The prince of Punt Road: AFL fans rise as one for Dustin Martin’s 300th | AFL

After the lengthy silence, the photoshoot, the comparability with each half first rate footballer of the twenty first century, the dozen boys christened Dustin, the pop-up barbers and the Japanese drum ensemble, Dustin Martin jogged to the Punt Highway finish and acquired right down to enterprise. His opening purpose was as inevitable because it was acquainted – the steps quick, the backbone straight, the nostrils flared, the kick straighter than Lyle Shelton.

Martin has all the time been a kind of athletes who has tempted footy writers and pundits in direction of zoomorphism. He’s been in comparison with a lion, a shark, a crocodile, a rhino and a bull. Throughout the week Sam Mitchell instructed his younger gamers to not be swallowed up by the event, by the group, by the person. It was Martin’s occasion, he instructed them, but it surely was Hawthorn’s time.

The gradual enchancment of Hawthorn has largely unfolded in awful timeslots in entrance of sparse crowds. This was a giant stage – at 92,311 folks, the most important residence and away crowd but between the 2 golf equipment – and the Hawks have been equal to it. They’re properly coached, on the rise and include a sure swagger. Their depth and crisp handball chains off half again plus the best way they swap and use the total width of the MCG to assault and create make them one of the vital harmful and watchable groups within the AFL proper now.

So many foolish issues have been mentioned and written about them, together with half arsed allegations of tanking. However their record has been properly constructed, and their rise fastidiously and patiently plotted. A 3rd have been taken from different golf equipment. Luke Breust and Jack Gunston are the one gamers over 30. Will Day is 23, Jai Newcombe is 22 and Connor Macdonald is 21. Day, particularly, was desperately missed within the opening a part of the yr. He fills holes, solves issues, and brings some class to what’s a blue-collar midfield. However he has grunt too, and excels at breaking tackles. At one stage, Day disregarded and waltzed away from Martin. Half an hour later, he executed a lunging, purpose saving deal with on Hugo Ralphsmith.

Nick Watson is a little more of a piece in progress, a bit extra of a curiosity. He completed with the identical stats as Martin – one purpose and 13 touches, however didn’t garner the identical affection from the group. Mulleted, jet propelled, exceptionally proficient and shorter than a number of of the Little Leaguers, he nonetheless bows to no person. It’s laborious to know what to make of him however he hits the ball at unimaginable pace and brings a Tom Papley mix of antagonism and opportunism.

After a 14.13 (97) to six.13 (49) defeat, Martin might have been forgiven for a fast wave, a cursory hoist and a low-key exit. However he did one thing sudden. He walked to all 4 corners of the centre sq. and acknowledged his crowd. Greater than 92,000 of them had turned up, on a chilly day, to observe twelfth v seventeenth. They have been half a dozen deep within the standing part and their workforce had been trounced however not considered one of them had left.

When he instructed them how a lot he beloved them, it’s affordable to imagine it was requited. It’s laborious to consider a footballer who has meant extra to a supporter base, and who might have drawn a crowd like that. When the whole lot was going incorrect – the comical mid-year losses in 2017, the sluggish begin to 2019, the second quarter of the 2020 grand remaining – there was all the time the sense “all will likely be properly – we have now Dusty.” The Age’s Andrew Stafford, in a beautiful piece of deadline reporting on the 2020 grand remaining, put all 4 of Martin’s objectives in good context: rescuer, leveller, finisher, stone chilly killer. In some ways, these 4 descriptions neatly summarise his total time at Richmond.

When Cotchin and Riewoldt have been farewelled final yr, it was billed as “The Last Lap”. They performed Brian McKnight’s title observe from the documentary When We Had been Kings. One among Cotchin’s daughters had a jumper with the phrases “The Finish”. It was considered one of a number of moments which have felt like the top of this Richmond period – the evening Mitch Robinson cannoned into Martin’s kidney, a number of turgid losses to the Gold Coast and the departure of their 14-season coach Damien Hardwick.

However Saturday evening actually did really feel remaining. Martin assured the group he’d be again in a fortnight. Nevertheless it felt like a farewell. It felt like a full cease. And Michael Willson’s picture of Martin exiting the MCG completely captured the person, the second and the temper – considered one of adulation, of gratitude and of celebration.