE’S a fine line between confidence, arrogance and reality, and Dustin Martin doesn’t seem to be ruffled by any moniker.
The probable No.3 draft pick — which points him at Richmond — is so immersed in what he wants and his self-belief, that his philosophy may well raise eyebrows even before he plays an AFL game.
This guy, who was named centre in the All-Australian under-18 team, is young, brutally honest and a school leaver after Year 9, partly because his parents split and Dad was living in Sydney.
He talks slowly and softly about his footy, bluntly about his life and when he tells you he believes he was born to play AFL, it’s difficult not to tell him there is no such a thing.
Whatever generation we are up to, say hello to Gen Next.
“I reckon I was born to play AFL,” he said.
Bit arrogant?
“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 a long as I get the opportunity.”
He has spoken to 12 clubs, and not Melbourne, which doesn’t surprise him.
He, like everyone, expects Tom Scully and Jack Trengove to go No.1 and No.2.
He has met Richmond twice, before and during the draft camp.
“I think they’re pretty keen,” he said.
“No one has said they’ll take me yet. If it’s Richmond, it will be awesome, over the moon.”
If it is Richmond, the expectations on him - as they are on Trent Cotchin - will be, well, Richmond-like: Please, please, deliver.
He says he is not daunted. “They’ve got a lot of young players coming through, I reckon it would be unreal to help the club get up and going. If I get there, I’ll work as hard as I can pre-season and get as fit as I can.
“And if I get really fit I reckon I’m a chance to play first game. I’ve got the ability, I just have to work on my fitness, get super-fit.
“I really want to do this. I’ll just do my best and do what the coaches think; I’m not better than anyone else; I’ll just work as hard as I can for the team.”
Martin was born and bred in Castlemaine.
His dad Shane is a Maori who arrived in Australia when he was 21, and played at Harcourt and then Kangaroo Flat in the Bendigo league.
“He (Dad) wasn’t any good at footy, and I don’t think mum’s (Kathy) played any sport,” he said, wondering where the talent came from.
As for Martin’s desire for the contest, which has wowed recruiters, that comes from the old man.
“When he used to play footy he reckons he was a real hard nut, he reckons he used to clean blokes up,” he laughs.
“Everyone knew him as Kiwi. Apparently in his first game he kicked a goal for the opposition because he didn’t know what he was doing.”
While playing under-16s footy, Martin and Castlemaine High learnt they had irreconcilable differences, forcing dad to move him to Sydney.
“I was playing up at school. I didn’t like school, so Dad made me move up with him to pull me into line a little bit,” he said.
“I just wasn’t a fan of school. I hated it, but I regret it now, I wish I had stayed at school.”
His future is footy and personal training, in which he has certificate three and is chasing certificate four.
At the draft camp, where clubs probe and poke players like laboratory rats, Martin expected questions about his schooling.
But not what Port Adelaide delivered.
“I think I was talking to Port Adelaide and they asked me about when I left school and stuff like that,” he said.
“Sometimes I’m a little bit embarrassed to say I left that early, but, yeah, Port Adelaide asked me if I was dumb and I said no.”
They used word dumb?
“Yeah.”
Harsh?
“I don’t mind.”
In Sydney, he worked at Dad’s transport business and at his Dad’s girlfriend’s sports apparel business, at the same time having a run with the Campbelltown Blues under-18s. He was rewarded with a senior game at the end of the season.
He returned to Victoria at the end of ’07, played senior football for Castlemaine and the last four games for the Bendigo Pioneers in 2008, and most of this year with the Pioneers, where he was runner-up in the best-and-fairest.
Martin is an inside player who wins his own ball, is accomplished outside, loves to try to break tackles, was rated the second-best kick at the draft camp — with both feet — and was second with 2.89sec over 20m.
In other words, he is quick, tough, and uses the ball.
Someone close to him described him as Lenny Hayes with a touch more polish.
Hayes is 186cm and 85kg. Martin is 187cm and 87kg.
Martin also likes Joel Selwood, another Bendigo product.
“I like Lenny Hayes and Joel Selwood,” he said.
“Joel is definitely similar to the way I want to play, just the way he wins the footy, gets it out, gets it again, his decision-making and vision, and without the footy he’s really good.”
For Bendigo, Martin averaged 24.7 touches (9.7 contested) and 115 SuperCoach points in 11 games.
For Vic Country in the under-18 championships, his numbers slightly dropped to 21.4 (7.2) and 111 points in five games.
At Bendigo, he was ranked No. 1 in disposals, contested possessions, clearances, inside-50s and score assists.
In the final under-18 match of the national championships, against Western Australia, the whole football industry watched Martin gather 28 touches, five clearances and an astonishing 193 SuperCoach points.
His All-Australian selection didn’t explode his head.
“I wasn’t, ‘Oh my God, I’m centre for the All Australian’. I just got on with playing footy,” he said.
It’s the same when peers tell him he’s going to Richmond.
“I hear that all the time, but anything can happen on draft day,” he said.
Still, he thinks he will be a Tiger. But when football is your gateway to life, even the very confident can get very vulnerable.
“I’m scared of not getting drafted,” he said.
“When I’m lying down in bed, I think, ‘It would be just so s--- if I didn’t get drafted’.”
He need not worry.
DUSTIN MARTIN
Age: 18
Height: 187cm
Weight: 87kg
Position: Midfielder
Lives: Bendigo
Club: Bendigo Pioneers
Bloodlines: Father is from New Zealand, and only played low-level Australian football.
Draft Camp: Second in kicking accuracy and in the 20m sprint (2.89s).
Injury watch: Nothing of note.
The mail: Strong, hard-at-it competitor, highly skilled left and right, and can run. Will go at No.3 to the Tigers.
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