Dustin Martin [merged]

[1965]

Que Sera Sera

[one-eyed]

‘Needs time to heal’: Tigers gun Dustin Martin ‘considering his future in the game’

Fox Footy
March 28th, 2022 8:57 pm

Richmond’s Dustin Martin is “considering his future in the game” according to a leading journalist, with coach Damien Hardwick saying the superstar is “taking his time to figure out what he needs to move forward”.

The triple Norm Smith medallist took a mental health break away from footy last week. He did not play against GWS on Sunday and is dealing with personal issues including the death of his father Shane last December.

Tigers coach Hardwick said after the Round 2 win over the Giants the club has “no clarity” over when Martin will return.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Hardwick was asked if Martin was considering stepping away from the game.

“I think Dustin’s taking his time to figure out what he needs to move forward,” Hardwick said.

“And as we’ve spoken about, he’s had a really tough six months, none tougher than what he’s had to deal with, first with the injury and then with the loss of his father. He just needs some time to heal.

“Grief is really like an injury, there’s no two ways about it, you have to get some treatment to make yourself heal, and he’s just taking the time to do that.

“His father was incredibly close to him, obviously from a parent point of view, but also his best mate so it was going to take some time, and we’re prepared to give him that. He’s such an important part of the fabric of our football club. We miss him, but not on the footy field, just in the club.”

Martin, who has played a mammoth 261 games since his debut in 2010, is no sure thing to return to the footy field according to AFL journalist Sam McClure.

“He’s considering his future in the game, I don’t think it’s overdramatic to say,” he said on 3AW’s Sportsday.

“You can read between the lines of what the club has been saying, with Damien Hardwick yesterday. Dustin has really been struggling and you can understand that, with the injury he went through, with losing his father who was in another country.

“He’s climbed the premiership mountain, Norm Smith medal a few times, he’s lost enjoyment in the game. I think all the people around him are just trying to give him the time he needs to not make a rash decision when his heart is broken.”

McClure added: “The people you speak to say since the death of his father, he has been a different person around his love for footy.

“He’s been less smiling at training, less vivacious because he’s such a big personality inside the four walls of Richmond, we know he’s shy with the media, but he just hasn’t been that.

“It’s great for him that he’s recognised that and he’s got great people around him, and he’s got a great footy club as well.”

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-news-2022-dustin-martin-future-retirement-mental-health-break-heart-broken-after-death-of-dad-shane-martin-richmond/news-story/2a6f0a54db45e4fb99ba99f2205a4d25

[one-eyed]

The scroll down the bottom of On The Couch oddly had Dusty "expected to return to training tomorrow".

[WilliamPowell]

FFS Just leave the bloke alone to grieve

Insensitive scum

[mightytiges]

“He’s considering his future in the game, I don’t think it’s overdramatic to say,” Sam McClure said on 3AW’s Sportsday.

“You can read between the lines of what the club has been saying ..."

McClure added: “The people you speak to ..."

How would McClure know?! All that's third hand at best and most likely just made up  .

he has been a different person around his love for footy.

“He’s been less smiling at training, less vivacious because he’s such a big personality inside the four walls of Richmond, we know he’s shy with the media, but he just hasn’t been that.

Grief is not trivial like someone else thinking you're not smiling as much  . It's complex and not linear. When I lost my dad 9 years ago things initially felt very surreal. The hardest time can be months afterwards when everyone else has moved on with their lives and the reality of person's death really sinks in. One thing for sure from my experience is you don't show your grief in public. Being busy with people around you and having your mind occupied with the daily things of life is actually a distraction. It's often the quiet times when you're alone that it hits you and you ball your eyes out. Most of all the grief process takes time and the timeframe is different for everyone.

So called footy journos "reading between the lines" to have a 'story' for their TV and radio shows and newspaper articles is pathetic. As WP said, leave Dusty alone to grieve FFS!

[one-eyed]

"Dustin confided in some teammates that maybe he was wondering whether he had the heart to continue to compete at the highest level and the club got really worried about this."

Caroline Wilson on the evolving Dustin Martin situation.

Watch here: https://twitter.com/FootyonNine/status/1508408852223606792

[Francois Jackson]

Tell me something when buddy took time off for his mental health were these losers digesting his situation for weeks like they are now?

I think it’s a disgrace if you ask me.

[Damo]

Tell me something when buddy took time off for his mental health were these losers digesting his situation for weeks like they are now?

I think it’s a disgrace if you ask me.

Buddy copped heaps .. there was rumours flying around about third strikes etc that were utter rubbish

[Francois Jackson]

In talking about news stations?

I do recall those rumours but they was the general public from what I recall.

[wayne]

I got the chat screenshot this morning saying that Dusty had beat up an Uber driver... 

[WilliamPowell]

Grief is not trivial like someone else thinking you're not smiling as much  . It's complex and not linear. When I lost my dad 9 years ago things initially felt very surreal. The hardest time can be months afterwards when everyone else has moved on with their lives and the reality of person's death really sinks in. One thing for sure from my experience is you don't show your grief in public. Being busy with people around you and having your mind occupied with the daily things of life is actually a distraction. It's often the quiet times when you're alone that it hits you and you ball your eyes out. Most of all the grief process takes time and the timeframe is different for everyone.

So called footy journos "reading between the lines" to have a 'story' for their TV and radio shows and newspaper articles is pathetic. As WP said, leave Dusty alone to grieve FFS!

 

Spot on MT

Grief impacts us all so differently and as I posted previously it can hit you out of nowhere and hit bloody hard.

Ma Powell has been gone 17 years this September and I still have the odd day where I still get over powered by the grief. My birthday is coming up and it is one of the days that still impacts. Why? Because every b-day of my adult life at 9.05am my Mum would phone me and sing "Happy birthday ". To this day I still want that phone to ring, it doesn't, it won't and it still hurts. That hurt has got better over time but it is always there.


So I suppose the point I'm trying to make (probably badly) is that we have to let people grieve in their own way, in their own time and their own space. It is called support and respect and it is the single biggest thing we can do.

Time is the most crucial thing and having Insensitive f-wits speculating about someone's grief and pain is one of the lowest thing you can do. The media should hang their collective heads in shame

[Yeahright]

I got the chat screenshot this morning saying that Dusty had beat up an Uber driver... 

Heard this too yesterday and was wondering when someone else would mention it. I don’t believe it, there’s no way that stays quiet in the media…

[the claw]

It can take a long time to overcome.
When my dad died of course i was upset at the time but managed to put it aside and just moved on. It was probably easy for me living on the other side of the country .

Funny thing is all this time later i will look at a photo of him and be upset for hours.

Grief it never goes away we don't realise it is always there and it comes back and hits us at the oddest moments.

[one-eyed]

"Dustin confided in some teammates that maybe he was wondering whether he had the heart to continue to compete at the highest level and the club got really worried about this."

Caroline Wilson on the evolving Dustin Martin situation.

Watch here: https://twitter.com/FootyonNine/status/1508408852223606792

Caro's full comments:

Wilson had faith he’d be back soon while providing further insights into Martin’s tough past six months.

“It’s a mystery that is hovering over the entire football landscape. My firm belief is that he will come back to play,” Wilson said.

“What has emerged now have been the incredible highs and lows that have been hovering over Dustin and the Richmond Football Club since he came back after a lacerated kidney. The massive weight loss, the shock loss of his beloved father, Shane.

“The club underestimated just how shattered he was by the loss of his father, of course he visited him so many times since he was forced back to New Zealand.

“What was happening was Dustin would turn up in great form and great shape one day, and then he’d turn up the next day and he just wasn’t there emotionally. And this went on and on and on for weeks and weeks and weeks.

“Dustin confided in some teammates that maybe he was wondering whether he had the heart to continue to compete at the highest level and the club got really worried about this. And forced a decision where they said, ‘go away and get as much time as you need, because this isn’t working.’

Wilson said she believed Martin, who’s contracted until 2024, would return in the not-too-distant future, because “the club is confident”.

“It is a big thing to walk away from that amount of money, and no one is underestimating how hard it has been for Dustin Martin and everyone understands what Damien said about grief being like an injury.

“The view of the club is, he is more likely to take as much time as he needs and I believe he’ll certainly be back by the middle of the year at the very, very latest.”

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/richmond-tigers/afl-2022-dustin-martin-retirement-return-mental-health-break-heartbroken-after-death-of-dad-reasons-explained/news-story/d2cfa315ff2ec018498aeb7803aece92

[one-eyed]

Sam Edmund on SEN said he touched base with Ralph Carr who said there's no new developments but there may be later on in the week.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=975835