Trent Cotchin goes public with 'weird' revelation in wake of Dustin Martin's AFL retirement

Three-time Richmond premiership captain Trent Cotchin has revealed he was in attendance for what turned out to be Dustin Martin's final AFL match by pure chance. Martin and Cotchin played together in the Tigers' golden dynasty between 2017 and 2020, during which time Martin won a Brownlow and three Norm Smith medals.

The pair formed an elite partnership throughout their respective careers and have stayed close mates since Cotchin's retirement at the end of 2023. Last week Martin's sudden retirement stunned the AFL world as the Tigers legend announced he would be calling 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, Cotchin like many expected he would at least see out the season and give fans the chance to farewell him at the MCG in the Tigers' final match against the Suns. However, Martin decided to call time on his career after the Tigers' loss to the Kangaroos, a game Cotchin sporadically decided to take his youngest son to.

“Weirdly, I had just decided to take my youngest child, my son Parker, along to the game at Marvel, nice and close to home, and didn’t have any expectation that it was going to be the last time we saw Dustin Martin playing a game of AFL footy,” Cotchin said on Channel 7's Talking Footy. “So, it was sad to hear that news during the week, because I thought there’d be another opportunity to kind of send him off in a way that everyone thinks that he deserves to be.

"But seeing him at the ground and then after the match, he did make a gesture as though ‘that’s it, I’m done’. I took it as a bit of tongue-in-cheek. But now reflecting (on it), clearly, he was carrying a pretty heavy weight.”

Martin finished his career without a doubt as one of the greatest players of the modern era, winning three premierships and three Norm Smith Medals with Richmond, along with the Brownlow Medal in 2017. He played 302 games and kicked 338 goals across a storied career, but has been restricted to just 13 appearances this year due to injuries.

Speculation around his 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 was his final AFL milestone.

There were rumours he could retire following the game but Dusty decided to play on. Following the match it was then rumoured that he could be set to make the switch to the Gold Coast Suns for next season to reunite with former mentor Damien Hardwick, while another line of thought was he would get his heroes send-off at the end of the year.

So his immediate retirement came as a shock to many. But Cotchin said the snap decision epitomises Dusty who has always done things his own unique way. “Dusty’s always done it his way,” Martin said. “We spoke about in his 300th game, that would have been maybe an opportunity (to retire) and maybe the way he did present after the match like that, that could have been his last game.”

Trent Cotchin says life after footy is both scary and exciting

No one other than Martin himself has any idea what the AFL legend will do next. Some suggest he will likely move to the Gold Coast to work under former coach Hardwick in a mentoring capacity, while others think he could step away from the game entirely.

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Cotchin also revealed he has heard he could be about to start a DJ career but thinks regardless of what he does, it will be both exciting and daunting for Martin. “I’ve heard reports that he might go and do some DJing with Fisher, but I don’t know how true that is,” Cotchin said. “But I don’t know (what he will do),” Cotchin said on Channel 7.

“I think, having experienced it myself this year, you go into this whole new world that you don’t know. And for him to be curious about what interests him, finding purpose in a different way of life — I think it’s exciting for him. I’m sure there’s an element of him that’s completely s*** scared as well.”