Richmond General Manager of Football Neil Balme has quashed speculation surrounding Dustin Martin following the star’s press conference meeting a sudden end on Wednesday after refusing to answer questions about his future.
The 2016 Tigers best and fairest winner was a guest at a media conference yesterday to launch Sherrin’s new football design, but refused to talk about his current contract negotiations with Richmond despite multiple questions being fielded to him on the topic.
Martin is a restricted free agent at the end of the season, and has reportedly put talks with the club on hold until the end of the season despite the Tigers already offering the 25-year-old a lucrative four-year contract to stay at Punt Road.
This latest reluctance to speak about his future has fuelled intense speculation about his future, all of which Balme says is overblown.
“We talked to him and said that they’re going to ask you about your contract but you don’t have to discuss it if you don’t want to,” he said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“He said ‘Well I’ll just tell them that my agent and the club are looking after it,’ which is exactly what he did, but then all the noise out of it is that he storms off, he won’t answer the questions or didn’t handle the questions. He did (handle them) quite easily.
“He was asked three times (about his contract) and at that stage the Sherrin girl gave him the nod to come off.
“He hung around for about 20 minutes (afterwards) and signed autographs and all the things he should have done, but it looks like he’s been canned for not being able to answer the question and went off in a huff, which is simply not so.”
The Tigers footy manager says that the club are in no rush to finalise terms with the midfielder after confirming they had submitted a contract offer to him, stating that they are comfortable with Martin pushing talks until the end of the season should he want that.
“We’ve made him a terrific offer and he can take as long as he likes to consider it as far as we’re concerned, as long as he plays good footy in 2017,” Balme said.
“We’ve got confidence that he’ll be a Tiger long-term and I’m pretty sure he thinks the same way.
“He’s an exceptional player with us and we want to do the long-term deal with him… (Martin and manager Ralph Carr) have got every right to take as much time as they like to consider it.
“We’re not that concerned about it but unfortunately there’s so much noise about it because it is a big story.”
Balme also says that the club’s relationship with Carr has never been better.
“There has been nothing but professional and constructive conversations between us and Ralph Carr as to what is going on,” he said.
“(The relationship is) very strong. It’s been fine.
“We know where (Martin) fits in the market, we’re pretty confident that he genuinely wants to be a Tiger and he loves the place. We don’t have any problems.”