page_title: Dustin Martin
section_title: 2017 season
hierarchical_section_title: Dustin Martin / AFL career / 2017 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin during the 2017 AFL Grand Final Parade
context_page_description: Dustin Martin is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League. Martin was drafted by Richmond with the third pick in the 2009 national draft, and made his AFL debut in the opening round of the 2010 season. He was nominated for the 2010 AFL Rising Star award, but was ineligible to win due to suspension.
  Martin won the Jack Dyer Medal as Richmond's best and fairest player in 2016, along with his first All-Australian selection. To date, Martin has won two premierships, two Jack Dyer Medals and three All-Australian selections among other individual accolades, and has also won several major best-on-ground awards. In both of his premiership years, he won both the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in the grand final and the Gary Ayres Award as the player of the finals series.
  In 2017, Martin had what was described by AFL legend Leigh Matthews as the greatest ever individual season by a VFL/AFL player.
context_section_description: A reinvigorated Richmond team opened the 2017 season with a 43-point victory over Carlton. In addition to introducing a new game-plan that included faster ball-movement and a greater commitment to tackling, the club also saw another leap from Martin, who put in a starring four-goal performance. He kicked another two goals the following week, but suffered a broken cheekbone in the win over Collingwood. He was ultimately given the medical all-clear to play the next week, despite speculation that he would sit out the match or at least play with a protective helmet. Martin did neither though and instead played a starring role in the rain-soaked match, recording 40 disposals, kicking two goals and gathering an equal-club-record 15 clearances in the victory over West Coast at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). He came under another injury cloud less than a fortnight later after a mid-week training session saw him leave the track with groin soreness. Though he did not miss a match as a result of the soreness, he was below his absolute best for much of the next month until he recorded 35 disposals in round 9's tight loss to the GWS Giants. In the annual Dreamtime at the 'G match that followed in round 10 Martin received the best-afield Yiooken Award for the second straight year. He followed that match up with another best-afield performance against North Melbourne that saw him record a maximum three Brownlow Medal votes in three consecutive matches leading into Richmond's mid-season bye. To that point Martin ranked top-10 in the league for disposals (29.9 per game), clearances (6.7) and contested possessions (14.5). He was also second best in the league for metres gained (564.4 per game) and behind only Patrick Dangerfield for goals scored by the league's top 20 possession winners. He was at this point also named in AFL Media's mid-season All Australian team.
  He continued his roll into the second half of the season including receiving a maximum ten votes from Richmond's, and opponent Carlton's, coaches in round 14, to enter first place in the association's, champion player of the year award. The next week he set an AFL record by breaking eight attempted tackles by his Port Adelaide opponents that saw Richmond into the top-four teams on the ladder. He was at the point named the June player of the month by the AFL Players Association for performances between rounds 11 and 15.
  Despite being tagged, Martin turned in his second 40-plus disposal match of the season a fortnight later in Richmond's win over the Brisbane Lions. In addition, his 12 inside-50s was the equal second most recorded in a match by a Richmond player.  He narrowly avoided suspension in that match however, instead receiving fines for two separate incidents of careless conduct in which he hit back at tagger Nick Robertson during the match. Martin was again awarded the AFLPA Player of the Month in July, becoming the first player to win the award in back-to-back months. When he received another nomination in August (one of six players each month), he became the only player to be nominated in every month in that year, the award's inaugural season. He continued his form in the final weeks of the season including in round 23, when he was awarded the Ian Stewart Medal as the best afield in Richmond's win over St Kilda at the MCG. Richmond finished the season having won 15 matches and earned a top-four finish for the first time in 16 years. At the end of the home and away season, his 667 disposals ranked third in the club's history. His 137 inside 50s and 144 clearances both placed second in the club's record books. At the same time, his 115 clangers broke his own club and league record set the previous season.
  All year Martin had been plagued by yet another prolonged contract saga after his management announced the year prior that he would not be in a rush to sign a new deal. By the end of January he had confirmed he would delay a decision on a contract until the completion of the season. That would not stop speculation however, with news leaking of increasing offers as 
caption: Martin with captain Trent Cotchin during the 2017 AFL Grand Final parade
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