The extraordinary mishap that ultimately ended Dan Hannebery's career

Retired Sydney and St Kilda midfielder Dan Hannebery has revealed the unusual reason as to why he never joined the Gold Coast Suns for the 2023 AFL season.

The three-time All-Australian managed just 18 games across three seasons for the Saints, and as the club decided to move on from the 31-year-old at the time, rumours flooded in of interest from further north.

Hannebery decided against joining the Suns, ultimately resulting in the end of his stellar 226-game AFL career.

Speaking with Tom Morris on AFL Trade Radio, Hannebery revealed that despite initially going against the decision, a change of heart came about a little too late, as a phenomenal accident while holidaying in Croatia with several Sydney Swans players left Hannebery uncontactable.

“Justin McInerney accidentally threw my phone off the boat on the Indian Ocean,” Hannebery hilariously revealed.

“I dived down 20 metres deep to get my phone, (Tom) Papley and (Will) Hayward were on the boat pissing themselves, I had the snorkel on, Callum Mills was driving the boat.

“I didn’t really know Juzzy that well, he flicked my phone off the boat and that was it, I was uncontactable for three days.

“That wasn’t the exact moment, that didn’t help but I was asked during Grand Final week.

“Everything that happened at St Kilda, retired, I was so mentally cooked from that four-year period, I was done with it, didn’t want to put my mind, body or even my family through another campaign where I knew the media attention was going to be quite heightened, especially going to the Gold Coast.

“Did I want to put myself through that? I said no, I got back from the Croatia/Spain trip with some of the Swan boys, starting training hard and all of a sudden, I knew when I started training hard that I meant business.

“I had the fire in the belly, rang Dewy (Stuart Dew) and Shawy (Rhys Shaw) and they said ‘look, we’ll try to make things happen’, this was after I said no, about eight weeks later, and nothing eventuated.

“It was too late; things had transpired and that was it.”