Can hot Tiges keep Dusty?
THE high-flying Tigers are in the top four after a big win over the Saints yesterday but have a bigger game in play this bye week — keeping hold of the Dustin Martin.
The reality is that Richmond can’t increase its offer to Martin of $1.1 million a season for seven years.
It’s now up to the 26-year-old to decide if he wants to ride the Tiger train into the finals and beyond.
Almost 70,000 people packed in to the MCG for the home match against St Kilda. You don’t get that for many clubs on a Sunday afternoon.
Richmond is now a bullet train, destination September.
And yesterday, Martin donned the conductor’s hat over a fresh mohawk to drag the Tigers to the double finals chance.
Martin will today travel to New Zealand to consult father Shane — with the help of his manager, Ralph Carr — on his future.
Tigers legend Matthew Richardson offered his take yesterday, after reports that North Melbourne has offered Martin a deal worth $2.8 million more over the seven years.
He could be a club great, Richardson said, and it’s not just about money. There would be “boundless opportunities” and it would “all even out in the long run”.
“If you do the pros and cons, you would then go, ‘to stay at Richmond for seven years, I’ll end up retiring at Richmond an all-time great of the club’,” Richardson said on 3AW.
“(He’ll think), ‘I’ll be a 300-game player … I may well be a Brownlow medallist. I’ll have won three or four Jack Dyer Medals. I will be loved by a huge fan base. I will have been in a stable place. And I will have boundless opportunities moving forward because of the 15 or 16 years that I’ve had at one football club. My life will be pretty secure with that’.”
When cabin doors are checked today, Martin can put the headphones on and relax as he crosses the Tasman.
He earned it, with 36 touches and two fantastic goals.
He wasn’t the only Tiger to star as Richmond flicked the switch for an electric performance and a chance to break a long hoodoo.
The Tigers haven’t won a final for 16 years. It was 2001, the year of their most recent top-four finish.
But watching yesterday would have allayed a few nerves for supporters. The Tiges were fast, clean, full of flair and their pressure was too much for the Saints.
Handy tools in the belt for finals footy when they face Geelong in a fortnight.
St Kilda played a man down for most of the afternoon after skipper Jarryn Geary was concussed early.
The Saints refused to lie down in the third quarter and managed to give the game some life, getting within four goals after falling as far as 50 points behind, but they were punished late.