Footy legend Dermott Brereton reveals his skin cancer battle

Hawks’ hero Dermott Brereton has opened up on his battle with melanoma - requiring spots to be removed from his eyeball, chest and thigh.

Footy legend Dermott Brereton has opened up about his skin cancer ordeal and has urged people to get checked.

The five-time Hawks premiership hero and Fox Footy commentator has had two melanomas cut out of his thigh and chest and underwent chemotherapy treatment for a sun spot on his eye.

“I’ve been through the wringer,’’ Brereton said.

“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.

“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.

“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 shit out of you but we all have to deal with things.”

Brereton says growing up in the ‘70s you were seen as weak if you wore sunscreen.

He has tried chemo drops but says they were “too horrible”. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Brereton has to return to the oncologist for more checks. He said it was rare during his childhood to be vigilant against the sun.

“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, 58, will mark a huge milestone this year — 30 years in broadcasting.

“I was in the media before I retired,’’ he said.

“But I reckon it was 93 the first time I had something to do with a football show. That was a Sunday football show — Sam Newman, Simon O’Donnell and myself.

“That makes it 30 years in the football media. I think I’d qualify for veteran status.

“It’s great. The game has changed dramatically but I get paid to go to the footy and I love it.”

Brereton will be part of Fox Footy’s coverage across Round 1 action starting this week, with a new look On The Couch kicking off Monday night.