In the continued efforts of maintaining his top-dog ~don’t argue~ aesthetic in the Australian sporting world, Richmond Tigers star and 2017 Brownlow Medalist, Dustin Martin has faced off with an actual real-life tiger in his latest campaign with Bonds.
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As much as it looks like Dustin is confident and in control with 8-year-old Pi the tiger – who calls Dreamworld‘s Tiger Island home – Dustin told PEDESTRIAN.TV that he was pretty bloody nervous standing in his jocks next to a legit animal of prey that weighs a very casual 125kg.
I wasn’t too bad on the way [to meet Pi] but once I was standing right next to him, I was shitting myself. I didn’t pat him, I was too scared he was going to bite me.
I had to try and relax and get in the zone. The trainers were great but I always made sure they weren’t too far away.
Obviously such an amazing animal and a really surreal experience – obviously I enjoyed it much more when it was done and I didn’t get eaten.
Look at this man, you’d have no idea how close he was to crapping his (dangerously white) dacks right at this moment.
So now that he’s come face to face with an apex predator of the jungle, where do you go from there? Dustin says that he’d be keen to get up close and personal with a shark, tackling one of his personal fears head-on.
Lions are pretty cool as well, but I’ve got a massive fear of sharks so maybe cage-diving with some sharks in my undies would be good.
Not entirely sure if he’d want to end up in the water next to Deep Blue, that seven-metre monster that was spotted having a monch on a dead sperm whale carcass off the coast of Hawaii recently, but we have it on the record that the man wants to have a dip with the big bitey boys.
After meeting Pi, an animal which Dustin says is easily one of his favourites, he tells us that the whole experience has challenged him to go out of his comfort zone more in other areas of his life – including football.
You just look in their eyes and they can just rip you to pieces anytime if they wanted to. It’s good to put yourself out of your comfort zone, and that certainly did that. If I can take that and put it into my training – or anything in life – just trying different things and just stepping into it and not being afraid.
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It’s a hell of a way to kick the new year off, and tbh it’ll be interesting to see if this big cat encounter will get the star midfielder/forward pushing himself out of his comfort zone with the ambush of Richmond Tigers when they meet the Melbourne Demons on March 3rd for the first weekend of the JLT Community Series.
