Tom Lynch goes public with staggering revelation in wake of Dustin Martin's AFL retirement
Lynch says Martin decided he would retire months before he announced it.
Richmond Tigers forward Tom Lynch has revealed Dustin Martin had decided to retire months before his final AFL game. Earlier this month Martin's sudden retirement stunned the AFL world as the Tigers legend called time on his illustrious career effective immediately, having played his final game for Richmond against North Melbourne.
While the general consensus was Martin's career was coming to an end sooner rather than later, many expected he would either retire at the end of the season or head to the Gold Coast Suns to reunite with former mentor Damien Hardwick. But the 33-year-old in typical Dusty style kept almost everyone in the dark about his plans beyond 2024 before announcing his retirement seemingly out of nowhere.
However, Lynch has since revealed that a select few teammates were actually aware of his plan to bow out of the game, two months before he pulled the pin. Although even they didn't know exactly when it would happen. “I didn’t know it was going to be the last game,” Richmond forward Tom Lynch said on Triple M.
“I knew that he was going to finish up at some stage this year; he told a group of us probably six or eight weeks prior to that, that he’s going to finish up (and) he’s not sure how many more games he’ll play.”
Dustin Martin never planned to join Gold Coast Suns
Speculation around Martin's future in the game has been rife for most of 2024 and it only went into overdrive following his 300th game in Round 14 against Hawthorn. The Tigers great drew a crowd of more than 92,000 to the MCG in what turned out to be his final AFL milestone.
There were rumours he could retire following the game but he decided to play on. Following the match it was then thought that he could be set to make the switch to the Suns for next season to reunite with Hardwick. But Lynch says he knew that was something Martin wasn't considering.
“I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to Gold Coast — I was certain of that,” he said. “I knew that he would finish up at Richmond when he let us know that.
“Clearly his 300th game out here (at the MCG) was a great game to celebrate him and (it was) a massive turnout by the Tiger army. He’s had a massive impact on my career and the whole Richmond footy club. He’s one of the greatest players we’ve ever had.”
Martin will do one final lap of the MCG this weekend to thank the Tigers faithful before their match against the Suns. And Richmond coach Adam Yze says the game is not only crucial in ensuring they avoid their first wooden spoon since 2007 but also to give Martin the heroes farewell he deserves.
"It is going to be around that, celebrating obviously one of our best (Dustin Martin)," Yze said. "It's our last home game. We want to finish off the right way, all those sorts of things. But at the same time, our team's going to be different next year, whether it is those players that you're talking about, or the fact that we've got guys retiring and we've got to make some decisions on our list anyway.
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"You want to do your supporters and our Tiger army proud but at the same time we're going to have different players wearing the jumper the following season. So we want to finish off strongly and put on a really good performance for our supporters."
