Dustin Martin’s dad Shane knocks back a beer as he cheers on his son from a pub in New Zealand

While Dustin Martin was busy kicking his team to victory in Saturday night’s AFL Grand Final, his ex-bikie boss father was forced to watch on from a New Zealand pub.

Shane Martin, 52, was deported to New Zealand in 2016 with authorities citing his criminal record and former links to the notorious Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. 

Before the match against the Geelong Cats at The Gabba in Brisbane, Martin was photographed with a beer ready to watch the match at a pub.

At half time, he was seen with three other men in a picture posted to Twitter with a caption that read ‘half time shots have been had’. 

Tonight Dustin won his third Norm Smith Medal with 21 disposals and four goals including one spectacular boundary punt from the 50-meter mark that helped seal the match.

His father had tried to re-enter Australia at the beginning of this year, but was immediately turned around by Border Force officers.

The heavily tattooed ex-bikie was born in New Zealand but considered Australia home after moving to New South Wales at age 20. 

He joined the notorious Rebels crew, eventually rising to the role of club president and had three children in Australia, including Dustin.

But after a litany of charges for assault and drug trafficking, he was booted from the country on character grounds and forced to make a new life for himself in Auckland. 

However, when the High Court ruled in February that Australians with Indigenous heritage cannot be deported he once again crossed the ditch. 

Shane claims to have an Aboriginal grandmother from Tasmania and arrived at Sydney Airport with a lawyer just days after the judgement.

But Australian authorities dispute the claim he has any Aboriginal ancestry. 

At the time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised Border Force for expelling the convicted criminal.

‘They took shift action and good for them for doing their job,’ he said.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also made no apologies for shutting the door on Dustin’s dad. 

‘Part of the reason that we kick out people with severe criminal histories, like Mr Martin, is that we want to make sure that people don’t commit crimes again in our country,’ Mr Dutton told the Nine Network at the time. 

‘We have now cancelled the visas of about 5000 people, many of them involved in outlaw motorcycle gangs, who are the biggest distributors of amphetamines, ice in our country, destroying lives.

‘It’s a very clear message that if you come to our country as a Kiwi, a US citizen, as citizen of anywhere else in the world and you commit crimes in our country, you can expect to be deported.’  

But although his father couldn’t be there to cheer him on in person, the 29-year-old Brownlow medalist proved he is among the game’s very best.