Richmond believes Dustin Martin will make a return to the club despite reports indicating his future in the game is up in the air, according to leading AFL columnist Caroline Wilson.
Speaking on Nine’s Footy Classified, Wilson indicated that Martin was likely to return to the game after being granted personal leave, but called the situation “a mystery that is hovering over the entire football landscape”.
According to Wilson, the decision was made by the club to grant Martin leave as he continues to come to terms with the sudden loss of his father, Shane, last December.
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“My firm view is that he will come back to play,” Wilson said.
“What has emerged now is the incredible highs and lows that have been hovering over Dustin and the Richmond Football Club since he came back. I think the club underestimated just how shattered he was by the loss of his father.
“I think what was happening was Dustin would turn up in great form and great shape one day and then he’d turn up the next day and he just wasn’t there emotionally. This went on and on and on for weeks and weeks.
“I think Dustin confided in some teammates that maybe he was wondering whether he had the heart to continue to compete at the highest level. The club got really worried by this and almost forced a decision where they said, ‘Go away and take as much time as you need because this isn’t working’.”
Martin’s coach, Damien Hardwick, was unable to confirm on Monday whether the three-time Norm Smith medallist would be seen in a Tigers jumper again.
“I think Dustin is taking his time to figure out what he needs to move forward,” he told Fox Footy’s AFL360.
“He’s had a really tough six months: nothing tougher than what he’s had to deal with, first with injury and then the loss of his father, and he just needs the time to heal.
“Grief is a thing that is really like an injury, there is no two ways about it, you have to get some treatment to make yourself heal.”
“I don’t think Damien wants to put any pressure on Dustin,” Wilson said in response to Hardwick’s comments.
“On Saturday he was at the wedding of a close friend in Port Melbourne and he seemed in reasonably good spirits. I don’t think the club believes he is lost to them.
“He is contracted until the end of 2024. It is a big thing to walk away from that amount of money, and no one is underestimating how hard it has been for Dustin Martin, and everyone understands what Damien is saying about grief being like an injury.
“I think the view of the club is he is more likely to take as much time as he needs, and I believe he’ll be back by the middle of the year at the very, very latest.”
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd, who pulled up stumps on his illustrious career at just 31, suggested that a forced timeline could potentially see Martin retire prematurely.
“Once you check out it’s very, very hard to come back,” Lloyd told Footy Classified.
“Ash Barty in the last week, 25 years of age, but she just doesn’t want to pick up a racquet anymore.
“So I think that’s the thing for Richmond. They’d say, ‘Take as much time as you need, Dusty’, because for Richmond, if they asked him today he might say, ‘You know what? I’ve just had enough’.
“Richmond want to give him as much time as they possibly can for him to potentially not make a decision that we never see him again.
“Dusty’s got to want to do it. Otherwise you can be out there but you’ll never get back to being the player you were.”
Martin is the latest in a number of players who have taken personal leave in recent years, including the Western Bulldogs’ Bailey Smith and Essendon’s Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.
“Clubs are getting concerned about the mental health situation… but salary caps are massive things and that is where you win premierships: by managing your salary cap and getting the right players in,” Wilson said.
“This is a conversation that is being had with the league every year by CEOs at all the conferences. It’s a difficult one. I think this is an ongoing problem for the game. It’s difficult to define.
“We’ve seen tricky settlements like the Dayne Beams settlement and a tough one at the time with Tom Boyd and the Western Bulldogs.”