I reckon we kept it open expecting to take Baldwin back in the MSD, but the poor guy can’t get out of his moonboot
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You’re easily pleased.
Dermie talking like a proud mentor and explaining his recruitment process (with us and others) and a bit about his journey to being recruited.
He sounds rapt that he got drafted and not too worried about where to, just a bit of tongue in cheek about the bombers. Likes the idea of a forward partnership with Caddy.
Sounds like he has done alot of work to get where he is, and very much deserves the opportunity. Will leave no stone unturned.
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They’re just pi55ed off they had to cancel the tattooist
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AFL LIFESTYLE™
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We need to Debut him against the pies with this as the banner…
Couldn’t get archie in MSD, told him put a 18 months offer on his head
Well fark off you cheeting c#nts his debuting today and will kick six goals instead.
Yep im on the train home and very bored
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Dermot “I’ll ban me from the Essendon rooms”
lols
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His “Given Name” is Archer but he has most often been called Archie and is happy with that!
Dermott Brereton on Archer May (edited)
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Not when no one can take a contested mark
‘He was 100kg at 17’: Brereton says Bombers landed ‘absolute beast’ amid comparison to Cats great
Jack Jovanovski from Fox Sports
May 30th, 2025 9:31 am
Five-time AFL premiership legend Dermott Brereton says Archer May has the tools to be “an absolute brute” in the mould of a Geelong goalkicking icon, detailing the 20-year-old’s rise, as well as what he’ll bring to the Bombers.
Essendon selected May, the son of Brereton’s long-term partner, Julie, with the No.6 selection in Wednesday night’s mid-season draft.
The 198-centimetre key forward turned heads at WAFL level for Subiaco this year, booting 12.11 and averaging 13.8 disposals, 6.2 marks and 6.0 score involvements from six games, following a 2024 stint with Richmond VFL.
He joins the Dons’ AFL fray after nominating for an 18-month contract — but Brereton was expecting May to be snapped up by Collingwood.
“We were rapt. Absolutely delighted,” Brereton told foxfooty.com.au of hearing May’s name called on Wednesday night, before revealing: “We actually first thought Collingwood were going to take him.
“He was a Collingwood supporter as a kid — his mother (Julie) and his father, Joe, both went for Collingwood, and they thought he was going to go there — they were the only team who interviewed him twice.
“And they did give him some comfort saying that if he slid through to their first pick — Pick 8 — they would draft him.
“So, I thought the danger was going to be Carlton (at Pick 4); I thought Essendon might go for a centre-square ruckman for a six-month contract.
“But they were looking more long-term, which tells you about Essendon’s view of the future.
“But to get his name called out after the initial shock of ‘Jeez, it’s not Collingwood, it’s Essendon’, we were very pleased for him. He’s worked so hard for it.”
The Bombers, who followed through on an evident plan to replenish their dwindling key-position stocks, also drafted Lachlan Blakiston and Liam McMahon, as well as small livewire Oskar Smartt from their VFL unit.
Brereton’s bond with May is no secret, with the Brighton Grammar product telling CODE Sports earlier in May: “I’m very fortunate to have someone like him as a mentor in my football journey.
“He’s passed on a lot of knowledge to me, as a forward especially. We’ve done a bit of training together.
“I’m fortunate that he’s invested in my career. Having someone like him close to home is a massive asset.”
Brereton projects May — who booted 29 goals from 13 games for the Sandringham Dragons back in 2023 — to evolve into a goalscoring threat resembling former Geelong champion Tom Hawkins.
“He is a massive kid; he’s huge through the quads and thighs, really powerful,” said Brereton, Hawthorn’s 10th-all-time goalkicker.
“He’ll be a straight-line player. He’ll develop into something like Tom Hawkins, but Archie’s actually got a really good tank.
“When he does his endurance training, he’ll be running along with the midfielders. He’s got a really good tank on him for a bloke with massive quads. Very powerful through (there), which will give him real power.”
Brereton also likened May to a Port Adelaide up-and-comer, before showering the youngster’s work ethic with the ultimate praise.
“He’s really powerful in a fast sprint, he’s a bit like Ollie Lord,” he said.
“But with all due respect to Ollie, I think Ollie probably will jump into a pack a little better than Arch, but Arch is faster, and Arch will stand under the ball as brave as can be.
“But he’s going to be a brute; an absolute brute … believe it or not, at 20, we’re still noticing he’s growing. He’s a very late developer.
“(I) thought he was a bit stiff not to get rookie’d (rookie-listed in 2024), I thought … I thought he would’ve really benefited from being under league circumstances. But he’s done it the hard way.
“A big feather in his cap is — I don’t get to see every kid who’s not in an AFL system, but for every boy who’s ever come to me and said ‘Can you help me out, can you give me some form of training, can you give me some direction?’, Archie’s worked the hardest of any player I’ve seen as a young 18-to-20-year-old that is not on a list.”
May strut his stuff for Sandringham in the Coates Talent League in 2023, kicking 29 majors from 13 outings. (Photo by Felicity Elliott/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Source: Getty Images
Renowned AFL strength and conditioning expert Bohdan Babijczuk — with whom May himself sought contact with via Brereton — called May’s raw capability “awesome”.
“By his own instigation, he asked me to put him in touch with Bohdan Babijczuk,” Brereton said.
“Over the recent summer, before he went to ‘Subi’, he was doing two-to-three sessions a week with Bohdan.”
May had also been frequently doing gym sessions with Brereton’s son, Devlin, who is also a former Dragon.
“Archie and (Devlin) go to the gym and do a minimum of seven sessions a week — and real good sessions,” Brereton continued.
“So, Archie’s doing the three (sessions) with Bohdan, seven gym sessions a week, and also then finding time to go to local teams’ pre-season training and doing football training as well.
“He has just been so single-minded in his focus. It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ (he made it to an AFL list), it almost got to (a matter of) ‘when’. I know the window closes the older you get, but at 20 … his time’s now.
“And Bohdan Babijczuk, after his first training session with (May), said ‘Oh my god, what have I got to work with here? He’s awesome.’
“He was rapt, and Bohdan was like ‘Christ, what gifts has this young man got?’
“It was all uphill, but you’ve still got to get drafted, you’ve still got to perform out on the field, and he’s done that in Perth.”
As an 18-year-old, May played as a ruckman — but standing at 198 centimetres, Brereton knew “he wasn’t going to be big enough” to play the position in the AFL.
“We had to teach him how to play as a key forward,” Brereton said.
“The thing I did with him was teach him the triggers, looking up the field, just endlessly scanning and learning the triggers of when to go on a lead, when not to go on a lead, learning your opposition’s strategy, and working out your best strategy against them in quick time how you beat them.
“Learning all that, working that all out, rather than getting in a ruck contest and grappling with somebody … so, we’ve had to put all that knowledge into him in the space of 18 months.”
While at Brighton Grammar, May, while playing alongside a couple of current AFL guns, built his ‘beast-like’ frame early on.
“They had him in the Brighton Grammar rowing program for three years, and he was 100 kilos at 17 (years old) and six-foot-four-and-a-half, six foot five … he’d push the opposition ruckman sideways, grab the ball and kick it forward,” Brereton said.
“He was the number-one player in the Brighton Grammar premiership team that year. Will Ashcroft and Cam Mackenzie were in the team and a few others, and Archie was the number-one clearance player because he’d just monster the opposition.
“But suddenly, when he got to Richmond VFL, he had to strip that weight, which he did, and it took him 18 months to find his running legs again, which Bohdan Babijczuk was fantastic in doing.
“And he’s turned into a bit of an endurance athlete at now 198 (centimetres) and about 93, 94 (kilograms). But he’ll end up putting on another five to eight kilos in the next five years or so.
“So, he’s going to be an absolute beast.”
Brereton’s disdain for Hawthorn’s traditional rivals Essendon is no secret — and you get the sense it’ll be a bit harder for the former Hawks icon to support May while donning the red and black.
“I’ll keep going with the joke about how hard it is for me to watch,” Brereton laughed, before adding more seriously: “I am so ecstatic for the boy. He’s the most polite young man, he’s beautifully-mannered — it’s a credit to his mum and his father, Joe.
“He’s a delightful kid, which is kind of a little weird, because he’s got some ‘go’ in him out on the ground.
“I was chatting to Sarah Jones yesterday, I told her he’s a charming young man, (adding jokingly) unfortunately, I got to him too late to rub that out of him.”
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Unfortunately, against all stereotypes, Dermie sounds like a good bloke 
Great article
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80’s players are the best. They were dirty and angry, but after the game they would sit and have a drink together, knowing the next time they met on the field, payback was coming. These days they play PS5 together.
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THE D-TRAIN WOOOT WOOOT
Funny, but most people still like Dermie despite he being public enemy number 1 during his playing days. You can see he feels sorry for the club that he battled against so hard in the 80’s and 90’s.
Quoting the great movie Megamind “what good it is to be a villain if he has no one to oppose him and no real challenge.”
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probably your best post
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Big Bodied Midfielder…only joking a Tom Hawkins type forward would do nicely.
or Shannon Neale.
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