Dermott Hugh Brereton (born 19 August 1964) is an Australian former professional Australian rules football player in the Australian Football League (AFL) who is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation. Of Irish descent (his parents migrated from Ireland before his birth), he was known for his aggressive style of play. Brereton kicked 464 goals and played in five premierships for during his 211-game career. He is a former director of the Hawthorn Football Club and is currently an AFL commentator on Foxtel's 24-hour AFL channel,

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

, as well as on radio station

SEN 1116 1116 SEN (call sign 3AK) is an Australian radio station in Victoria. Owned and operated by Pacific Star Network, it broadcasts a sports radio format from Lower Plenty to Greater Melbourne. First broadcast on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the st ...

VFL/AFL career

Hawthorn (1982–1992)

Dermott Brereton featured on the cover of the ''Inside the Battle of '89'' DVD in a memorable-moment pose after recovering from a solid

Mark Yeates Mark Stephen Anthony Yeates (born 11 January 1985) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Bamber Bridge. Yeates began his career with Tottenham Hotspur but failed to make the transition to the first team, spending time ...

shirtfront. Brereton, nicknamed "The Kid", played most of his career (189 games and 427 goals) in the

centre half forward In Australian rules football, the centre half-forward is a position on the half-forward line of a football field. The directly opposing player is a Half-back line, centre half-back. Royce Hart of the Richmond Football Club and Wayne Carey of the ...

position at the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

, where he formed part of a potent forward line that included champion players such as

Jason Dunstall Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...

. His debut was against North Melbourne in the 1982 finals series—he kicked five goals and assisted in a few more. While he played the game he had a reputation as a tough man, and as a big game performer was an important player in a number of Hawthorn's grand final teams during the 1980s (including premierships in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

). Brereton was known for his bustling style and strong marking abilities and off-the-ball scuffles. He won Hawthorn's best-and-fairest award in 1985 and was the team's leading goalkicker in the same year. He achieved

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

status in 1985. Having bulked up over his career, Brereton became a football punisher and was known for his aggressive hip-and-shoulder

bump Bump or Bumps may refer to: * A collision or impact * A raised protrusion on the skin such as a pimple, goose bump, prayer bump, lie bumps, etc. Infrastructure and industry * Coal mine bump, a seismic jolt occurring within a mine * Bump (u ...

s on running players. His targeting of other players by this method led to the charging rule being instigated to protect players whose intention was to focus on the ball. A famous incident in

involved Hawthorn's rival

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington * Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport * Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United Ki ...

Waverley Park Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football ...

. Brereton ran through the three-quarter-time huddle much to the surprise of the Bomber players causing a scuffle to break out. This incident was in retaliation to a free kick paid against Brereton for kissing Essendon's

Billy Duckworth Bill Duckworth (born 21 February 1959) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the VFL and West Perth in the West Australian Football League. He is best known for winning the 1984 Norm Smith Medal. His brother John ...

while

lined up for goal. Dunstall kicked the goal; however, due to Brereton's indiscretion, the goal was disallowed. Brereton, fuming, ran through Essendon's huddle to prove a point. Post-match, Essendon's coach, Kevin Sheedy, shrugged off the event as insignificant, quipping: "Just another mad Irishman!" Perhaps the most memorable moment of his career was the

1989 VFL Grand Final The 1989 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and the Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 1989. It was the 93rd annual grand fi ...

that was featured in a

Toyota Memorable Moments The Toyota Legendary Moments series is a series of television advertisements produced over several years for the Australian Football League by its major sponsor, Toyota. The advertisements feature comedians Stephen Curry and Dave Lawson and a f ...

television commercial. In one of the toughest grand finals in the league's history, Brereton was lined up at the centre bounce by Geelong Football Club's

and hit with a solid shirtfront. Severely winded and concussed, he was attended to by trainers. He began to

vomit Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenterit ...

before jogging back into the play. Only minutes later in the game, he marked and kicked an inspirational goal. He would finish with three goals in a game that Hawthorn would win by six points. He was later diagnosed with broken ribs. During his career at Hawthorn, Brereton was selected to play representative

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...

football for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

nine times and kicked a total of 18 goals in this format. Brereton's physical style of play came at a cost. By the end of 1992, he was suffering from crippling chronic hip pain and struggled to make a regular appearance. He didn’t play a game in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

; and, at the end of the season, when offered a minimum-wage contract, decided to leave the club.

Sydney Swans (1994)

During 1993, Brereton began to recover from the injuries that plagued his career at Hawthorn and expressed his intention to make a return to the game. The struggling Sydney Swans, in need of a big-name player capable of helping to turn around the team's performance as well as draw crowds to their home games at the SCG, drafted him for the 1994 season. Moving to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, he played only seven games, as frequent suspensions for rough and/or violent play prevented him from regaining peak form. His fame in Victoria was not equalled in New South Wales, and he also failed to have any appreciable on-field impact on the Swans' fortunes. Brereton's most notable act as a Swan was infamously stomping on Hawthorn player

Rayden Tallis Rayden Tallis (born 9 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the AFL. Tallis made his Hawthorn debut in 1994 and earned a Rising Star nomination late in the season. He usually played in the back pock ...

's head while Tallis was on the ground in a pre-season game, earning him a seven-match suspension. He would receive another seven-week suspension in that same year when Richmond's Tony Free had his jaw broken with an alleged karate chop by Brereton. His only other moment of note during his time at Sydney was being flattened by West Coast Eagles' captain

John Worsfold John Richard Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former Australian rules football coach and player. He was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) between October 2015 and September 2020. He pr ...

. The Swans delisted Brereton at the end of the 1994 season.

Collingwood (1995)

Still wanting to perform at the highest level, Brereton worked on his fitness over the 1994–95 off-season and once again made himself available for the national draft. While clubs are generally loath to recruit players above the age of 30, Collingwood nonetheless took a gamble on him. The Magpies' experiment was slightly more successful than his stint at Sydney, and in 15 games he kicked a total of 30 goals, ending his career at the end of 1995.

Statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1982 , style="text-align:center;", , 47 , , 2 , , 5 , , 4 , , 16 , , 4 , , 20 , , 6 , , , , 2.5 , , 2.0 , , 8.0 , , 2.0 , , 10.0 , , 3.0 , , , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 17 , , 22 , , 19 , , 133 , , 95 , , 228 , , 92 , , , , 1.3 , , 1.1 , , 7.8 , , 5.6 , , 13.4 , , 5.4 , , , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 25 , , 50 , , 34 , , 263 , , 99 , , 362 , , 130 , , , , 2.0 , , 1.4 , , 10.5 , , 4.0 , , 14.5 , , 5.2 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" ,

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 25 , , 58 , , 37 , , 273 , , 109 , , 382 , , 136 , , , , 2.3 , , 1.5 , , 10.9 , , 4.4 , , 15.3 , , 5.4 , , , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 21 , , 44 , , 34 , , 229 , , 85 , , 314 , , 124 , , , , 2.1 , , 1.6 , , 10.9 , , 4.0 , , 15.0 , , 5.9 , , , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 23 , , 64 , , 34 , , 273 , , 112 , , 385 , , 164 , , 46 , , 2.8 , , 1.5 , , 11.9 , , 4.9 , , 16.7 , , 7.1 , , 2.0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 17 , , 47 , , 26 , , 189 , , 55 , , 244 , , 123 , , 21 , , 2.8 , , 1.5 , , 11.1 , , 3.2 , , 14.4 , , 7.2 , , 1.2 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 18 , , 35 , , 24 , , 187 , , 51 , , 238 , , 103 , , 23 , , 1.9 , , 1.3 , , 10.4 , , 2.8 , , 13.2 , , 5.7 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 18 , , 54 , , 22 , , 220 , , 65 , , 285 , , 121 , , 25 , , 3.0 , , 1.2 , , 12.2 , , 3.6 , , 15.8 , , 6.7 , , 1.4 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 17 , , 39 , , 28 , , 171 , , 64 , , 235 , , 98 , , 25 , , 2.3 , , 1.6 , , 10.1 , , 3.8 , , 13.8 , , 5.8 , , 1.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" , 1992 , style="text-align:center;", , 23 , , 6 , , 9 , , 6 , , 35 , , 14 , , 49 , , 18 , , 8 , , 1.5 , , 1.0 , , 5.8 , , 2.3 , , 8.2 , , 3.0 , , 1.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 7 , , 7 , , 5 , , 30 , , 20 , , 50 , , 21 , , 9 , , 1.0 , , 0.7 , , 4.3 , , 2.9 , , 7.1 , , 3.0 , , 1.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 3 , , 15 , , 30 , , 12 , , 95 , , 51 , , 146 , , 43 , , 13 , , 2.0 , , 0.8 , , 6.3 , , 3.4 , , 9.7 , , 2.9 , , 0.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 211 ! 464 ! 285 ! 2114 ! 824 ! 2938 ! 1179 ! 170 ! 2.2 ! 1.4 ! 10.0 ! 3.9 ! 13.9 ! 5.6 ! 1.4

Post-football

After a lack of success in his returns from retirement, Brereton announced his intention to retire from elite football in 1995. In 1996, he returned to Frankston Rovers (now Frankston Bombers), where he had his cheekbone broken by a Dromana player in the second round of the season. He played a handful of games before going into retirement proper at the conclusion of the season. Brereton was inducted into the Hawthorn Team of the Century as well as the Australian Football Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the

Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League The Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League (abbreviated "MPNFL") is an Australian rules football competition, governed by the AFL South East. The MPNFL contains teams near the south eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. At the ...

Hall of Fame. His desire to continue playing football actively has seen him participate in the

AFL Legends Match The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities ...

on several occasions. Each time, his lack of fitness is the focus of much mirth by the commentary team. On 8 December 1997, he was appointed as a director of the Hawthorn Football Club and served in the role for just over eight years before retiring on 29 March 2006. One of the most notable incidents during his term as director was his alleged involvement in the run-up to a bench-clearing brawl between Hawthorn and Essendon in a 2004 encounter that became known as the Line in the Sand Match. During half-time, just before the brawl, Brereton had reportedly told Hawthorn players to "draw a line in the sand" and take a physical stand against Essendon; he denied making that particular remark, but he admitted to telling senior players "to stand up to any Essendon aggression". In 2006, he began playing in the

Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League The AFL Yarra Ranges was an Australian rules football and netball organisation based in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges within Victoria. The organisation operated the Yarra Ranges Senior Football league and the Yarra Ranges Junior Footba ...

with Division 1 club

Woori Yallock Woori Yallock is a town in Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Woori Yallock recorded a population of 2,964 at the . The Post Office opened on 1 J ...

alongside his 1995 Collingwood teammate

Damian Monkhorst Damian Monkhorst (born 21 August 1969) is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Collingwood Football Club and St Kilda Football Club. During his playing career with Collingwood, Monkhorst was known as one of the league's ...

, kicking two goals on debut.

Commentary career

From quite early in his playing career, Brereton pursued media appearances in anticipation of joining the media full-time when he retired. During the 1980s, he had a six-year stint on a morning show hosted by veteran television performer

Ernie Sigley Ernest William Sigley (2 September 1938 – 15 August 2021) was an Australian television host, comedian, variety performer, radio presenter and singer. Known as a pioneer of radio and television in Australian, he was often styled as a "little A ...

, who mentored the ambitious Brereton. In the early 1990s, he joined Channel Nine when the network began showing interest in Australian football for the first time in more than twenty years. He was one of the original panellists when the long-running ''

AFL Footy Show ''The Footy Show'' was an Australian sports and variety entertainment television program which aired on the Nine Network. The show was dedicated to the Australian Football League (AFL) and Australian rules football. The show featured a pane ...

'' began in 1994, and he also wrote in ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

''. In 2000, he moved to the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

to provide match commentary on AFL matches and host the ill-fated show ''The Game''; he stayed at Seven until they relinquished the rights at the end of 2001. In 2002, he returned to the Nine Network to provide match commentary on AFL matches when the network commenced its AFL coverage. He continued to be a regular panellist for ''The AFL Footy Show''. In 2004, Brereton hosted ''The Run Home'' radio show on Melbourne AM radio station

with Anthony Hudson and Matthew Hardy, but he left due to a payment dispute. In previous years, he has also co-hosted the breakfast show on Melbourne FM station Gold 104.3 with Greg Evans, and he had also been a commentator on another FM station,

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to ...

. In 2005, he appeared in a

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

''Memorable Moments'' advertisement featuring Stephen Curry that satirised the famous 1989 Grand Final incident with Geelong player

. In November of that year, Brereton was involved in an altercation with a group of young men. In 2006, he made an appearance on ''

Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice ''Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice'' was an Australian reality television series which was based on the original British version, '' Dancing on Ice''. The series premiered on the Nine Network on Tuesday, 11 July 2006 at , and involved celebri ...

''. Brereton left the show early after injuring his biceps. In 2006, Brereton was sacked from Triple M due to low ratings. In 2007, Brereton rejoined 1116 SEN to broadcast football, the same station he left two years earlier. In 2007, Brereton started as a presenter on Channel 9's '' Getaway'', a tourism and travel TV show, which was a position he held until 2011. In 2011, he ended his 20-year association with the Nine Network and announced he would be joining Foxtel for the 2012 season. From 2012 onwards, he has provided match commentary for Foxtel and hosted the '' Fox League Teams'' show on Thursday nights on Foxtel's 24-hour AFL channel,

, which launched on 17 February 2012.

Other work

Films

He featured in a minor role in the critically panned 2002 film ''

Trojan Warrior ''Trojan Warrior'' is a 2002 Australian comedy film directed by Salik Silverstein and starring Stan Longinidis. The film was released in the United States as ''Kick to the Head''. Premise When a comical mob bag-man rats out the local mob boss, ...

''.

Video games

Brereton has been a voice-over commentator for the ''AFL'' video game series since 2002.

TV

Brereton competed in the 5th season of the Australian version of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. He was eliminated on 5 February 2019 and finished in tenth place.

References

External links

*
Biography in the Hawthorn FC Hall of Fame

Toyota memorable moment video featuring Dermott Brereton in the 1989 Grand Final
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brereton, Dermott Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Collingwood Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club Premiership players Hawthorn Football Club administrators Sydney Swans players All-Australians (1953–1988) Victorian State of Origin players Peter Crimmins Medal winners Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian rules football commentators Australian television presenters Australian radio personalities Australian people of Irish descent 1964 births Living people Australia international rules football team coaches Australia international rules football team players The Apprentice Australia candidates I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (Australian TV series) participants Radio personalities from Melbourne Five-time VFL/AFL Premiership players