World News – AU – Dustin Martin made history with third Norm Smith It may not be his final form

How do you know when something has gone beyond good, has gone beyond good, has even gone beyond the exceptional, and has fallen into a category of its own?

What can assure you that what unfolds before you will be told for decades to come, a story so incredible that future generations may well consider it a myth?

If you had any doubts before Saturday night, his great final performance of 2020 clearly put him to work In a game with thin margins for the most part, Martin made the difference

He didn’t wait for the decisive moments, but instead created them and grabbed them himself before anyone realized they had arrived

If statistics are your preference, you’ll naturally be drawn to the fact that Martin has now won three Norm Smith medals – the first player in VFL / AFL history to do so.

You’ll be looking at his four goals in the 2020 Grand Final to go with four in 2019 and two in 2017, numbers reserved for key big forwards, not hybrid midfielders who should be earning clearances and organizing attacks too

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Some will be drawn to Martin’s highlights, the most surprising of which came with the game already sealed when he intercepted a pocket-deep pass, shrugged and dodged rival talisman Patrick Dangerfield and walked away. broken at an almost impossible angle

It was Dusty in a microcosm, doing the impossible just for the fun of it, to prove that he could Whether it was Dangerfield who fell helpless from Martin’s deformed hips was almost on his nose in his poetry – two players often enough seen as equals, but polar opposites on this most important night

Martin remains the most watchable player in the league There are more showy players – Shai Bolton’s steaming hot feet were just hypnotic that night – and there are players more regularly involved in the game – Jayden Short seemed to be the fulcrum for all that was half-back for Richmond – but none caught the eye like Martin

And this is what elevates him above his contemporaries and places him among the real champions of the sport.Every time he is five meters from the ball, the humidity of the soil increases

Spectators feel it and move on their feet, Martin’s Richmond team-mates feel it and put themselves out of place.But most of all, his opponents feel it, and no matter how desperate the lunge or the coordination of the defensive effort , they just can’t do anything to stop it

At times, the whole Richmond squad feels like this after a first half in which Geelong managed to bring the game back to his own conditions, and his reputation as a ball user on the more cunning and skillful in the game has been confirmed, Richmond’s second-half attack was frightening both in its ruthless ferocity and inevitability

As impressive as Geelong’s control and method was in the first half, it was not a game for Richmond once he reached his peak They swarmed from midfield after the long break, carrying the ball forward as part of his collective ensemble – where Geelong sought to master football, Richmond made it just an extension of his yellow and black wave

The Cats held their own in the third quarter and even missed a few chances to take the lead in the last change, but even if they had struggled to predict with confidence they could have stopped what was to come.

First Dion Prestia, the Tom Lynch after Bolton lit up the Gabba, then the Dusty and Jack Riewoldt show Each with a hiccup and a shrug and the solemn recognition that this is just the way things are are now – Richmond decides he wants to win, then Richmond wins

The team’s place in history will now be debated ad nauseum, but at the very least it belongs alongside the great sides of Brisbane, Geelong and Hawthorn of this century

Beyond, who knows It’s all here for these Tigers, four, five, or six or seemingly as much as they want to win The ages are ending and the dominance fades, but sitting at the Gabba on Saturday night, it is simply impossible to imagine losing them

It’s not totally unreasonable to suggest that he could end his career as the best footballer of all time. What’s stopping him? Who is slowing it down? What else is this wonder of a capable man of in the last years of his career?

I guess it all depends on what you are looking for.If it’s statistics you can always find some to argue for someone else, and there are also some players who have reels highlights that rival Dusty

But with Martin, it’s more about feeling Because he plays purely by instinct, he taps into ours It makes him harder to judge but easier to appreciate

So maybe that’s the secret right now Just take advantage of Dustin Martin, for all that he is

The final decision as to his place in history will, as always, be made by the man himself

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