Alastair Clarkson

Breust recalls the day he and Clarkson spoke about a possible trade

Published by
Stephen Marson

Hawthorn forward Luke Breust has opened up about the day he sat down with coach Alastair Clarkson last season about the possibility of being traded by the Hawks.

Jaeger O'Meara and Tom Mitchell both landed at Hawthorn during the trade period in 2016, with Breust's name being thrown around as the player that would help facilitate the deal.

"I went around to his house and just sat down with him and had a great chat about what I was thinking and what the footy club was thinking," Breust told SEN radio.

"I made it very clear that day with Clarko that I wanted to stay at Hawthorn and wanted to try and play out my career there.

"He was all for that. Things from there moved pretty quickly and pretty seamlessly. Contract negotiations started and within a couple of months I was fine (about the situation).

"It was obviously a bit of a difficult time for me, I wasn't a huge fan of my name being thrown around like that.

"But at the end of the day that is the footy landscape we play in now and it's becoming more and more prominent at the end of the year that there's a lot of player movement."

Breust admitted the news wasn't a complete shock to him, and said it's just part of the game.

"I don't think it was a shock," Breust told SEN. "It was more about, we obviously knew we were trying to get Jaeger and to get him you have to give up something.

"There was always going to be players involved ... there was names that were going to be thrown around. And until that was sorted out that was going to stay with me until it was sorted."

It didn't take long for Hawthorn and Breust to come to an agreement on his new contract following the trade period, as the 26-year-old signed his new four-year deal in March.

The forward played his 150th match for Hawthorn on Friday night against Sydney, and became the second fastest player in VFL/AFL history to achieve the milestone, doing it in just six years and 11 days, five days slower than North Melbourne champion Wayne Schimmelbusch.

Published by
Stephen Marson