‘Bullet-proof’ Dusty gets to 250 non-stopBy Greg Baum
The Age
April 24, 2021If you get the impression that Dustin Martin is always there, that’s because he is. In 11-plus years of AFL footy, he’s missed eight games. Three were because of suspension and two or three because he was being “managed”, leaving three at most that can be put down to outright injury.
He averages more than 22 games a season. If not for the five games that no-one played in the shortened 2020 season, his average would be the highest in the game’s history. It is just as well there is no medal for that: where would he put it?
It’s not as if Martin hides away on the half-back line or in the forward pocket. He was a midfielder from the start, spent a couple of years lurking behind the ball, but now plays mid-forward. To 2016, 36 per cent of his possessions were contested. Since, it’s been 47 per cent.
He’s always in harm’s way, but never gets hurt. How?
In essence, he’s the No.1 who looks after number one, in the best sense. “What he’s done over time is to build durability through his accumulation of work,” said Peter Burge, Richmond’s high performance manager since 2012. “He’s built it to a point where he’s almost bullet-proof.”
Burge remembers a game against Essendon in 2014, one of nine in a row that the Tigers needed to win to play finals. They were on a six-day break and Martin had nicked a hamstring. Any other player would have missed, but on match eve, he passed most of a fitness test. “We said, let’s stop now, because he’s starting to look OK, even though the scan showed a grade 1 strain,” Burge said.
“We said, he’s different to others with his body. He can cope with things. We played him, he played very, very well and we won the game.
“To me, that was unique. There’s something in his physiology that allows him to function or protect that particular area of injury. He uses his body differently. It’s hard to explain. He’s got a lot of strength in his body generally so other areas are able to compensate without doing more damage, but also allowing him to perform over two-and-a-half hours. That’s very hard to do with a hamstring strain of any sort.”
Only once has Martin’s invisible shield failed. Leading into the 2018 preliminary final, he was nursing a corked thigh that would not come to heel. “It became evident about four days out that he still didn’t have close to full range in being able to flex his knee and run,” Burge said. “It probably showed that he’s a little bit human.
“Two days out, he’s a bit better. He got out there and played the best he could. But he certainly wasn’t 100 per cent. He didn’t have full power in acceleration. You would never have questioned whether he should or shouldn’t play. But that’s probably the only time it hasn’t worked out for us.” The Tigers lost to Collingwood.
Well, even Superman faltered occasionally. Besides, imagine the alternative scenario: Richmond might now be playing for a fifth consecutive premiership.
Putting that thought away, let’s try to do the impossible: let’s try to break down Martin’s indestructibility. Those who have watched and worked with him agree that it boils down to a few precepts.
One is genetics. “He was well developed from a young age in his robustness and stature,” said Matt Hornsby, previously of Richmond, now high performance manager at St Kilda. “That allowed him to tolerate the collision element of senior footy better than the other young guys coming through.”
Burge agrees. “There’s a fair genetic component,” he said. “You would never take anything away from how he applies himself. But he has a naturally strong body, as you can see. He’s not the greatest runner. He’s not necessarily the strongest in the gym. He doesn’t need to be.”
Justin Leppitsch, who has coached him on and off, puts it succinctly. “He doesn’t actually feel the hits as much as others.”
Out of that grows a rare capacity to play through injury. “He’s had a lot of niggles,” said Leppitsch. “He fights through it. He’s tough.” That’s not to say Martin is an automaton. “He’s not immune to being sore,” said Burge. “He does get tired, like other players. But he’s mentally very strong in terms of being able to ride the waves.”
Ralph Carr, his manager since almost day dot, sees it. “There have been times over my 10-year journey with Dusty that I have noticed he was carrying an injury and incredible pain,” Carr said, “but he would never tell you. I suppose that’s what real champions do.”
Martin’s antidote is his Stakhanovite work ethic. All attest to it. “He always trains. He loves training,” said Burge. “That builds durability. If you’re a consistent trainer, and you train with intensity, you build durability.”
He was like that from the start. He wanted to learn, from Kane Johnson and Daniel Jackson then, from Trent Cotchin and others now. “He’s a very loyal person,” said Hornsby. “He doesn’t like to let down people he’s close to.”
The word that recurs most often in conversations about Martin is “professional”. All agree that it sits oddly with his rebel-without-a-pause image.
“I don’t think the outside image matches the reality,” said former Adelaide star Mark Ricciuto, another rough-looking diamond who was remarkably consistent across 300 games. “From what I’ve seen of Dusty over the last five years, he’s always looking to get better. Players who play that much footy are competitive people. They’re always looking for ways to get the best out of themselves. That’s him. He’s the ultimate professional.”
Sometimes, Martin’s devotion to training borders on excess. “There are times when we have to say, it’d be good to back off a bit today,” said Burge. “He listens. Then he always comes back five minutes later and goes, ‘whaddya reckon if I just do a bit of this?’ This might be the treadmill or an extra stretch.
“His desire to continue to work is impressive, particularly as he’s gotten older,” said Burge. “But there are times when we have to say, back off a bit today. You are going all right!”
Then there are the extras. Away from the club, Martin is single-minded in his exploration of paths to improvement. Yoga, mindfulness, meditation, psychology, chiro, massage, stretching sessions at home: he does or did them all. He’s a regular at the sea baths at St Kilda. He has modified his diet, and what he drinks. He’s conscious of his ideal bodyweight and the way it plays into his power-to-weight ratio. Mental and physical strength build mutually.
“He boxes regularly outside the club as well,” said Burge. “That’s more about footwork and baseline condition. He feels mentally he needs to do that stuff to maintain his levels. And he loves doing it. That’s the other thing: he just loves it.”
He wasn’t always quite so dedicated; few young footballers are. But it’s his schtick now. “It took a while for the penny to drop,” said Leppitsch. “But now he’s brilliant. Once you get older, you tend to know your body. You know when to push it, when to pull out. But you don’t learn those lessons until later in life.”
Martin is 30 in June, and Burge said he was modifying and refining his preparation. “The one thing that’s been constant the whole time is his ability to train and want to train,” he said. “The other thing that is important for him is to develop as he’s getting older in how he’s preparing. I think he’s thought ahead about this.”
How far ahead? To reach 400 games, Martin would have to continue at this rate and pace until he is 36. But he shows no sign of fading out or losing interest. As Ricciuto notes, he’s playing in a good Richmond era, so why would he not ride this wave out. He made it.
The game could meet him half-way. “Even if he stops his mid-forward time, you can see him playing forward 50 on his own,” said Leppitsch. “Almost the way Toby Greene plays it. He’s that good a player, you’d always rather him in your team than out.”
That furthers the horizon. “I really believe that he can defy all the odds as only Dustin Martin can,” said Carr, his manager, “and play to 36 years of age and maybe even longer.”
Richmond’s only concern about Martin is not to spend him out. “We don’t want to take him for granted,” said Burge. “But we’ve got so much trust in what he does to better himself and to continue to invest in himself, that you don’t tend to worry too much about him.”
Worrying about Martin is for the Tigers’ opponents, for the 250th time on Saturday and every forseeable week after that. The one thing they all know is that he will be there.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/bullet-proof-dusty-gets-to-250-non-stop-20210423-p57lrq.html
