COULD DUSTY FINISH HIS CAREER AS RICHMOND CAPTAIN?Andrew Slevison
SEN
23 March 2021Would taking on the captaincy enhance Dustin Martin’s standing in the game?
The Richmond superstar has already achieved everything there is to achieve from an individual perspective in the form of three Norm Smith Medals, a Brownlow Medal, three Gary Ayres Awards (best finals player) and two Jack Dyer Medals, among a plethora of other awards.
More importantly, he has also been the driving force behind three premierships for the Tigers.
As his CV is already stacked, there is little left for Martin to accomplish which leads Garry Lyon to believe that perhaps the captaincy could be the crowning glory, if of course the 29-year-old even desires the role.
Trent Cotchin holds the Richmond captaincy and has done a superb job in leading the yellow and black to three trophies, but could Martin flourish in the job if given the opportunity?
Discussing the situation, Tim Watson asked Lyon about his Monday night comments on Fox Footy’s On The Couch.
“Last night on On The Couch, there was a discussion about Dustin Martin and you said that you thought to complete his footballing greatness, that he could be or should be the next captain,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
Lyon replied: “Let me say this off the top, his greatness is already done. It’s rubber-stamped.
“He’s going to be one of the greats of the game. This is not going to define him as a great.
“I just watched him on the weekend, I listened to him on the interview with Nick Riewoldt. It never really occurred to me that he might want to be a skipper or he might have that sort of (desire).
“You talk about his contemporaries. It’s (Leigh) Matthews, (Gary) Ablett and (Wayne) Carey, they’re probably the three aren’t they? Maybe Buddy (Lance Franklin).
“He just looks like a player who has got to love footy more. We heard this from his mouth, he’s started to think about it more, he’s immersed himself in the game more.
“Nick said to me when he was out there listening to three-quarter time huddles that he was the most vocal of all the players. We don’t see him that way.
“You watch him play, he seizes moments. He mightn’t want to be the captain. There are other parts to the captaincy apart from the playing which we’re aware of. If that’s the case, cool.
“But if he did, it might be the last thing for him in the game to captain Richmond to a flag. He’s done everything else, he’s doing everything else, and that might be enough for him.
“At some stage, Trent Cotchin is going to have to hand it on.”
Watson asked what would heighten Martin’s reputation which is already sky-high after his exploits in recent seasons.
He said: “Do you think that it elevates him to another level if he were to take on the leadership and captain them to a flag?"
“In terms of being clearly the greatest ever player to play the game.”
Lyon added: “To take on the responsibility of leading your football club, I think’s a massive duty.
“As I said, it won’t define him. I don’t know, it just never occurred to me that Dustin Martin might be a captain.
“Over the past six months, it looks like he’s accepting footy more into his life. Over the past month, hearing him speak which we don’t hear very often, I just thought he could captain this footy side and could captain them to a premiership.”
Cotchin is expected to skipper the Tigers for at least the next two or three seasons which which would coincide with Martin being in his early 30s.
Some of the other Richmond captaincy candidates to succeed Cotchin are the likes of Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes and Jack Graham. Vice-captain Jack Riewoldt is a less likely candidate due to his age.
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/03/22/could-dusty-finish-his-career-as-richmond-captain/
