NEW Geelong spearhead Jeremy Cameron says telling former coach Leon Cameron of his decision to leave the Giants was "one of the hardest things I have had to do".
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Both Camerons hail from south-west Victoria with Jeremy leaving his home of Dartmoor at 17 while Leon is a South Warrnambool export.
Jeremy was traded to the Cats with minutes to spare in the 2020 trade period with the Giants receiving picks 13, 15, 20 and a future fourth rounder.
The pair had been together at the Giants since 2014 and Jeremy said it was difficult to tell his long-time mentor of his decision.
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"It was very emotional. I remember calling Leon and saying 'do you mind coming around to sit on the couch, we need to have a chat'. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do," the 27-year-old said on Friday.
"I remember in my third season Leon took me in and said 'I can see the potential in you, you're going to be a good B-plus or A-grade player but do you want to be an A-plus player, I can turn you into that.' It's a conversation I've never forgotten.
"To have him sit in my loungeroom and hear that I'm leaving was obviously very tough and it's still obviously a bit emotional now."
Family and returning home were significant factors in Cameron's decision.
"In the end the more I thought about it the more I thought about being back closer to family and for me family is, and everyone is in the same boat, huge," he said.
"For the last 10 years I've been away. I came up here as a 17-year-old and to be honest I really didn't want to be in Sydney when I was 17.
"It took a few months of being around guys like Toby Greene and 'Cogs' (captain Stephen Coniglio) to finally have me settled up here.
"In the end it was really overwhelming having a lifestyle that I really want to live with my partner Indi and having family really close to both of us. That was the deciding factor in the end."
The lead-up to move to the Cats was far from smooth sailing for Cameron, which he admits wasn't an experience he was overly familiar with.
"I haven't had much sleep in the last two months to be honest. It definitely has been a tense period for myself and Indiana," he said.
Listen to this week's episode of The Main Break with Athletics coach Jeremy Dixon.
"I've been so stressed out lately and I don't really like it because I am a relaxed bloke, it's been quite full-on. Very happy but at the same time there's a bit of sadness as well.
"I have nothing bad to say about the Giants and its been an incredible 10 years with them."
Cameron had a lot of uncertainty as to what call he would ultimately make.
"I was very 50-50 for a number of weeks. It's honestly the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life," he said.
"There were so many nights when I was went to sleep thinking I want to make the move and then I'd wake up and I wanted to be a Giant, that's how intense it was for me.
"I ended up saying to Indi let's go away for a weekend ... on the drive back I knew I was going to make the move. It was good to get away from everything, we literally just slept in a swag and talked about it all night."
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