Richmond AFL star Dustin Martin racks up goals off the field

Richmond’s Dustin Martin has been busy setting himself up off the field. Picture: Getty Images

Who said footy players weren’t switched on?

Richmond great Dustin Martin is set to play his 300th game for the AFL’s Tigers on Saturday, with the star midfielder maintaining a low profile in the lead-up to his milestone as media outlets scrambled for access to the 32-year-old.

Martin likes to let his footy speak for itself – three Norm Smith medals, a Brownlow Medal and three premierships – and it seems he’s taken a similar, low-profile approach to building his wealth off the field as his 15-year AFL career has unfolded.

Martin is a director and shareholder of myriad corporate entities, many of which he shares as co-owner and fellow director with his high-profile manager Ralf Carr. Carr was once married to music star Tina Arena.

Martin appears to also have his own self-managed super fund and associated trustee company. Among many others, there’s ­vehicles called DM Capital, DM Management, Victoria House (Abbotsford), Butler Property Group and, separately, Butler Property Corporation.

Aside from investments and sponsorship deals with the likes of Bonds, previously Puma and most recently Archies, Dusty has set himself up for a future beyond footy with a roughly $10m portfolio of bricks-and-mortar residential and commercial property in Melbourne – notably, all outside of the suburb of Richmond.

There are two commercial retail properties in Abbotsford, as well as two homes on the other, fancier side of the inner city. They comprise a home on Albert Park’s prestigious Kerferd Rd and another expansive modern apartment overlooking Port Phillip Bay in Albert Park.

Martin is reportedly paid about $1.2m-$1.3m a season at Richmond, which is one of the AFL’s most popular and financially successful teams.

The club continues its controversial operation of poker machines – one of four clubs along with Carlton, St Kilda and Essendon to continue to do so. Figures from the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission reveal the club received $4.6m through 97 machines at the Wantirna Club in Melbourne’s east.

All of which feeds nicely into the club’s ability to pay players and Dusty’s plan to set up nicely for life after footy.

Gale force

Meanwhile, Dusty Martin’s chief at Richmond (at least until the end of the 2024 season), Brendon Gale has ever so quietly executed an under-the-radar property play and move of his own, all within the prestigious 3186 Bayside postcode.

Richmond CEO Brendon Gale. Picture: AFL Photos

Gale announced last month that this would be his last year at Richmond, with the highly regarded sports administrator to take charge of the code’s new team that is being established in Tasmania. Gale was born on the Apple Isle and still has familial ties there.

But for now Gale, who also played in his heyday for Richmond and was a hotly speculated contender for the CEO’s job at the AFL which went to Andrew Dillon, is staying with his family, including wife Jane and kids, in Brighton.

Earlier this year the couple successfully sold their renovated Edwardian on New St, netting $6.8m in the process in a deal that only settled at the end of last month.

Now, Margin Call can reveal that the Gales have also in recent weeks settled on their new home, nearby in the affluent suburb, opting to spend less than they made from their sale, paying $5.8m for a grand Spanish-style residence with obligatory spool.

Gale hasn’t said what he will do next, but remains a non-executive director of David Di Pilla’s listed HMC Capital, which has about $8bn in assets under management. He sits on that board alongside the likes of former Liberal federal pollie Kelly O’Dwyer and rich lister Zac Fried, who is the nephew of Morry Fraid of the Spotlight group.

The Gale family also has another home on the ocean side at Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Plenty to take them away from in favour of Tassie.

Sun and games

Bill Papas, the character allegedly behind the $500m Forum Group bank fraud, seemed relaxed and comfortable on a beach in Greece this week, unperturbed by the Australian Federal Court setting down a decision date for Westpac’s case against the businessman.

Papas, snapped in his spotted budgies beneath a beach umbrella on the sand by our clever contemporaries at The Greek Herald, looked tanned, well-nourished and unshaven, just as the court here revealed that its judgment in the Forum case would be handed down in October.

Bill Papas spotted on a beach in Greece. Picture: The Greek Herald

Papas, who’d for some time been living the high life in Oz, quickly left for Greece about three years ago after Westpac cottoned on to his alleged humongous fraud on the bank and others via fake asset financing.

Self-imposed exile in Europe’s southernmost country was a logical destination for Papas, who allegedly used some of the money from the Forum fraud to buy luxury properties in Greece, several companies as well as a Superleague 2 soccer team Xanthi FC.

Arguments in the Federal Court case ended in February last year, but have been delayed after Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman subsequently sustained serious injuries in a car crash.

The Greek summer and waters of the Mediterranean, we are sure, can be such a tonic for one’s extreme anxiety.

Liquidators McGrathNicol are also pursuing Forum Finance funds from a spider’s web of companies associated with Papas and his colleagues, including fellow director Vincenzo Tesoriero. Bring on the court’s decision in October. The European summer will be over by then anyway.