These are the almost unanswerable questions the Gold Coast will be – and are – asking themselves.

No one would be expecting Martin, an unrestricted free agent who gave his sayonara from Richmond and the game late in the year at the MCG, to be anything akin to the player he was three years ago, let alone five to seven years ago.

But what could you be getting? A former star who knows his game, is invigorated by a late second coming in a supporting actor role and still able to turn a game? A player able to offer class and grit to a flaky team?

Or a worn-out player who does not want to confront life after football? A player who is unsure what comes next so runs to the security of what he knows – and gets a bump to his superannuation in the meantime?

These too are questions Gold Coast will ask.

Will a fit Martin stand in the way of developing players and deny them game time? Or will he foster that callow talent by showing them how elite players prepare and perform? The Suns thought they were getting that with Gary Ablett as captain, and it didn’t work out that way.

Bailey Humphrey is the most obvious player whose game time might be blocked by Martin. But to date, Humphrey has been an unrealised talent and the Suns will wonder if Martin is someone holding the keys to unlocking that game.

Suns coach Damien Hardwick knows Martin as well as anyone in football and he and Martin have kept in semi-regular contact since Hardwick left the Tigers. There is nothing untoward in that; they are friends and Hardwick, as his long-term coach, has been a life mentor and support to Martin.

Hardwick is not considering the potential recruitment as a charitable gesture for a friend. He is a coach and wonders if Martin could still help him. Hardwick has had some very confronting conversations with a range of Suns players after his first season in charge and is determined to be bold in attacking a culture he wants to change.

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Martin is not seen as the panacea, but can he help? That is the question. At 33 is there football life left in him? Is there value in him as an athlete? Is he like Adelaide’s Taylor Walker, Port Adelaide’s Travis Boak and Geelong’s Tom Hawkins, who all looked physically gone at late stages of their careers only to go on to play high-quality football?

The pragmatic answer to these questions is money. It only happens if he is cheap enough.

From the time the idea started to get serious traction, Martin was aware that he was not going to be paid anything like what he had been. He earned seven figures this year. Next year, if he played, it would be for about a third of that.

All indications are that he was content with that arrangement – he has earned well from the game – so that brought the conversation to the point we are now.

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The Suns have to ask: what then is the risk? If it is $300,000-$400,000, what is the downside?

Richmond people will hate seeing Martin run out in the Suns jumper (though few players look good in a uniform that looks like it carries the logo for a superannuation firm) but the Tiger fans do not begrudge their three time Norm Smith medallist anything. Like watching the line of premiership players wanting moves this off-season, they can cradle the three recent cups and look ahead to the next generation, not wistfully at the last.

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