Richmond subtly yet profoundly changed many things at the end of last year. Players, coaches, attitudes and approaches and, of course, the game plan all changed.

Damien Hardwick said on Sunday the coaches altered their approach from offence as the best form of defence to defence as the best form of offence.

They became a kick more than handball team and they shifted their philosophy to appreciate the game was trending towards being about territory more than possession. They changed it to reflect that almost retro approach of winning the contest and get it forward to win the next contest.

Richmond's game became a form of naive art, beautiful in its simplicity, complex in its execution.

But one of Hardwick's critical changes was a shift in mentality that emphasised playing to their strengths. And Martin was their greatest strength. He was not yet a great player but he had the capacity to be.

Richmond altered their game plan to exploit Martin's talents. The result was an undeniable success. Martin won every football award bar Auskicker of the year, and Richmond won the premiership.

It was not a change of philosophy that insisted it all be about Dusty but in trying to use Dusty better they made Dusty better. By making Dusty better they made themselves better. Paradoxically. despite this focus on playing to Dusty they made him a better player by making him more aware of using his teammates. It all became circular.

"It's the first time we have gone out of our way to design a role for Dusty to play," assistant coach Blake Caracella said.

"I wasn't here last year, but I think Dusty and Trent got a lot of the ball across half back racking the ball up getting high numbers but Dusty was chipping the ball around and he was not really what we call 'creating the advantage' for us that he can in the front half.

"The valuable stats are the ones in the forward half where you can break the game open and we had two of our best contested players playing down back. Now they are playing at the contest or forward of the contest where if they win the ball they are going to generate a shot on goal for us rather than just racking them up down back.

"It's almost the team revolves around Dusty a little bit ... teams have watched him play all year so they know [what he does] Dusty plays at the stoppage and then plays as a forward and someone else plays his midfield role, so straight after a stoppage it flips. That way we get someone who transitions really well and we get Dusty playing his best position in a contest forward of the ball where he can create an advantage for us.

Caracella was one of the new coaches to arrive at Richmond in the off- season. Having played at Essendon, Brisbane and Collingwood and been a coach at Collingwood and then Geelong he has been exposed first hand to some of the modern greats. Martin stands comfortably next to any of them. "He is unique. You talk about Dane Swan and the players at Geelong and even the players I played with Hird, Buckley, Voss they are all different. Different qualities. I still think in the forward role Dusty can get better, which is scary," he said.

Caracella said the "don't argue" was Martin's obvious point of difference, but he said what was equally notable was that Martin sought out a tackle. He drew it to him knowing that he had the strength to break it and get the ball to a teammate in a better position.

Nick Vlastuin said that for players Martin was humbling to watch.

"He is a man-child playing amongst children. We are supposed to be the best in the country but he is that much better it's ridiculous," he said.