'A deeper purpose than football': Dustin Martin's spiritual connectionRonny Lerner
The Age
1 March 2019Richmond superstar Dustin Martin has "found a deeper purpose than just football" and is now a spiritually connected individual, according to captain Trent Cotchin.
After having what AFL legend Leigh Matthews described as the greatest individual season in VFL/AFL history in 2017, as he became the first player to win a premiership, Brownlow medal and Norm Smith medal in the same year, Martin battled to reach those lofty heights again in the early parts of last year.
In the last few years Martin has also had to deal with the stress of his father being deported to New Zealand due to his criminal record and links to an outlaw bikie gang.
But with the 27-year-old having now found some form of inner peace, Cotchin said it was an exciting development both for Martin personally and the Tigers.
“His story’s incredible and I look forward to him wanting and being able to tell a lot of what he’s been through the last couple of years,” Cotchin told RSN on Friday.
“He’s just found a deeper purpose than just football and I think that’s what he struggled with early in the season last year.
“Naturally when you tick off just about everything in the game in one season, it wasn’t a lack of motivation, it was just trying to find those lofty heights again and dealing with the expectations from outside and probably within himself as well.
“But he’s done an amazing amount of work, he’s really connected spiritually, which probably sounds a bit bizarre given a bloke with tattoos and looks like he doesn’t really give a stuff about too much, but I’m really excited about the way he looks, the way he’s been training and the way he’s living his life is really exciting for him personally but also for our footy club.”
Martin will be in action on Sunday when the Tigers have their first competitive hitout for 2019 in a practice match against Melbourne in Shepparton and Cotchin said they would use the game to work on their ruck set-up.
Richmond’s lack of ruck depth was one of the things that brought them undone in their stunning preliminary final loss last year as Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy dominated Toby Nankervis and makeshift back-up Shaun Grigg.
With the importance of having a quality ruckman emphatically returning across the league in the last couple of years, Richmond still appear to be flouting that trend with premiership big man Nankervis still without meaningful support.
“I think it’s something we’re going to explore in the next couple of weeks in particular,” Cotchin said.
“I haven’t seen the team yet but I would assume we’re trialling [playing] the two [ruckmen] this week and as it plays out see how beneficial it is to have the two bigger blokes or whether you try to consolidate the same sort of template we’ve had the last couple of years.”
The Tigers will also showcase their top two draft picks from last year, Riley Collier-Dawkins and Jack Ross, with Cotchin describing the pair as "super impressive".
“[They are] bigger bodies so they have come up to the AFL level pretty quickly and shown some incredible signs throughout the pre-season to date,” he said.
“Obviously we’re not expecting too much, but we’re looking forward to seeing what they can bring especially against a quality opposition in Melbourne.”
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/a-deeper-purpose-than-football-dustin-martin-s-spiritual-connection-20190301-p5113a.html
