Dusty: The Loudest Player ever.

Dusty: The Loudest Player ever.

GuyWhoLikesSport

I have been with my girlfriend for 9 years. I love her deeply.

I have an uncomplicatedly positive relationship with my parents and extended family.

I have a good group of close friends.

I have never trusted anyone like I trust Dustin Martin.

Much has been made of Dusty’s reticence to do media this week in the lead up to his 300th game. He will be quiet this week, but Dusty is the loudest player I have ever seen.

Think about all of the Richmond premierships. When the Grand Final was there to be won, it was Dusty who did the winning.

In 2017, in the second quarter of what was a tight game up to that point with the Tigers leading 34-30, Richmond surged the ball forward and found Dusty in a 1 v 1. Dusty, obviously, won the 1 v 1 and drilled the goal, obviously, to put the Tigers 10 points ahead.

Richmond won the remainder of the game 68 – 30, with the Dusty goal the moment that lit the match.

I started crying when he grabbed the guernsey after his second goal, where he put the game beyond doubt. He was ours and we were his, eternally.

In 2019 the game was less in doubt for less time, but the moment that swung it was again a 1 v 1. With a minute to go in the first quarter of a dour opening term, which saw the Tigers down 8-3 with a minute to go in the term the Tigers surged it forward to Dusty in a 1 v 1. This time he didn’t have to engage with his opponent because he simply read the game too well, took off before Heath Shaw could react, and took a chest mark.

Again, he drilled the goal and put the Tigers ahead by the point. Again, his goal lit the match.

As an aside, I opened this piece talking about trust.

No fan base has ever trusted anyone more than we Tiger fans trust Dusty in 1 v 1 in the forward line.

Going to a Richmond game and seeing Dusty in a 1 v 1 situation is special.

While you still can, watch the crowd swell as they recognise what’s happening.

Watch them grab the person they went to the game with as he engages his opponent who is necessarily less strong than him.
Listen to them erupt as he pushes the opponent away easily to take a chest mark (Dusty has not taken a single mark in his career in his hands). Then he always kicks the goal.

It’s a wonder of the footy world.

Back to the list of Grand Finals he defined, though.

His opus, in my view, was the 2020 Grand Final.

Richmond was probably worse than Geelong that year if you looked at the names on a list. You could even argue, as Leigh Matthews bizarrely has, that Patrick Dangerfield was a better player than Dusty.

But again, Richmond had Dusty and not much else mattered.

The goal that defined that game came just before half time. Richmond was struggling mightily to score, with only 14 points with about a minute and a half left in the second quarter. Geelong leading by 21.

Enter Dustin.

Richmond kicked the ball to the pack and those forwards made a contest. Jake Kolodjashnij’s sole job was to make sure Dusty didn’t get front and centre.

Better luck next time, son.

Dusty read the ball best off the pack, like he always did, held Kolodjashnij off with one hand and snapped it with the other. Poor old Jake stumbled trying to stop a tidal wave and he got swallowed up.

Richmond was back in the game, the king started getting fitted for his crown.

From that moment on, Dusty was involved in every single positive thing Richmond did. When he got the ball, things happened.

That’s what I mean when I say he’s the loudest player I’ve ever seen. There is an inevitability to his brilliance, and an unparalleled level of consequence to his play. He has an innate understanding of the moment, and how to punctuate it the most dramatically.

No player has engendered more agony for them, and more ecstasy for us.

To that end, the loudest moment of that game, the moment that defines the dynasty, was the final goal of that Grand Final.

Dusty shook his alleged contemporary on football’s 21st century Mt Rushmore, Patrick Dangerfield, through sheer hip strength and snapped the goal that capped off the most magical years of my football supporting years.

Dusty was the jewel in the crown of the football world.

It wasn’t always Nirvana with Dusty

I remember when he toured the GWS facilities in the 2013 offseason, after having shown some promise but not much else.

I remember when he clapped his hands in a prison salute in the 2013 elimination final after a goal, then went missing.

I remember in 2014 when Richmond trialled Dustin Martin as a dashing half-back flanker.

I remember it all.

But that’s the point.

The word “all” isn’t doing much work when it comes to the Richmond fan’s relationship with Dusty. It’s been uncomplicatedly, unproblematically, positive.

Controversies have been manufactured around our star (chopstick gate), but we have always seen through them.

Despite his image, he is a hyper-professional and a leader. He’s a definer of moments and men. He’s the most electric, and the most substantial player in recent memory.

We’re not going to hear from him this week, but we know him intimately.

We’re grateful to him for delivering a run of success that I truly couldn’t have fathomed in the Terry Wallace era.

That’s it.

That’s where to stop, because I could go on for 10,000 more words.

What about all of his other masterpieces, in finals and otherwise?

What about his exceptional, audacious field kicking?

What about the punctuation mark on the nine-game run to make the finals in 2014?

What about young Dusty wearing 36?

No, it’s better to stop. We’re just grateful. For all of it.

 

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