RICHMOND champion Dustin Martin made a quiet return to Punt Road in recent weeks, speaking to the Tigers’ full playing list ahead of their first win of the season last month.
The Tigers, through assistant coach and former skipper Chris Newman, have made an effort to bring back legends of their club to speak with their young group to embed the history of Richmond as well as help nurture the next generation.
As part of this, Martin took up the opportunity to make an under the radar return to Punt Road by speaking to the current crop of Tigers about his career and experiences.
The Tigers entrust one of their younger players to devise topics and host each of the Q&A sessions, with exciting talent Taj Hotton the player who sat with Martin in front of the rest of the Richmond cohort.
Martin has kept a low-key figure since retiring in August 2024, after 302 games with the club, which included three premierships and three Norm Smith Medals.
Whilst no club cameras caught his reappearance back at the home of the Tigers, the 34-year-old was understood to be typically giving with his time as well as offering to keep in contact with their suite of younger players, who were said to be entranced by the Brownlow medallist’s aura in the room.
The Tigers had Martin present to them before their clash against West Coast last month, with the club securing its first victory of the season that weekend. Former Richmond captain and coach Francis Bourke has also been at the club for a similar chat through the year.
Six of Martin’s premiership teammates remain at Tigerland as the club embarks on its rebuild era, with Toby Nankervis, Nick Vlastuin, Dion Prestia, Jayden Short, Tom Lynch, Noah Balta and Nathan Broad the only flag-winners left at Richmond after their golden run of success between 2017-2020.
Martin handed over his No.4 guernsey to the Tigers’ No.1 pick Sam Lalor ahead of this season and returned to the field last week, playing a local game with Clarence in Tasmania’s southern football league.
Richmond continues to lean on its past heroes as it goes through the draft-led rebuild, with president John O’Rourke recently telling AFL.com.au that the Tigers had made the right call in trading out players for draft picks in 2024 once the club’s flag window had closed.
“We have to accept that it ended faster than we probably thought and hence we pivoted quite quickly to go to the draft and trading out some players while they still had really strong currency,” O’Rourke said.
“But there is a realism that that can take time. We went back over all the data and history says to be going from the bottom to genuinely contending it’s a six to seven-year journey. That was the history of Richmond as well going back to the beginning of the Hardwick era. That’s how long it took.
“It can be shorter than that in terms of being competitive and playing well against the good teams, so that part of the journey can happen quickly. But we’re all about the ultimate prize. That’s what we’re here for, to get back to the premiership window and that’s going to take some time.”
