Footy legend Dermott Brereton reveals federal trade minister’s shocking behaviour at the AFL grand final

AFL legend Dermott Brereton has called out Trade Minister Don Farrell for an arrogant and justified act during last Saturday’s AFL grand final.

The five-time Premiership player was signing autographs and posing for selfie photos at the MCG during Saturday’s blockbuster decider when he says he had an awkward encounter with the Labor powerbroker.

“He walked up and pushed himself to the front of the line and he was really well dressed. And he said – this is literally – ‘You need to take a picture with me,'” Brereton told Andrew Maher and Andrew Gaze’s SEN radio programme.

“And I said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, I don’t need a picture with you, but I can take a picture with you if you stay in line.’

“And he said, ‘No, I’m not in line. You have to take a picture with me. I am the Minister of Trade and Tourism.” And I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. There were other people in line who got here first.”

AFL legend says minister stood in line and refused to queue to get his autograph just like every other footy fan

Brereton was meeting and greeting fans at the biggest match of the year when the collision occurred (Photo: Collingwood players celebrate their grand final win)

‘Then his wife stepped in and said, “He’s the Minister of Trade and Tourism,” and it was Don Farrell, and I said, “Good luck, mate, that’s not how it normally works.”

On Wednesday morning, Brereton provided more details about the meeting when he spoke Sydney 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham.

“His partner or wife holding the camera said, ‘He’s the minister,’” Brereton said.

‘I said, ‘Well, that’s great, I’ll gladly take it even though I didn’t vote for you.’

“Then he turned around and said to me, ‘Well, you’ll do that next time,’ and I said, ‘If you do the same thing to this state that the last guy who ran this state, at the local level, There’s no way I’m going to vote for you.”

“It was just a sense of entitlement that I thought… that he wasn’t waiting for a turn,” Brereton later added.

Brereton went on to explain that the ‘mortal sin’ among his football colleagues was to say: ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ when he tried to gain entry to an establishment – and he found it funny that Farrell did exactly this.

“He was so good at persevering, and so bold in his language to get the job done and achieve his directive, that it didn’t sound like it was the first time he had pushed his way through the position,” Brereton said.

Brereton (pictured playing in the 1989 grand final) said it was a ‘mortal sin’ among his foot mates to say ‘Don’t you know who I am?’

Farrell’s version of the encounter was slightly different, describing it as a “fun, good-natured interaction”

Fordham didn’t hold back as Brereton passed the entire encounter.

“Dermott, dare I say it, Don Farrell is madness,” the radio host said.

The AFL legend laughed and replied: “I don’t know if he is or not, I don’t know him personally, but his behavior at that stage suggests that might be the case.”

The minister’s version of the interaction, when asked, was different The age on Tuesday.

“It was a nice, good-natured interaction in between events,” a spokesperson for Farrell said.

‘The minister is a former Hawthorn supporter and has great admiration for Dermott.’