Eddie, Bartel call for Dusty 'don't argue' statue at MCG

Martin serving a bid 'don't argue' to then-Giant, now teammate, Tim Taranto in 2019.

Eddie McGuire and Jimmy Bartel have called on the AFL to commission a statue of three-time Richmond premiership star Dustin Martin.

Martin will play his 300th game when he runs out onto the field against the Hawks on Saturday afternoon.

And the pair already know in exactly what pose he should be immortalised in bronze, and even where it should be placed to enable the best access for fans.

"They talk about it in American sports, what pose should they use?" Bartel began on Nine's Eddie and Jimmypodcast. "The Lakers have Shaq (O'Neal) dunking on a ring, Kobe (Bryant) fading away."

He said Martin's should be "the big stiff arm".

Maguire agreed, and explained how it should be constructed and mounted in a way that made it accessible for fans to pose next to it as if they were being "don't argued".

"You'd do it on a low plinth so that everyone can get their photo taken being stiff armed," Maguire said.

"Then his hand would become golden because the bronze would be that shiny from people rubbing it.

"The golden hand of the golden era.

"The AFL will adopt that in five years' time and claim it as their own.

"Officially here today, the Eddie and Jimmy podcast has petitioned for a statue for Dustin Martin to be done in the pose of the don't argue, and with a plinth next to it so that people can get their photograph as they are being 'don't argued' like everybody who's ever played against him in 300 games of football has had to cop."

Bartel said it should be placed behind the Great Southern Stand – which was renamed the Shane Warne Stand in 2022 – along one of the pathways between Punt Road and the ground.

Martin made his debut in the opening round of the 2010 season against the Blues.

Bartel said Martin's Norm Smith Medal-winning performance in the 2020 grand final against Geelong was his best match, and one of the best individual performances in a match in the sport's history.

He kicked four goals and picked up the maximum 15 votes to win his third Norm Smith.

"The one where he beat the Cats up there during the Bubble Cup (in Queensland due to COVID-19), that was as good an individual performance, where one individual was the difference over a game," he said.

"Every single one of those goals, ... you just turned into a fan, the slow clap, he was just extraordinary."