AFL great Dermott Brereton reveals he has skin cancer

AFL legend Dermott Brereton has opened up on his skin cancer battle and urged people to get checked.

The Hawthorn legend, 58, has had two melanomas removed from his thigh and his chest and has also undergone chemotherapy for a sun spot on his eye. 

Brereton, who has won five premierships and works on Fox Sports, says he has ‘been through the wringer’ amid this ordeal.

‘Melanoma on my thigh and one on my chest so they cut them out and through that I became very vigilant to have a look for all forms of cancer due to over exposure of the sun,’ he told the Herald Sun.

‘I had another sun spot cancer cut off of my eyeball. We tried to get it with chemotherapy drops but in the end I just gave up, they were too horrible.

Dermott Brereton has revealed that he has got skin cancer

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The AFL legend said that attitude towards sunscreen was different in the 1970s

Brereton kicked over 200 goals during his career and won five premierships

He has urged the public to get checked after revealing his skin cancer turmoil

‘I had my treatment cream morning and night in the last few weeks so that’s just starting to settle down a bit now. That rips the s*** out of you but we all have to deal with things.’

Reflecting on growing up in the 1970s in Australia, Brereton remembers how people who wore sunscreen were belittled. 

‘I grew up in the 70s, anyone who wore sunscreen was weak,’ he said.

‘If you went for the really heavy grade sunscreen you went for 15 plus.

‘We used to climb up on a mate’s silver tin roof and put baby oil on ourselves. That’s what we did in the 70s, you breed em tough.’

Brereton played for Hawthorn from 1982 to 1992 before finishing his career with spells at Sydney and Collingwood. 

He returned to the Hawks in 1997 as the club’s director of football and left the post in 2006. 

Brereton kicked 211 goals in 464 games and is widely regarded as a football great.