The Spirit That Lifted Dustin Martin

walton.andrew70
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read
It was all a blur except for The Spirit and Dustin

Rioli contests the throw in, gets involved in the deflection. Dustin is set up in front.

Edwards thrusts forward from behind a defender, gathering the bounce to bunt the ball in close. Dustin is trailing him into the contest.

Higgins receives the ball in front at hip height in a power position and hacks a right foot kick under pressure, with inquisitive elevation and innocent penetration into congestion. Dustin is facing him.

Edwards launches as though contesting a ball up, at full reach and taps the ball to bounce on its end to an open Lambert. Dustin has changed direction.

Lambert cleanly takes the ball. The yellow Sherrin bounces down and then back perfectly into his hands outstretched as he is moving with the ball. Dustin swoops past. A balanced blur of ink, muscle, luminous boots, yellow and black gratefully receiving the bullet handpass.

Dustin accelerates in the five steps available towards the boundary line. A desperate hand from a flailing tackle left behind as his left foot plants with the ball release barely inside the line.

The score is 24–21. The Tigers just in front after forty minutes of heavily contested slog in slippery conditions adding a layer of tension to the natural nervousness that emerges in finals.

The run by Dustin into this seemingly dead position where the option of space is exhausted. Another defender approaches from the left to smother the kick.

Dustin enters a black hole in an alternative universe where the subconscious flow in the moment enters like the sweetest of memories.

There is a microsecond of time and space where Dustin has now arrived from his own instinctive motion.

Dustin has pushed himself to a position on the field where the degree of difficulty is extreme.

Five seconds have elapsed from the moment that Rioli willed himself above his ruck counterpart.

Dustin’s left foot provides a stable base into the sodden turf with power. The right hand ball drop released from a low position. His left arm swings across his torso providing a counter balance to the right boot.

The sweet strike of precision sends the ball soaring into an arc at goalpost height.

Our seats are in a position at nearly the furthest most point at the opposite end of the MCG. Directly behind the goals at the Punt Road end, Row X, Section Q4, Southern Stand Top Deck.

It didn’t matter to any of us where we were sitting. Being there at this moment with 91,446 football fans on a Thursday night was special.

As the yellow Sherrin took flight, the trajectory ignited a wave of noise. The sound of the crowd had been bubbling with tension and hope that is beautifully amplified within the MCG. Simmering now reaching tipping point.

The goal umpire rigid between the posts, started to back pedal yet remained between the posts.

The alignment of the umpire position with the ball reaching its apex gave rise to the throb of barracking converging into a rising cheer of astonishment and expectation.

The volume pitch reaches a crescendo. The ball curls downwards as the umpire sways backwards, both hands at the ready to signal a goal.

Dustin already knows.

The space that Dustin operates in is one where he already knows.

A level of intelligence, strength, skill and courage in a moment where tribal allegiances are respectfully put to the side.

Goal.

The highlight reel receives another well-deserved entry in a career so spectacular.

To do so on an occasion of meaningfulness.

200 games.

Home Qualifying Final.

MCG record winning streak.

First ever finals match against Hawthorn.

Favorites and expectation.

Yet underpinning all this, allowing this timeless moment of magic was the other Tiger who plays entirely in his own space. The spirit within Shane Edwards, which gives cause to his revelatory vision, was innocuously flowing through the Yellow and Black delivering another dagger to the opposition.

Learning why it is.

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