READ MORE - IT'S D-DAY FOR DUSTIN (FROM 2009)
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LIKE many, Dustin Martin's first senior coach, Jamie Elliott, marveled at the match-winning performance of the Richmond superstar as he wrote his name into the AFL history books last Saturday night.
Martin - a Campbells Creek junior who first played senior football with Castlemaine and was later drafted from the Bendigo Pioneers - added to his stature by becoming the first three-time winner of the AFL's Norm Smith Medal in the Tigers' 31-point grand final win over Geelong at the Gabba.
Just as he had done the previous year in the grand final romp over the GWS Giants, Martin booted four goals in the premiership victory - all highlight reel worthy and none of which were regulation kicks.
For Elliott, Martin's four brilliant goals on Saturday night revived memories of training nights at Castlemaine's Camp Reserve back in Martin's first senior season in 2008 and the hours of practice he put in mastering the most difficult of shots at goals from all angles.
"Every Tuesday and Thursday night at training Dustin and the boys would be on the boundary having shots from every angle," Elliott said on Thursday.
"Dustin could boomerang them from out near the canteen, then he'd go over the other side and kick them on his left foot.
"He was first to training and he'd always be last off the track and he was a 16-year-old kid just having fun."
In his debut senior season with the Magpies in 2008 - also Elliott's first as coach of the club - Martin finished runner-up to Luke Walters in Castlemaine's best and fairest, while he won the BFNL's Rising Star Award.
More than a decade on, the Martin performance from that 2008 season that is now the most part of Castlemaine folklore is his five goals against Golden Square - who went on to play in the grand final that year - in round 16, which followed a six-goal haul against Kyneton the previous week.
"He changed ruck-rover and full-forward that day and I reckon he had those five goals in the first half... that's not bad going for a 16-year-old against a team that played off in a grand final," Elliott said.
"I still remember him running into packs, grabbing the footy, coming out backwards and fending blokes off; 16-year-old kids don't do that, but he was just a bull."
Since his days at Campbells Creek, Castlemaine and the Pioneers, Martin has forged one of the great AFL/VFL careers with the Tigers over 244 games: three premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020, three Norm Smith Medals, 2017 Brownlow Medal, four All-Australian selections, two best and fairests... the list goes on.
"It's amazing what he has gone on to do; he's probably the best finals player the game has seen," said Elliott, himself a former league player of 58 games at Fitzroy, Richmond and St Kilda.
"He's a special player who just finds a way in big moments. He wills himself to the footy and probably the biggest thing with him is he doesn't fear to fail, which is a great trait."
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