‘Dusty, you are a freak!’: Outrageous goal puts AFL on notice star is 'in Brownlow shape’July 30, 2020 7:00am
by DAVID ZITA
Luke Darcy couldn’t have put it any better on Wednesday night.
His exclamation, “Dusty, you are a freak!”, could’ve come after many moments in Richmond’s thumping 41-point win over the Western Bulldogs, but it came following perhaps his finest moment.
After a dominant performance for the Tigers and with the ball coming towards him and Jack Macrae, Martin dismissed the leading possession-winner, collected the ball, stood up without duress despite being swung 360 degrees by tough nut Laitham Vandermeer, dished off the ball, got it back near the boundary line, ran towards the boundary just inside the 50 metre arc and launched a drop punt straight through the middle.
The play encapsulated every aspect of Dustin Martin that terrified every other club in their 2017 and 2019 premiership campaigns.
It would be foolish to ask anyone to replicate the heights Martin reached in his 2017 campaign in particular, but one man who watched that year as closely as any could feel Martin’s resurgence looking on.
“I think he’s in Brownlow shape,” Bruce Macavaney exclaimed during Martin’s 26 disposal, three-goal effort.
“He’s probably giving Lachie Neale a start and maybe Christian Petracca a start but I’m seeing votes coming left right and centre.”
Richmond great Matthew Richardson said Wednesday night’s performance may merely be the start of Martin rediscovering the form that few if any players from the modern era can match.
“He does sort of work his way into a season as well, in his best years he did that,” he said.
“He’s starting to get going now.”
Richardson’s comments were almost spoken ver batum by coach Damien Hardwick post-game.
“How he got it (his third goal) through I have no idea, but he’s a special player when he can do things like that,” he said.
“I thought last week he stood up as well ... Dustin’s one of those guys that does take a bit of time to get into the season and get up and going, but we can see what he’s like when he plays his very best how he can set the scene.”
We’re all excited (and rightly so) for the festival of footy that Wednesday night kicked off.
But maybe an even greater spectacle will be witnessing the game’s best player finally emerge from his slumber.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-dustin-martin-dustin-martin-goals-dustin-martin-highlights-tigers-dogs-richmond-western-bulldogs-round-8/news-story/d9ca3612ac5412ff1c1843ca67a08398
