Dustin Martin is a professional Australian rules football player who plays for Richmond in the Australian Football League.
Background
Martin was born in Castlemaine, Victoria to a Maori father from New Zealand and an Australian mother. He played football for Castlemaine in the Bendigo Football League before he left school after year 9 and moved to Sydney with his father, Shane.
Education
He also finished first in disposals, contested possessions, inside 50"s and score assists.
Career
In Sydney he played for the Campbelltown Blues under 18"s team, playing a senior game at the end of the season. Meanwhile, he worked at Shane"s transport business and Shane"s girlfriend"s sports apparel business. At the end of 2007 he moved back to Castlemaine where he played for the Castlemaine senior side.
He played the last four games of the 2008 season for the Bendigo Pioneers in the TAC Cup.
He returned to the Pioneers side the following year and played exceptionally well, coming runner-up in the best and fairest count. While playing for Bendigo he averaged 24.7 touches (97 of them contested) and 115 Supercoach points from 11 games.
Things got even better from there for Martin. He represented Vic Country in the under 18"s championships, averaging 21.4 touches (72 contested) and 111 Supercoach points in five games.
In one of the best games playing for Vic Country, Martin gathered 28 touches, 5 clearances and 193 Supercoach points against Western Australia in the final match of the under-18 national championships.
He was selected in the under 18"s All-Australian team Martin entered the American Federation of Labor-Congress draft camp at the AIS in Canberra, finishing equal second in the kicking efficiency test and ran the 20 m sprint in 2.89 seconds, the second fastest at the camp. Martin was drafted to Richmond with the third selection in the 2009 American Federation of Labor-Congress Draft.
He debuted in the opening round of the 2010 season against Carlton.
Despite the Tigers losing by 56 points, Martin impressed with 18 touches, four marks and three tackles and scoring 62 in American Federation of Labor-Congress Dream Team. He only missed one game in his debut season, winning a 2010 American Federation of Labor-Congress Rising Star nomination for his performance against Portuguese Adelaide in Round 10 and finishing the year ranked second at Richmond for clearances and inside 50s and third for contested possessions and disposals.
In round 5, 2011 against North Melbourne, Martin had what was described by Richmond coach, Damien Hardwick, as his "coming of age", kicking four goals and gathering 33 possessions. On 4 July 2012, Martin was suspended for two weeks for failing to attend training, along with Daniel Connors who was sacked for the incident.
In early 2013, Martin was the subject of social media rumours that he was the player involved in police, Australian Crime Commission (Administrative Committee on Company-ordination) or American Federation of Labor-Congress investigations into performance-enhancing drug use.
Richmond"s coach Damien Hardwick denied that any of this was true and called the accusations "un-Australian". Martin was selected in the inaugural American Federation of Labor-Congress Players Association 22under22 team in September 2013. This annual award recognises the best young talent in the American Federation of Labor-Congress. Martin has been reported to be seeking offers from other clubs, but as of 16 September 2013, he had denied making a firm decision to leave Richmond.
In late 2013 Dustin signed a 2-year contract that states that he will stay with the club until at least the end of 2015.