Dustin Martin showed rare emotion during his 300-game celebrations on Saturday and Brendan Fevola is adamant he knows why.
Martin was feted by more than 92,000 mostly Richmond supporters at the MCG as he brought up the milestone against the Hawks.
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The three-time Norm Smith medallist kicked the opening goal to ignite the game, but had little impact the rest of the way as Hawthorn marched to a 48-point win.
Having avoided interviews for weeks in the build-up to the game, Martin finally spoke to good mate and former teammate Jack Riewoldt afterwards and suggested he would benefit from Richmond’s bye this week and be right for the round 16 clash with Carlton.
But Fevola, who has insisted for some time now “Dusty” is on the verge of retirement, wasn’t buying it.
Speaking on Melbourne breakfast radio show The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick, Fevola was keen to return to the topic of Martin’s future.
“I’ve been copping a lot of stick,” Fevola began.
“Dustin Martin played his 300th game on the weekend and I said a couple of weeks ago that he won’t play the Adelaide game, they’ll rest him, and then he’ll play against Hawthorn at the MCG, which came true.
“To play the 300th game, and he’s been an absolute superstar, best finals player ever to play the game, he’d be in the top five players of all time.
“(The game) was a script writer’s dream. The first goal kicked of the game was by the great Dustin Martin … and then he went missing. That was all he did.”
Asked by a co-host why that was his only significant contribution, Fevola replied: “I think he’s checked out. He didn’t do any interviews all week.
“No one could get him (to do an interview) and his great mate and triple premiership teammate Jack Riewoldt got on the ground and he interviewed him after the game.
“Now, this is what I’ve been copping a lot of flak for — I got told that he’s going to finish up after 300 games.
“He might play on to the end of the year, but he’ll finish up at Richmond by the end of the year.
“And he will go play for the Gold Coast for maybe one or two years – (he will) sit in the goalsquare, get paid a crapload of money and join Damien Hardwick, they’re best mates.”
Martin’s manager Ralph Carr confirmed reports that other clubs are interested in his star man for 2025 when he was asked about it during an appearance on 3AW.
“Yes, a number of them,” Carr said.
Carr remained hopeful the star player would continue on next season, with talks on hold until the season is done and dusted.
“I am hoping so. We often have those discussions at the end of the year and we don’t like to talk about it during the year so it’s one of those things,” Carr said.
While no clubs were officially named, Martin has been linked with a move to the Suns to reunite with former coach Hardwick.
Fevola has no doubt Martin was “saying goodbye” to the Tiger Army on Saturday.
“At the end of the game, the last question Jack asked was, ‘are you going to be back in a couple of weeks?’ … because it was around everywhere last week that he was done (retiring),” Fevola said.
“He said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll freshen up this week and we’ll be back the week after’.
“Now I don’t know about that because when you play 300 games you get chaired off, walk off the ground and everyone claps.
“Dustin Martin did something that I’ve never seen a 300-game player do before. He did a lap of honour pretty much.
“And Dustin Martin, who’s a quiet man, very reserved, very humble, he waved to everybody.
“He was clapping to the crowd. He was really lapping it up.
“I reckon he was saying goodbye. He was saying to the 92,000 supporters, they were all Richmond fans, thank you to the beloved Richmond supporters.
“But I reckon there was something else in it. You could see he was welling up in his eyes and clapping everybody.
“I think he’s cooked. He needs to rest his body. He’s played 300 games.”