Sport
9 August, 2024
Dustin Martin announces his retirement
Campbells Creek’s greatest ever sporting product has brought the curtain down on an illustrious career.
Campbells Creek’s greatest ever sporting product has brought the curtain down on an illustrious career.
Richmond champion Dustin Martin made the call to retire on Tuesday morning after 302 AFL games in a career which yielded just about every accolade a footballer could hope to win.
Starting his career with Campbells Creek, Martin spent five seasons with the club before moving to Sydney, but would soon move back to Castlemaine to play with the club in 2008.
From there, Martin would earn selection to the Bendigo Pioneers under 18 team, before putting in a dominant campaign with the club in 2009 to become a Tiger with the third pick in that year’s draft.
Martin’s career soon took off, and he became a staple of consistency, collecting over 400 disposals and kicking over 20 goals in 10 seasons.
In 2017, he played one of the greatest individual seasons in VFL/AFL history, winning the Brownlow Medal with a record 36 votes, the Leigh Matthew Trophy for the AFL Players association MVP, the Richmond best and fairest, Gary Ayers Award for best finals player, AFL Coaches Association player of the year, and, to top it all off, a first premiership for the Tigers in 37 years, complete with a Norm Smith Medal, thanks to a 48-point victory over Adelaide.
It was in the finals where Martin excelled.
He would soon put in dominant performances throughout the 2019 finals series, and would cap off a second premiership with his second Norm Smith Medal for best on ground in Richmond’s 89-point demolition of Greater Western Sydney.
Perhaps his finest hour came in 2020, when Richmond had their backs against the wall with a qualifying final defeat to Brisbane in the first week of that year’s finals.
Playing in the COVID hubs, Richmond would rebound to defeat St Kilda in the semi final, before Martin would put the club on his back in the preliminary final to defeat Port Adelaide by six points.
The following week was Martin’s greatest match, single-handedly taking over the grand final against Geelong to kick four crucial goals — many of them set to remain on highlight reels forever — as the Tigers turned around a 21-point deficit to defeat Geelong by 31 points, complete with a third Norm Smith Medal — the only player in VFL/AFL history to achieve the feat.
Earlier this season, Martin played his 300th AFL game against Hawthorn, with the Tiger faithful turning up in droves to support him, generating 92,000 people to the MCG.
Martin’s career finishes with 338 goals on top of his 302 games, which also includes two best and fairests and four All-Australian appearances.