'Didn't know': How Tigers' cheeky silence 'blindsided' Cats in one ...

AFL legends Dustin Martin and Tom Hawkins retired almost simultaneously on Tuesday, and within the bombshell news laid a cheeky miscommunication between the clubs.

In the clubs’ ideal world, word of Martin and Hawkins’ retirements wouldn’t have broken within such a short space of time of each other — subsequently making for cramped press conference timings.

On Fox Footy’s digital-only segment of Midweek Tackle, Herald Sun journalists Lauren Wood, Glenn McFarlane and Jay Clark navigated the details of the peculiar situation.

Watch Carlton v Hawthorn SUN 1:10PM AEST | EXCLUSIVELY LIVE & ad-break free, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >

Wood: “Here’s how it played out — 10:15am (Tuesday), Richmond sent its press release that Dustin Martin was going to retire; exactly 30 minutes later — 10:45am — the email comes from Geelong (informing) Tom Hawkins is going to be retiring.

“Brendon Gale will be available at Punt Road (from 12:30pm), Tom Hawkins and Chris Scott will be available at Geelong 12:45pm.”

McFarlane: “I can tell you that the AFL communications team have actually got a WhatsApp group where they share things (such as impending announcements) … this absolutely happens many times a week (but) didn’t happen today.

“You can sort of understand Richmond (not letting anyone know in advance), and Geelong to a degree … they didn’t put anything in the WhatsApp group, then ‘bang’, it all happens, and we had some interesting feedback from some clubs.”

Clark: “Even the Cats didn’t know; they were planning the Tom Hawkins (retirement) and all of a sudden that pops up in their email without any notice whatsoever. Even Geelong and Tom Hawkins were blindsided by Dustin Martin.”

On the topic of Martin’s hanging up the boots, the Midweek Tackle panel pondered whether the game’s only three-time Norm Smith Medallist should have made an appearance at Punt Road instead of outgoing CEO Brendon Gale.

“Should we have heard from him (Martin) today?” Clark posed. “(After) his 300th game he spoke so well … would it have been good to have Dustin Martin there (and) not Brendon Gale?”

Wood: “I know no one barracks for us in the media, but never has it been more stark and juxtaposed than it was today? We had Gale speaking on behalf of Dustin Martin at Punt Road ... at Geelong, we had Tom, his kids, his wife Emma, and his dad.

“I just think, in these situations, we’re going to be celebrating Dusty … it’s 15 minutes or 20 minutes with just a few questions thrown in. Hearing it from the person themselves; thanking junior coaches, speaking about their favourite moment throughout their career – I think it just adds a little bit of heart.

“It’s on the way out too, so you just do this one time and then that’s it – you can pack up and go to Vegas if you want to!”

Richmond fans will have the opportunity to farewell their triple premiership champion when he is scheduled to make an appearance during the Tigers’ season finale against Gold Coast in Round 24.