Sacked: Damian Drum reveals Malcolm Blight told him to clean up Dermott Brereton in 1989 grand final

Damian Drum missed the 1989 grand final with injury, but on SACKED he reveals champion coach Malcolm Blight had him pencilled in to clean up Dermott Brereton at the opening bounce.

Michael Tuck and Allan Jeans holding up the premiership cup after the 1989 Grand Final.

Damian Drum has revealed legendary Geelong coach Malcolm Blight had earmarked him to confront Dermott Brereton at the first bounce of the 1989 grand final until he was ruled out with a quad injury two days before that famous game.

Drum told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast missing the grand final was the toughest moment of his football career after returning from injury to play the first three finals of the Cats’ 1989 September campaign.

The Cats midfielder went on to coach Fremantle before being brutally informed he had been sacked as the senior coach by waiting media, going on to have a two-decade long career as a Victorian state and federal parliamentarian.

The 64-year-old’s football career is not as well known but the Congupna product played 63 AFL games before tweaking his quad in the winning 1989 preliminary final against Essendon.

Blight only informed him after the game that he would have performed that protector duty for Paul Couch, that saw Mark Yeates come off the square to legally floor Brereton with the perfectly timed bump.

It would set the scene for one of the most bruising grand finals on record as Hawthorn took a big early lead then held on with a spate of horrific injuries to win by six points as Gary Ablett won the Norm Smith Medal with nine goals.

“Malcolm had myself pencilled in to do a certain job on Dermott until that didn’t work out, and Yeatesy did it,” Drum said.

“Dermott came off the line, went straight for Couch and he didn’t see Yeatsey coming in and in the day it was a legitimate bump. Today (the AFL) would have taken him out to the wing and shot him.”

Drum told Sacked Blight made it clear to him after the grand final he would have taken that role if he had played.

Dermott Brereton is crunched by Mark Yeates at the opening bounce. 1989 Grand Final. Hawthorn v Geelong. MCG. Screen grab.

Asked if missing the grand final was his toughest moment in footy, Drum replied: “It is. It was horrible at the time. You would have loved to have had the opportunity to go out and take them on. As you get older in your career the natural confidence comes to you. If I had been 22 or 23 I would have been so lacking in confidence.

I don’t know if I would have been able to handle it. But at 29 I knew I was right to go. I was ready to take these blokes on and you get the opportunity and you can’t do it…. So that happens.

Damian Drum as Fremantle coach in 1998.

“I have always thought in hindsight I should have called it quits then except for that last month of playing in those finals with Blighty and the team was on the rise. I did have the chat with him and he said if you want to stay, make sure you stay. The body was just a bit gone by that stage.”

Drum did not play a senior game in that final season as he worked on his own business building sheds before embarking upon a coaching career in the VFL that ultimately led him to Sydney as an assistant coach then Fremantle.