A dual premiership player with Glenelg and first captain of the foundation Adelaide Crows, as well as a multiple best-and-fairest winner and three-time All Australian, McDermott never really thought or planned to be a footballer until a career in league ranks was basically upon him, such was the call of cricket.
Best mate Stephen Kernahan was alongside him in all those junior representative cricket sides, but the inseparable pair were also playing, and starring, together during footy season.
"As a kid, I loved playing footy and was always around the game through my grandfather and my dad, but Ian Chappell was my absolute hero and I was a wicketkeeper who wanted to play Test cricket for Australia," McDermott remembers of his early sporting path.
"I'd been going OK with the state junior teams through the ranks, playing with Stephen, until this one day when I'm about 14 or 15 in a B grade district game against men, and this quick bowler was just too quick for me and I thought, 'I can't do this, I'm not good enough here'.
"In the space of about a day, footy became the priority."