Richmond believe Dustin Martin would be a ‘great coach’

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Richmond believe Dustin Martin would be a ‘great coach’

Richmond legend Dustin Martin has an open invitation to return to the Tigers in any coaching or mentoring role.

The AFL’s only triple Norm Smith medallist has recently spent time at Richmond, including stepping into the rooms for former teammate Kamdyn McIntosh’s 200th game a fortnight ago.

Adem Yze, in his second year in charge at Punt Rd, joked he had a coach’s shirt ready for Martin when the 33-year-old was there for the Tigers’ round 10 clash with North Melbourne.

“He’s an amazing Richmond man,” Yze said on Wednesday.

“But not only that, he’s such a smart player, and he could be a coach.

“He would hate being in here and presenting (to a group as a coach) but out there (at training), the things that he could teach and coach our younger forwards will be stuff that we can’t coach.

“We’ve always got the doors always open for him, depending on what he wants to do in his future.

“If he wanted to come and mentor or come be a skills coach, he’d be more than welcome.

“If he does decide to go down that path, we’d love if he had our colours on.

“How small that is or how big that is could be up to him.”

Yze said No.1 draft pick Sam Lalor, who will miss up to six weeks with a hamstring injury, was “star struck” when meeting Martin.

“There’s no better player that can teach goal kicking and snapping and just the execution with the footy,” Yze said.

“During his playing days, he didn’t like that pressure (of talking in front of a big group), but in a line meeting, he was so good, let alone one-on-one.

“His impact he had all throughout his career was like high-level coaching in different environments.

“To have him around the building recently, and for guys to lean on him and ask him questions … his impact could be enormous for us.”

The enigmatic Martin called it quits following 302 AFL games after Richmond’s round 21 game against North Melbourne last year.

He returned to be farewelled by the Tigers faithful in their final match of last season at the MCG.

But the 2017 Brownlow medallist has typically kept a low-profile since, although he did appear in an ad campaign that cheekily hinted he might be open to a commentary career.

Talk about Martin making more regular appearances at Punt Rd comes as Richmond prepare to welcome back several of his premiership teammates for their trip to face GWS on Saturday.

Captain Toby Nankervis (managed), star forward Tom ****** (concussion), and midfielder Dion Prestia (achilles) are poised to be selected against the Giants.

The trio were sorely missed last Friday night in their Dreamtime loss against Essendon.

Injury-prone Prestia made a successful return via the VFL last Saturday night in his first game of the year at any level.

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