2019 AFL Grand Final: Dustin Martin wins his second Norm Smith Medal after Richmond beat Greater Western Sydney at MCG
Richmond’s Dustin Martin has his second Norm Smith Medal. Is he the AFL’s current best?
A week that started with Fremantle champion Nat Fyfe claiming a second Brownlow Medal has finished with Richmond’s Dustin Martin snaring a second Norm Smith Medal.
Exactly who is the competition’s best footballer will remain a matter of partisan conjecture. But there can be no denying the remarkable ability of Martin to excel on football’s biggest stage, as demonstrated in his brilliant performance against the Giants at the MCG on Saturday.
He joins Hawthorn’s Gary Ayres (1986 and 1988) and Luke Hodge (2008 and 2014) as well as Adelaide champion Andrew McLeod (1997/98) as a dual winner of the award.
The 28-year-old was dynamic from the opening term through to the final moments when anointed best afield among an ambush of Tigers who excelled in Richmond’s 89-point triumph.
Martin kicked the Tigers’ first goal of the match with 90 seconds remaining in the opening term and snared their second last of the celebration amid a dominant effort.
The 2017 Brownlow Medallist finished the match with four goals from 22 possessions. Emphasising his remarkable strength, more than half of those touches were won in a contested fashion.
As is always the case when Martin is in the mood, he is almost impossible to stop. And that proved the case in the decider.
Be it in the middle of the ground, where he won the first possession of the grand final with a handful, to his exploits in attack when always threatening, Martin was at his match-winning best.
There had been significant intrigue surrounding the Tiger and how he would fare in this grand final.
He received a corked thigh against the Cats in last week’s preliminary final which sapped the acceleration from his sprint through the second term of that match.
The usually unflappable champion had previously been annoyed to the point of distraction when beaten by Giant Matt de Boer in Round 3 in Sydney.
He lost his cool in that clash, flipped the bird towards Giants fans and was ultimately suspended for a week.
De Boer had snared the scalps of stars Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Neale and Scott Pendlebury this September. But Martin had his revenge on the biggest stage.
To be fair to the Giant and former Docker de Boer, when the Tiger moved into attack, he was manned by emerging defender Sam Taylor, a clear talent who shapes as a star of the future.
But it is the double-threat talent that Martin possesses which makes him such a difficult player for opposition coaches and players to combat.
And when combined with a temperament that allows the Tiger to excel under pressure, he becomes the most formidable footballer in the land.
Martin was ready for celebrating after the grand final. “It is going to be great to celebrate with the Richmond footy club and all our family,” he said.
“It is a very family-oriented club and I am proud to be a part of them.”
Martin put up his hand to host Marlion Pickett when he moved from Western Australia to Richmond in the middle of the season.
“He is quiet and I am quiet, so we got along quite well. He just did his own thing. It was perfect,” Martin said.
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