Good Samaritan finds Hawthorn defender Brent Guerra's 2008 premiership medal

HAWTHORN defender Brent Guerra has thanked an eagle-eyed Good Samaritan for reuniting him with his stolen 2008 premiership medal.

Brent Guerra

HAWTHORN defender Brent Guerra has thanked an eagle-eyed Good Samaritan for reuniting him with his stolen 2008 premiership medal.

An elated Guerra took to Twitter to this morning to thank Melbourne street sweeper Kane Thorpe for handing in the medal found in a gutter in Herbert St, St Kilda.

"My medal has been found. Great news for me. Like to thank Cain Thorpe [sic] who handed it in #legend," the Hawks star tweeted this morning.

Thorpe told Triple M this morning he found the medal in a small red purse on the side of the road.

“(I) jumped our and grabbed it just before the brooms did and I checked it out and it had his medal. I couldn’t believe it,” he told Triple M radio this morning.

“I checked it out (because) I wasn’t sure if it was genuine. It was quite heavy metal. I thought ‘you ripper, you beauty’.”

Thorpe said had the medal been under the brushes, the medal could have been permanently damaged, or unlikely to ever be found if it was pushed down a gutter and ended up in  a tip.

The lucky find comes as Guerra races the clock for an unlikely return from a shredded hamstring in time to play a role in Hawthorn's tilt at the flag.

"Most hamstrings these days are three to four weeks, and sometimes even longer, as Bud (Lance Franklin) showed, missing five or six," Guerra told Triple M.

"But I'm going to be doing everything possible to get back out there.

"I'll have some sleepless nights icing the hamstring up.

"If the boys can have a few wins and get to Grand Final day, I'll be putting my finger up if I'm 100 per cent."

Guerra said it was a relief to get his medal back after tumultuous week.

"It hasn't been a great week for myself, getting the house robbed and the medal stolen last Monday, and also doing the hamstring," Guerra said.

"I'm bloody happy, I can give you the tip.

"You grow up as a kid wanting to play in premierships, and to play in an AFL one is something special.

"So to not be able to show your kids or your grandchildren that medal in years to come would have been disappointing."

The medal was Guerra’s only AFL premiership medal after he narrowly missed playing in Grand Finals with Port Adelaide and St Kilda.