Dustin Martin’s pattern of self-destructive behaviour must be stopped by RichmondJon Ralph
Herald Sun
December 9, 2015 RICHMOND can sack Dustin Martin for his foul-mouthed and intimidating behaviour — and another success-starved club will instantly recruit him in 2017.
The club can throw the book at him with a 15-week suspension and just hope the penny finally drops.
But if it doesn’t examine the root cause of Martin’s latest controversy it can never hope to improve a consistent pattern of worrying, self-destructive behaviour.
The Tigers and the AFL’s integrity team will spend the next 24 hours interviewing Martin and his victim to ensure every fact is on the table.
Then the club’s hierarchy will sit down and work through a penalty that at a guess might be 6-10 weeks and some community service involving respect for women.
The whole of Australia will be watching Richmond’s response given the much-deserved focus on violent and threatening behaviour towards women.
That punishment will take its course and almost certainly ensure Martin misses early-season games against Carlton, Collingwood, Adelaide and West Coast.
What Martin needs to work out himself is whether he actually wants to sacrifice all his vices and partying to play AFL football.
Because he can’t do both.
Being paid upwards of $500,000 a season to play AFL football is a privilege, not a right.
It is a privilege that means he shouldn’t have been seen anywhere near the Stereosonic music festival in the first week of December.
And it is a privilege that means he might need to reassess the company he keeps.
If he can’t do that, he will eventually lose the right to play AFL football — whether it is Richmond or the AFL that acts.
Right now the perception from the public is that Martin is off the rails and living an out-of-control lifestyle.
All at Richmond attest that Martin is quiet and polite around the club, so what turns him into a raging fool threatening to stab someone in the face, even with a chopstick?
It might be that Martin himself has to admit to the Tigers that his lifestyle issues are an issue he needs help to rectify.
He is seen to have relished the bad boy tag given his dramatic tattoos and brooding, affected air.
Yet as White Ribbon Campaigner Phil Cleary said yesterday, Martin’s reputation is now at rock bottom.
Cleary’s sister was murdered by her ex-partner in 1987 and he has spent his life advocating greater awareness of family violence.
“The discussion about family violence has never been deeper or wider than it is now after a long campaign,’’ he told the Herald Sun.
“Then we get a prominent footballer behaving in a way towards a woman that is terrifying. It is an act of cowardice.
“It is just so cowardly. Every time a man does something he blames it on the woman, or blames it on alcohol or a substance.
“The truth is 60 women a year are murdered in Australia. Thousands more are bashed in what is a crisis in terms of violence against women.
“Then we have Dustin Martin behaving in a way that all these other bad men have who have been condemned from the prime minister down.
“You could sack him, but what would be more significant is Richmond doing something extraordinary in educating the footy community about why we find violence against women cowardly.”
Richmond’s initial response to Martin’s altercation looked awfully flimsy, and yet it was only when the victim herself spoke that the brutal impact was rammed home.
A menacing, powerfully-built footballer standing over her and swearing and abusing her while his mates tries to drag him off.
“He physically stood over me, held a chopstick above my head and threatened to stab me in the face with a chopstick. It was obviously extremely terrifying,” she said.
Richmond has an absolute obligation to make this a moment in time for the AFL community to stand up to violence against women.
If it impacts their finals aspirations, so be it.
Martin’s talent has seen so many overlook so many issues, but finally it is time to hold him to account.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/dustin-martins-pattern-of-selfdestructive-behaviour-must-be-stopped-by-richmond/news-story/b5b6070b97a3b652e8b6a08a43cf9a60
