By saying nothing, Richmond ace Dusty Martin sent his GWS tagger Matt de Boer a message.

Actions, not words, count in Saturday’s AFL grand final between Martin’s Tigers and de Boer’s Giants.

The two have history.

On Friday, Martin was driven around the grand-final parade, opting for the silent response to de Boer’s name.

In round three in April, Martin was driven to distraction: reported for an off-the-ball strike on GWS’ Adam Kennedy – and fined $1500 for striking de Boer.

The tagger’s tactics attracted ire from Richmond coach Damien Hardwick who bemoaned “blokes come to watch the No.4 play … let the bloke play the game”.

In the grand final, Martin’s teammates promise to allow just that, according to his great mate and captain Trent Cotchin.

“He (de Boer) has obviously had an amazing finals series,” Cotchin said on Friday.

“But he has been such an amazing competitor since coming into the AFL system – his time at Freo and also the Giants.

“All I will say is that you need to be aware of it.

“But we just back in our players to, one, play their role, but also impact when they have an opportunity.

“He is obviously going to try his hardest to nullify whoever he goes to but we will support him (Martin) in that.”

Giants coach Leon Cameron was steadfast in the value of deploying de Boer and Sam Reid as taggers in the run to the grand final.

“We’re not denying we have had a couple of run-with players for most weeks,” Cameron said on Friday.

“When you look at that, is it a negative tactic to try and drag down some of the best players of the opposition? I mean, that is their role.”