After Thursday night’s game against Carlton, something became clear.
Richmond must re-sign Dustin Martin if they want to achieve anything in the next few years.
Martin was best on ground with 33 disposals and four goals while setting up another three or four.
This was the perfect start for the star Tiger, especially when Martin and his manager have said that contract talks are off until the end of the season.
Richmond must be willing to match whatever the competition is ready to pay for the midfielder. This is not just because of his performance on Thursday night.
The 25-year-old is coming into the best form of his career. This is shown with a steady rise in his last two years in Brownlow voting finishing seventh in 2015 with 21 votes and a third-place finish in 2016 with 25 votes.
Martin has been on the cusp of being regarded as an elite midfielder but after his Round 1 performance he has elevated himself into that category.
Richmond would be confident that Martin will re-sign as the club has been a great supporter to him especially in the early years of his career when he moved from country Victoria into Melbourne city.
During his issues with the media and the law in the previous few years, the club has stood by him.
From reports, Richmond have offered Martin around $800,000 a year but there have been rumours that other clubs are ready to offer him more than a million bucks to leave the Tigers.
It will be interesting to follow the contract talks at the end of the season as the salary cap is set to increase. With the rise that could bring Richmond’s $800,000 to $1,000,000 and keep Martin at Punt Road.
It is hard when there is a squad of 45 players and everyone has to be paid, but if Richmond fail to sign Dustin Martin it would be a massive setback for the Tigers.
berrlins
Roar Pro
"premiership era"? maybe win a final first before talking about eras champ.
Republican
Guest
.......loyalty is not a common trait in any of the elite tiers of sport, which begs the question as to why anyone invests any emotion in supporting what are really only commercially concocted, plastic entities..........
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
"Fyfe and Schache" Okay dude, good luck with that.
tibor nagy (big four sticks)
Guest
We will keep Dusty. Next year we will have Fyfe and Schache too. Dusty will want to be a part of our premiership era.
Slane
Guest
Those cheap little handballs to the open player in the goalsquare completely changed my outlook on Dustin Martin. He could easily have had 6 goals but was just happy to bring his teammates into the game.
Daniel Plater
Roar Rookie
Loyalty is not a common trait these days in the AFL but I tend to think with Martin it's a combination of money and success if he can get it. If the tigers can provide both financial security and potential success I think he stays if they can't provide both I think he goes but not to North Melbourne as they are certainly no further ahead than the tigers in the push for a flag. Honestly as a die hard tigers fan it would cut me to pieces if he leaves he's my second fave player of all time behind Matthew Richardson. If Richmond play this style and he has fun even if we don't make the 8 he might stay if he sees the fact we are moving forward. Go tiges yellow and black forever!
Athos Sirianos
Roar Guru
It looks as though Dusty's heart is with the Tigers. The work that the club have put into him really showed on Thursday through his acts of leadership in handing Dan Butler his first goal and getting him into the game. Don't really see Dusty leaving and the Tigers have made it known that they have room in the cap. I'm sure fans won't mind if the club give him an increase if it means securing his services for a further few years.
Josh Mitchell
Roar Rookie
I really don't see money being the deciding factor behind Dusty's decision. He's not holding out til the end of the season to try and squeeze the $$$ - rather, it's the direction of the team. A promising Tigers season will see him re-sign, another false dawn and he'll chase a premiership. It's Dimma and the rest of the playing group who will help him make this decision, not the salary cap.
Aransan
Guest
Dustin Martin is an icon of the Richmond football club, he should be prepared to stay for 80% of what he could get paid elsewhere and that is beginning to sound like $1m a year on a 5 year contract.