Page 13: Dermott Brereton backs ‘legend’ Rex Hunt’s take on Daisy Pearce in the commentary box

Footy great Dermott Brereton has weighed in on the Rex Hunt-Daisy Pearce saga, saying Wayne Carey is a superior commentator.

Dermott Brereton says Daisy Pearce is a ‘competent commentator’ but no Wayne Carey. Picture: Quinn Rooney

Footy great Dermott Brereton has doubled down on Rex Hunt’s take on Daisy Pearce by saying Wayne Carey is the superior commentator.

Hunt last week said footy was been ruined by people with “soft penises.”

Yabba yabbering on (and on) he said the removal of commentator Wayne Carey from prime-time coverage was “weak.”

Dermie later showed his support by posting to a story condemning “AFL icon” Fossil Hunt’s contentious rant.

“Gender quotas aside,” said Dermie, when you stand Wayne “side-by-side against Daisy for football analysis, Wayne is by far the better analyst.”

Fox Footy commentator Dermott Brereton. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Why Dermie would want to get lumped into the outdated pale, stale, white heterosexual male category alongside Hunt or Sam Newman (the list goes on) is anyone’s guess.

So Page 13 went calling.

Turns out Dermie doesn’t give a toss about all that. He just calls it how he sees it.

“Rex Hunt is a legend,” Brereton said.

“So often the common comeback is you are a middle-aged, white, Anglo-Saxon male who played in a male-dominated field and now you are threatened by a female.

“Honestly it is such a flimsy argument, I am not threatened by anyone. If you tell the truth to how you see it, then you have nothing to worry about.

“Daisy is a very competent commentator, but she is not Wayne Carey. So I can understand where Rex was coming from. He just didn’t quite annunciate it in a 2022 qualified fashion.”

“It’s my valid opinion,” Dermie said. “So let’s not hang Rex, he is a legend of the game.

“As Bill, Tiger, O’Reilly said, we shouldn’t shit on our statues* and we shouldn’t be doing that to Rex.”

Rex Hunt

Hunt later denied he’s anti-women in football commentary positions because he gave Kelli Underwood her start in calling matches.

Hunt was the special guest on (yes, you guessed it) Sam Newman’s podcast You Cannot Be Serious, the platform for all relevance-deprived pale, stale, white heterosexual males.

“You were there the day I allowed Kelli Underwood to call the game, it was Telstra Dome, that’s how long ago it was,” Hunt told Newman’s podcast.

“I introduced Kelli Underwood as the first female broadcaster on radio and at that stage we were doing about 28s (in the ratings).”

Hunt stood by his opinion that Wayne Carey should be the main expert commentator on prime- time Friday night coverage.

“The person who moved Wayne Carey, who in my 50 something years on and off the field is the most influential and best dictator-type player in a real tough situation, who has decided that Daisy Pearce will become the No. 1 special comments person on a Friday night, which is the main night of broadcasting and move The King Carey, irrespective of his character or his perceived character or his alleged character in some areas, to my mind, he wouldn’t be cleaning out the bins,” Hunt said.

Newman said he doesn’t watch football, but noted that females in commentary positions tend to try too hard.

Page 13 takes great delight in not expanding his thoughts from there.

*For the pedants (and there are many of you) Bill Tiger O’Reilly’s quote was, “We don’t PISS on statues” referring to not publicly dissing fellow cricketing great Don Bradman.

Originally published as Page 13: Dermott Brereton backs ‘legend’ Rex Hunt’s take on Daisy Pearce in the commentary box