‘We didn’t really know what we were doing’: Brereton returns to Magpies to relive first Anzac Day blockbuster
AFL premiership great Dermott Brereton says it was an honour to present to the Magpies about his Anzac Day experience, as coach Craig McRae urges his men to stick to the detail in their sellout blockbuster against Essendon on Thursday.
Brereton, now 59, was a five-time flag winner with Hawthorn during their dominant run of the 1980s through until 1991, but spent his final year of AFL football with the Magpies in 1995. He played in the famous draw of the maiden Anzac Day clash between the Bombers and Magpies, with Saverio Rocca booting his ninth goal to tie the result.
The Magpies hold a monthly “side-by-side” meeting, and Brereton took to the floor as part of this.
“I just spoke about what it was like to see the crowd there on that day, and embark on what has become the journey of Anzac Day. We didn’t really know what we were doing, other than we run out and there was a monster of a crowd there that we hadn’t really catered into our mindset,” Brereton said on Tuesday.
“For me, it was very nice to be invited back to a footy club that was very good to me at that time of my life.”
McRae said Brereton was an ideal guest speaker.
“There are 29 years of Anzac Day games, and he was one of the players that had played. We looked at getting a couple of other players with him, but we thought with his experience in the game, he has been around a lot of success, he knows what it’s like to be a Collingwood player,” McRae said.
The magnitude of the Anzac Day clash can spark a range of emotions for players, prompting McRae to say that Scott Pendlebury, who needs only four possessions to become the first man to reach 10,000 career disposals, had taught him that it’s crucial to “just play the game”, not the occasion.
“It’s really important, and Pendles, and some of the leaders amongst our group, have had a lot of games on this big stage, in this moment. You can get overawed by things, I think; 95,000 hopefully, turn up again,” McRae said, adding he expected his line-up to be unchanged from Saturday’s win over the Power.
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