Post-football
After a lack of success in his returns from retirement, Brereton announced his intention to retire from elite football in 1995. In 1996 he returned to Frankston Rovers (now Frankston Bombers), where he had his cheekbone broken by a Dromana player in the second round of the season. He played a handful of games before going into retirement proper at the conclusion of the season.
Brereton was inducted into the Hawthorn Team of the Century, as well as the Australian Football Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League Hall of Fame.
His desire to continue playing football actively has seen him participate in the AFL Legends Match on several occasions. Each time his lack of fitness is the focus of much mirth by the commentary team.
On 8 December 1997, he was appointed as a director of the Hawthorn Football Club and served in the role for just over eight years before retiring on 29 March 2006. One of the most notable incidents during his term as director was his alleged involvement in the run-up to a bench-clearing brawl between Hawthorn and Essendon in a 2004 encounter that became known as the Line in the Sand Match. During halftime, just before the brawl, Brereton had reportedly told Hawthorn players to "draw a line in the sand" and take a physical stand against Essendon; he denied making that particular remark, but admitted to telling senior players "to stand up to any Essendon aggression".
In 2006, he began playing in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League with Division 1 club Woori Yallock alongside his 1995 Collingwood teammate Damien Monkhorst, kicking two goals on debut.
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