Relief for the champ

BROWN LOW medal list Dustin Martin said last night it was a relief to outpoll the ineligible Patrick Dangerfield as the Richmond midfielder’s season was franked by umpires with a record 36 votes.

The explosive midfielder has now been judged the best by the AFL’s coaches, players and umpires, and he enters Saturday’s Grand Final against Adelaide as the game’s hottest superstar.

Martin joined Rory Sloane in the lead at Round 10 and was never headed from Round 11, registering a record 11 best-on-grounds to finish clear of Dangerfield (33 votes) and Hawthorn ball magnet Tom Mitchell (25).

“It would’ve been a bit awkward if [Dangerfield] beat me. It’s a bit of a relief, there’s no awkwardness,” 26-year-old said.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said Martin had improved every season of his blistering career and the tattooed mega- star reflected on a pivotal meeting held two years ago when he was told to curb some destructive behaviour.

Martin’s deported father, Shane Martin, and manager Ralph Carr told him he would soon run out of chances at the Tigers.

“I was just a young bloke who liked to play up every now and then,” he said.

“The club was fed up with it and so they sat me down and told me to pull my head in.”

Martin’s brother will fly into Melbourne from Barcelona to join his entourage for Saturday’s Grand Final against Adelaide.

Martin admitted how draining his protracted contract negotiations became before he recommitted until 2024 for $8.75 million this month.

“It was certainly stressful. By the end of it I was sick of everyone talking about it, sick of my ugly face in the paper every day,” he said.

“But Ralph was great for me. I pretty much lived at his house towards the end because I was that stressed out, and I’m glad it got done.

“I was about 14 [when I left school]. I just wasn’t a fan of school — probably should’ve stayed, because I worked a heap of s----- jobs after that. “But here I am today.” Martin will become Richmond’s first player to line up in a Grand Final in his Brownlow Medal season on Saturday.

Dangerfield opened a fourvote lead on Martin in Round 17 and again edged ahead after Round 21, following his one-game suspension for a dangerous tackle on Carlton’s Matthew Kreuzer.

But in the final round Martin eclipsed Dangerfield’s record of 35 votes set last year and the Geelong superstar then draped the medal around Martin’s neck as Richmond’s sixth Brownlow winner.

He played every game this year, kicking a career-best 32 goals and averaging 30.3 disposals in the home-and-away season.