{"id":561986,"date":"2026-03-24T22:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561986\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:07:10","slug":"afl-superstar-to-play-in-far-north-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561986\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL superstar to play in far north Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/games-centre\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"305\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ZeroHanger_GamesCentre.png.webp.webp\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"play-games-banner no-lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/dustin-martin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dustin Martin<\/a> is set to return to footy later this year in far north Queensland.<\/p>\n<p>The three-time Norm Smith Medalist will make a one-off appearance for the Port Douglas Crocs on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>The Cairns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> club confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, with the match to be played at Port Douglas Sporting Complex.<\/p>\n<p>It will be Martin&#8217;s first footy appearance since retiring from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most decorated and celebrated players of the modern era, Martin took out the 2017 Brownlow Medal and has four All-Australian Blazers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have a player of that calibre pull on a Crocs guernsey is something truly special, it will bring the community together and showcase our local football on a big stage,\u201d said club president Matt Laskey.<\/p>\n<p>Port Douglas finished first on the ladder in the seven-team competition in 2025, before bowing out in the preliminary final.<\/p>\n<p>The Crocs will be taking on South Cairns, which finished fourth last year.<\/p>\n<p>Martin won&#8217;t be the first former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> Tiger to pull on the Crocs guernsey, with his former skipper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/trent-cotchin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trent Cotchin<\/a> playing at the Crocs in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>It had been rumoured that Martin would play for Ovens and Murray League club Yarrawonga in 2026, but speaking to Zero Hanger in February, they categorically denied the Martin links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL superstar Dustin Martin is set to return to footy later this year in far north Queensland. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-561986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}