SEN boss Craig Hutchison says Dustin Martin should baulk at Gold Coast move, consider Fremantle

SEN chief executive Craig Hutchison says the way Gold Coast have tried to manipulate the narrative around Dustin Martin has been “abhorrent”.

Martin retired from the AFL in August after 302 games, three premierships and three Norm Smith Medals with Richmond.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Trent Cotchin doubts Dustin Martin will go to Gold Coast.

It appeared to end months of speculation around the 2017 Brownlow medallist’s future at the end of his monster seven-year contract.

But suggestions that he will come out of retirement and link back up with former coach Damien Hardwick at Gold Coast will now not go away, after Suns CEO Mark Evans admitted earlier this month that Martin’s camp had reached out to the Queensland club about a possible move north.

Hutchison has slammed the Suns for assuming the audacity to think they are calling the shots with a future Hall of Fame Legend.

“Let me run this for you. Dustin Martin, it looks like he’s been flirting with the Gold Coast for 18 months. Reports have been circling around and denied, and circling and denied,” Hutchison said on The Sounding Board podcast.

“Now this is the story that the Suns are selling us. One, that he’s pitching (to) them — one of the greatest players of all time wants to go play there, ‘And don’t blame us, he rang us’.

“Two, they’re leaking the number that they’re only going to have $300 to $500,000 to pay him, because that’s popping up consistently in everyone’s report.

“And three, that he’d need to convince us that he’s focused, fit, and wanting to play.”

The media mogul said he would be headstrong in response to the Suns if he were Ralph Carr, Martin’s manager.

“If I was managing Dustin Martin, I’d say, ‘Come and sit down for a minute. Let’s talk about this: you’re the three-time premiership superstar, three-time Norm Smith Medal (winner), one of the greatest players to ever play the game. You’ve got a lowly club on the Gold Coast, who have never won anything, who are leaking about you already, who are telling everyone you want to come there, and then you’ve got to sit in front of them and pitch (to) them — we’re not going near this’,” Hutchison said.

“And I don’t blame the Suns, I guess, for their stance. But they’ve made it very public, and they’ve strategically leaked their views on this, and I think it’s abhorrent.”

Former Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin said on Wednesday night there was almost no chance his old teammate would join the Suns.

“I think there is a zero-to-one per cent chance that he pulls on a Suns guernsey,” Cotchin said on Talking Footy.

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The Sounding Board co-host Damien Barrett said the Suns were “all talk” but, for what it’s worth, would still do a deal with Martin.

“I don’t think they stand for a hell of a lot, even with the changes they’ve made,” Barrett said on the podcast.

“And again, they talked a big game last year that there was not just a need to make the finals, but there actually was no ceiling. Well, yet again, for the entirety of their duration in the AFL, they are yet to make finals.

“Damien Hardwick ultimately hasn’t changed anything. So, I feel they’re just all talk.

“I am though, and this might surprise you, weirdly enough sympathetic to them on this particular issue. I believe, (with) how this has been portrayed publicly in recent days, that it is not their doing, and that is Ralph Carr going to the Gold Coast Suns for the best part of 18 months, seeking to get there.

“I’d still do it, by the way. I would still do it (bring Martin to the club). Because I don’t think there’s anything to lose.

“If you get him on the books and he doesn’t commit and he is like he was in 2024, you don’t want to bar him. I don’t think there’s anything lost if you’ve got him on the terms that you’ve already expressed.”

Hutchison, known for his radical and creative thinking, said he saw an option from left-field — literally, geographically speaking.

“I don’t think he’s a fit there (at Gold Coast). I think there’s one obvious fit if he wanted to play,” Hutchison said.

“My beliefs on this stuff are well tabled, that you don’t bring in 30-plusers and try and squeeze value and all those things all the time. And I know that’s a minority view.

“However, if you’ve never won one, and you’ve got half a chance to win one, you can afford to take significant risk if you’re in the window — and Fremantle are in the window.

“So, I think Fremantle are the fit, if he wanted to cast his mind, and I think Fremantle should burn some capital to try and make it happen.

“Let me mount the case for Fremantle. Their last four games, they lost by (a combined) 41 points. They lost them without Josh Treacy, (Sean) Darcy and (Alex) Pearce — three talls. If they win two of those four, they make the finals. I think would have got as far as a preliminary final. I thought Round 19-20 or thereabouts, they were nearly the second best team in the competition.

“They’re young, they’re chips-in to bringing in some talent already; they’re already into Shai Bolton and they’ve got others brewing. They clearly need to kick a score. And they’ve never won one (a premiership), so it’s a premium, the highest of premiums, to win one.

“They’ve got a free hit at it, because they’re going to contend. Even if they got 12 games out of him and (he) had influence, I think that’s their move. The lifestyle would suit him.

“They’ve got an obligation to try and pinch a flag in the next two, three years, Freo.

“I would think, if I’m sitting at my desk today and I’m reading the Gold Coast sort of throw shade on him, and I think, ‘What’s the risk here, really, for us? We’ve got a chance to win next year and the year after, does he help us do it? Well, the best of him, or a better version than Richmond had this year, would help. If it doesn’t work, we just wouldn’t play him’.

“I think 12-15 games is worth a throw at the stumps. And I think if you haven’t won one, you’ve got to be throwing balls at the stumps. You can’t sit back and just let the world play on; you’ve got to go and try and win one.”