For context, I've known Dustin most of his life, I helped him prepare to be drafted and he took me into the rooms after the Premiership.
I'm not gossiping or undermining him, I speak with a sense of pride at how far he has come as a man. I'll be forever thankful he lost the scallywag behaviour and became a great.
I believe this is another reason the club are incredibly proud of the man Dustin has grown into as well. The undeniable talent was always there, and just like with many young kids, taking the time and having the patience to work through the difficult teenage / early twenty years has certainly reaped the benefits for both Richmond, Dustin, fans, and football lovers in general.
Acknowledging the early difficulties is also a celebration of the pieces of the puzzle fitting into place beautifully - would Dustin have survived at a club other than Richmond, or with a coach other than Dimma, or without the teammates who saw Dustin's potential both from an ability and character perspective. Often times the unrealistic expectations we place on talented kids and the fishbowl existence of those talented kids in an AFL mad town like Melbourne would absolutely break lesser people. For Dustin, that fishbowl existence magnified into something very few of us would ever want to have to experience and yet he has endured and overcome the hiccups both major and minor, done his own self-reflection and continued to develop into the best version of Dustin Martin he can be.