Dustin Martin was a highly noticeable absentee from the Brownlow Medal 2024 ceremony on Monday night, with his non-appearance leaving fans in no doubt he won’t be present on AFL grand final day, either.
Before Patrick Cripps won the award with an incredible 45 votes, Martin held the previous record for most Brownlow nods in a season when he torched the AFL in a blistering 2017 season that ended with a Richmond premiership.
Former Brownlow Medal winners get automatic invites to the ceremony every year, but Martin chose to decline his.
It can also be revealed that Martin has also turned down the honour of being part of the AFL grand final motorcade for retiring players.
Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin also famously turned down the opportunity to farewell fans at the 2023 grand final, instead choosing a more low-key send-off at the SCG.
Martin is a famously private person and has shied away from the media and its glare for most of his career, so ditching the Brownlow and the grand final would not be out of character.
However, there could be another major reason he is not attending the events: he might not be retiring at all.
Martin farewelled the Richmond faithful at the club’s home match against the Gold Coast Suns back in August (pictured)
Martin dominated the AFL to comfortably win the 2017 Brownlow Medal with a then-record number of votes (pictured)
Martin officially called it quits after returning from a back injury against North Melbourne for one final match earlier in the season.
However, he has been in negotiations with the Gold Coast Suns for a last hurrah with former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick.
Because Martin retired from the sport, he is not contractually locked to the Tigers anymore and could join the Suns as an unrestricted free agent.
Hardwick spoke to Fox Footy on Monday and did little to hose down that speculation.
‘We’ve had conversations,’ he said.
Former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is now at the Gold Coast Suns and has had conversations about Martin (pictured together) coming out of retirement with the club
‘What we’ve just got to sit there and figure out is: ‘Can it work for both of us? Is it a viable option for both parties? Are we motivated to go into this?’
‘And look, there’s no rush from our point of view — those sorts of decisions aren’t made until about a month’s time.
‘We’ve just got to have further conversations. We’ve had conversations, and from our point of view, he’s a really, really good player — it’s just (about) whether it is working for both parties, whether Dustin has the motivation to continue to play.
‘He’s been a fantastic player for the Richmond Football Club … It’s just (about) whether he wants to sit there and look at his career, but then we’ve also got to figure out ‘well, how does it fit with the Gold Coast?’
‘We’re in the initial stages of those conversations.’
Martin (pictured third from left during Richmond’s 2020 premiership celebrations) forged a career as one of the all-time greats but declined the opportunity to be part of a retiring players motorcade at the AFL grand final
Hardwick also confirmed the Suns were focused on bringing in established players rather than rely on the draft to build a roster.
‘If I take Dustin aside for a moment, we are a very, very young list — I think we’re the second or third-youngest list in the AFL — so, what we have been really specific about is looking at established players that can help us,’ he said.
‘We’ve got picks this year, but we primarily want to sit there and bring in established talent. We had four first-round picks last year, so we don’t need to keep having first-round picks, we need to sit there and actually bring in players that can help us right here, right now.
‘I think our club has got enough talent there to get us to where we need to go, but we need some players, and we’re very specific, and we’ve targeted players that will help us, I think, get us to that next step.’
