HAWTHORN champion Dermott Brereton has given an emotional reminder of what winning a Grand Final can do.

The five-time premiership player opened up about the call he received from former coach Allan Jeans, who thanked him for what he did in the Grand Final, from his death bed.

“I said my most beautiful and cherished moment from playing AFL was remember the night Yabby (Allan Jeans) died,” Brereton said on AFL 360.

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Finals Week 1

“I was driving down Grange Road in Toorak, and picked up the phone and went ‘that’s Yabby’s number’ and he spoke to me and he said this is, on his death bed — ‘I’m not going to make it through the night, I just had to call you and had to let you know a couple of things. I just want to thank you for what you did in that Grand Final’.

“And that beyond marking, kicking goals whatever — is my proudest moment in football. That is what winning in a Grand Final is.

“On his deathbed, he calls me to thank me. That’s what winning a Grand Final can do for your life.”

Brereton was responding to a conversation between Bob Murphy and Nick Riewoldt from AFL 360 on Wednesday night, with the duo having never played in an AFL premiership side.

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Coach Allan Jeans with Dermott Brereton during training at Glenferrie Oval. Photo: JOHN CASAMENTO Source: Supplied

“I was listening to Nick and Bob last night. They were chatting away. And you asked them, do you feel a void? And they equivocated whether it was or wasn’t a void and they said they’d made great friendships out of football, which they have,” Brereton said.

“They said I feel like I’ve made friendships and equal to that friendship of wins and losses. I hear those two startlingly good young men, champion players and as much as I want to agree with them — I thought they don’t know.

“I was looking at them, I can hear what you’re saying and I can almost understand cause we lost a few and that gives you the other side of the ledger, but to only have ever lost, I just thought they don’t understand.”

Brereton’s Hawthorn teammate Jason Dunstall also explained how he too had received a phone call from Jeans.

“He rang me as well, I imagine he rung a number of players that he spent a lot of time with because he was so close to his them. It was just too basically say goodbye,” Dunstall said on AFL 360.

“How could you not (cry), when someone like that says basically it’s been a great journey and been a great thrill and it’s thanking you and saying goodbye, and just saying it’s been a brilliant time.”

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