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Dermott Brereton says he was involved in an ugly incident with Trade Minister Don Farrell at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday.
The football legend has spilled the beans this week after a run-in with the South Australian Senator which ended in very awkward fashion.
The Hawthorn cult hero on Wednesday said Farrell was out of line when asking for a photo as the popular Fox Footy commentator walked into the MCG before Saturday’s Grand Final between Collingwood and Brisbane.
“We normally go in through gate three at the MCG and there would be a dozen barricaded queues as you go up to the glass doors,” Brereton said on 2GB radio.
“There is a little slipway area which we go through as commentators, callers… and for the most part, actually for the all part, for the hundreds upon hundreds of photos you stop to take with people these days, they are so polite.
“There were still three or four people milling around me taking photos, some working up the courage to take photos… and a shortish gentleman, well dressed, sort of walked past them, put his arm around me, turned to his wife and said out loud to me, ‘I’m a minister of trade and tourism, you have to take a photo with me’.
“And I laughed a little and said ‘I don’t have to take a photo with you, sir, but I can’, and he said ‘no, you do, I’m the minister for trade’.
“And I said ‘well that’s great, I’m happy to take it even though I didn’t vote for you guys’, and he turned around and said ‘well you will next time’.
“I said ‘good luck to you mate, I’m off now’.”
Brereton said he did not have any issues about the photo that was taken.
“He wasn’t nasty, he wasn’t rude, I knew who he was when I put two and two together… but it was just the sense of entitlement which I thought he didn’t wait for a turn, then to say ‘I’m a minister’,” Brereton said.
“By then there were only three or four people around me who wanted a photo, and they duly stepped back and waited, given the gentleman had said ‘I’m a minister’.
“At the time I was rather taken aback. It was quite brazen the way he came up, and I did get a laugh out of it.”
2GB host Ben Fordham responded to Brereton’s comments by saying: “Don Farrell is a w***er”.
Sky News host Peta Credlin was also scathing of Farrell’s behaviour when speaking on Wednesday night.
“This stuff is cringeworthy,” she said.
The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth also said on Sky News: “Points to him (Brereton) for actually putting him (Farrell) back in his place.
“This is a shocking look again for a politician just waltzing up and thinking they own the place. Not a good look at all.”
A spokesperson from Farrell’s office has responded to Brereton’s claims, as first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.
“It was a fun, good-natured interaction moving between events,” a spokesperson said.
“The minister is a former Hawthorn supporter and has a great deal of admiration for Dermott.”
Originally published as ‘This is shocking’: Footy icon accuses politician of ugly Grand Final act
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