Redden: Eagles out of answers for superstar MartinBraden Quartermaine
West Australian
19 Aug 2019Midfielder Jack Redden conceded West Coast struggled to come up with the answers to stopping superstar Dustin Martin as the Brownlow medallist led Richmond to victory at the MCG yesterday.
Martin had a career-high 13 inside-50 entries to go with his game-highs of 35 touches and 818 metres gained.
The Eagles tried various approaches to limiting Martin, with Elliot Yeo sometimes matching up on him at stoppages before it became Redden’s assignment.
Yeo (26 disposals) had 11 of his game-high 15 clearances in a big second half and Redden finished with a season-low 16 touches, while Martin was a constant threat.
“I went to his body a little bit at stoppages in the second half. He was dominant in the first half and doing a bit of damage, so I tried to nullify him a little bit,” Redden said.
“He floats between forward and on-ball and he’s a great player and hard to stop. He’s a gun of the competition obviously and you just need to try and nullify his impact and his damaging touches.”
West Coast’s options for Martin were limited by the early loss of Mark Hutchings with a hamstring injury.
Coach Adam Simpson said the Eagles lost the midfield battle as a collective.
“I think Dusty (Martin) had a really good game, played really well,” Simpson said.
“He did it on ball and as a half-forward coming up. Which is part of the way they play. It’s hard to defend, unless you go all the way with him.”
Redden said the Eagles “had a crack” late after giving up their early 29-point lead, but ultimately put their own back-line under too much pressure.
“We started well with our game plan but we just couldn’t stop their momentum I suppose. Because they get the ball and run in waves,” he said.
“I thought we had a bit more composure in the first quarter and we took the game on a little bit more. They didn’t really allow that in the second quarter and took that away from us.
“They probably beat us around the ball a little bit in the second and got dominance in that area. So the boys had a crack but just couldn’t stop their inside 50s in the end.”
https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl/jack-redden-west-coast-eagles-out-of-answers-for-richmond-tigers-superstar-dustin-martin-ng-b881295604z