WA-born Giants star Jesse Hogan opens up on cancer battle in candid chat with Dyl & Friends podcast

WA-born footy star Jesse Hogan has opened up on a dark period that saw him lose his father to cancer while quietly suffering a similar battle of his own.

Speaking to ex-Giants and Carlton player Dylan Buckley of the Dyl & Friends podcast, the reigning Coleman Medallist chronicled the triumphs and struggles that have shaped his journey through the AFL.

The GWS star — who played two seasons for the Dockers — shared a glimpse into a particularly poignant time as a Melbourne forward in 2017 when his father, Tony, had been battling a terminal illness.

Hoping to take the field in the last few weeks of his father’s life, Hogan was distraught when handed his first-ever suspension and forced to sit out.

“Dad’s come over to watch this; I know his time is very limited,” Hogan said.

“I just remember sitting out those two weeks; it was really tough. Just felt so powerless. I knew he’d come over for that period, and we’d spent so much time together.”

The emerging forward then approached Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin to request time away from the game to be with his father, who was returning to Perth.

He told Goodwin,“’I can’t be here for the games, it’s killing me mate’.”

Afforded a two-day trip back West, the 29-year-old regretfully decided to attend a music festival with friends.

Waking up the next morning to missed calls from Melbourne footy bosses and his manager, the star was quizzed on images captured at the event that depicted him smoking a cigarette.

He recalled thinking, “This is gonna be so f*****, I’m gonna have to go back to Melbourne. I’m gonna miss another week next week, and I’ve got Dad on his deathbed, basically.”

“This is when I started to implode a little bit,” Hogan said, admitting he was “in a bad state mentally”.

The forward’s father lost his battle with cancer shortly after watching him play the club’s Anzac fixture a few weeks later.

With the emotional toll weighing heavily, Hogan revealed that he’d been keeping his personal health issue to himself after detecting a lump on his testicle.

“I remember I had my own issue coming up, but I wasn’t going to address it when Dad was still around,” he said.

Hogan sought assistance from club doctors on how to deal with the situation.

“Went and saw the doc and said, ‘Hey mate, might have something going on with myself’. Then went and got the ultrasound that night,” he said.

Fretting over the delayed feedback from his scan, Hogan feared the worst.

The next morning, club doctors advised him he’d tested positive for testicular cancer, though informing family who were already fragile was his greatest burden.

He recalled thinking, “F***, I’m gonna have to tell Mum”.

Host Buckley articulated the situation for his guest, who had been brought to tears during the recollection.

“Your mum’s just lost her partner to cancer, and her son’s calling up two weeks later with something similar,” Buckley said.

Efforts to remove the cancer were successful, though Hogan remembered the ordeal being “pretty scary”.

And he wasn’t out of the woods yet — with post-surgery symptoms days later causing more stress than the cancer detection itself.

“I woke up, and it (his testicle) was the size of a small mango,” he said.

Freaking out, the forward called his doctor for clarity, who advised him the reaction was not abnormal and swelling would subside naturally.

But it didn’t.

He returned to the operating room days later, where doctors drained 200 mills of fluid from the area.

Though relief was short-lived, and his swelling returned the following day.

“This went on for about two weeks; this went on for about three or four times,” Hogan lamented.

While he had trouble training or even moving comfortably, the reaction eventually subsided.

Doctors later told the star they were concerned his symptoms may have been life-threatening.

“That week and a half was mortifying,” Hogan said.

Drafted to Melbourne in 2012 from Claremont’s WAFL affiliate, Jesse Hogan has played 165 AFL games across three clubs.