The Danihers: The Story of Football's Favourite Family

The story of football’s favourite family

the

DANIHERS T E R RY, N E A L E , A N T H O N Y A N D C H R I S D A N I H E R

the

DANIHERS

the

DANIHERS T E R RY, N E A L E , A N T H O N Y A N D C H R I S D A N I H E R

as told to Adam McNicol

First published in 2009 Copyright © Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris Daniher and Adam McNicol 2009 Photographs on pages (ii) and (viii) by Adam McNicol. Photographs on pages 14, 22, 36, 72, 104, 138, 186, 214, 200 and pages 1 and 8 of the picture section are from the Danihers’ private collection. All other photography of images used in the endpapers and picture section is by Greg Elms, taken from Edna Daniher’s scrapbooks of her four sons’ football careers. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email: [email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Daniher, Terry. The Danihers: the story of football’s favourite family / Terry Daniher … [et al.] ; as told to Adam McNicol. 1st ed. ISBN 978 1 74175 651 7 (hbk.) Includes index. 1. Daniher, Terry, 1957– 2. Daniher, Neale, 1961–. 3. Daniher, Anthony, 1963–. 4. Daniher, Chris, 1966–. 5. Essendon Football Club–History. 6. Football players–Victoria–History. 7. Football teams–Victoria–History. 8. Australian football–History. Other Authors/Contributors: McNicol, Adam, 1978– 796.336099451 Jacket design by Phil Campbell Text and picture section design and typesetting by Pauline Haas Jacket photograph (back) by Monty Coles Jacket photograph (front) courtesy of Newspix Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing Co Pty Ltd 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

FOR MUM AND DAD W E W OULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO ALL WE’VE DONE W ITHOUT YOUR LOVE, SUPPORT AND PATIENCE. with th anks from y our boys

‘TO SUM UP THE DANIHERS. FOUR INGREDIENTS. SPIR IT, FANTASTIC. PASSION, U NBELIEVABLE. LOYALTY AND TR UST, IMPECCABLE.’ kevin sh eedy

CONTENTS

Introduction: The road to Ungarie 1 1

Daniher country 8

2

The pride of the district 15

3

You play anything when you’re young 23

4

Something a bit special 37

5

A young bloke coming through 44

6

A kid named Terry Daniher 49

7

Fair dinkum about footy 58

8

A born leader 73

9

Knockin’ around with blokes 82

10

Making life a bit more interesting 94

11

Just another Daniher 105

12

The Iceman 115

13

The best player in the club 130

14

All the glitz and glamour 139

15

This time it’s different 153

16

Fingers crossed 164

17

Loyalty 177

18

Following in your brothers’ footsteps 187

19

Hard, tough and talented 199

20

Pitching in and having a go 208

21

Doing the old home town proud 215

22

In footy you just get on with it 234

23

Grin and cop it 243

24

You’re the bloody coach, mate! 252

25

A fork in the road 262

26

Footy 101 277

27

Family ties 291

28

A bit of the old, a bit of the new 299

29

Sermons laced with hope and energy 308

30

Footy sucks sometimes 322

31

The new generation 333 Football career statistics 342 Author’s note 344 Acknowledgements 348 Index 352

Jim Daniher

INTRODUCTION

THE ROAD TO UNGAR IE

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ur hire car’s headlights briefly illuminate a sign by the roadside.

From the top it reads Ungarie 42, Condobolin 105, Lake Cargelligo 115. A smile creeps across Neale Daniher’s face. ‘When we see the name Ungarie we know we’re almost home.’ The outskirts of West Wyalong disappear as the last rays of sunshine fade. It is May 2008. We are in southern New South Wales, 550 kilometres from Sydney and around 600 from Melbourne. More than six hours earlier, I collected Neale and his teenage son Ben from the family’s large home in Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs. We drove north, passing through Shepparton and the Murray River town of Tocumwal. Discussions flowed, mostly about footy. It was a Monday morning and Neale expressed his relief at not dreading the day, like he had after a loss when coaching Melbourne. Instead, he could watch the season unfold without the stress of having his job continually on the line. He could simply enjoy the game again. Neale had even joined the media. Before we set off he appeared on Neil Mitchell’s popular radio program on 3AW, discussing the weekend’s results. As it happened, the Demons were the story of the day. Less than 24 hours before, they had staged a remarkable comeback from 51 points down to beat Fremantle at the MCG. Ben was delighted with the result. Despite his dad parting ways with the club, he still loves the Dees.

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Over the river, we headed into the wide open expanses of the Riverina. Past Finley, home town of Brownlow Medallist and Hawthorn star Shane Crawford. Once a bustling rural centre, Finley has been gutted by drought, the water shortage drying up the region’s rice growing industry. We travelled on to Jerilderie, famous for having its bank held up by Ned Kelly and his gang in 1879. More recently it was the birthplace of Bill Brownless, formerly a Geelong forward, now a professional man of the people. The rumble of giant trucks was constant as we continued north along the Newell Highway to Narrandera, population 6800. ‘We used to always think of this as the real big smoke,’ Neale remarked as we headed along the main street. Still we drove. Past the Barassi Line, a mythical marker, stretching from south-east New South Wales to the eastern edge of the Northern Territory. The Barassi Line was dreamt up by professor Ian Turner in 1978 to describe the separation of traditional Aussie Rules territory from that dominated by Rugby League. We continued beyond Ardlethan, where the local footy team once wore an iconic red and yellow jumper with a big star on the front and were called the Stars. The club has since fallen victim to rural population shifts and is now part of a conglomerate mystifyingly known as the Northern Jets. Its guernsey is the same horrid article worn by Port Adelaide in the AFL. A few minutes down the road we flashed past Mirrool, famous for being the place where Brownless kicked a football over a grain silo. And so we arrive at West Wyalong and begin the final stretch. Neale steers the car around sweeping bends, past pine trees standing so straight they seem made by machine. We reach Girral, a hamlet that once boasted a pub and a footy club. Now it has a couple of grain silos and a tiny collection of weather-beaten houses. Neale, unlike his brothers, never dreamt of being a farmer yet he shifts excitedly in his seat as we turn right and accelerate away from the ghost town. ‘From here on is Daniher country,’ he says enthusiastically, pointing to the dusty farmland barely visible under the night sky. Sitting in the back seat, Ben offers an opposite reaction. Earphones in, he stares intently at the screen of his laptop. He likes visiting the country but it is not his place.

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This trip is the beginning of a new journey for Neale. It will be a journey of reflection and, he hopes, discovery. With his father, Jim, about to turn 80, he has decided it is time for the Daniher story to be recorded. The tale will focus on Neale and his brothers, Terry, Anthony and Chris, and their remarkable achievements. The time is right to consider the tremendous opportunities bequeathed by their parents’ hard work. Throughout their lives the boys have been doers. Now, more than a decade since Chris, the youngest, retired from the AFL, it is time to take a breath and ponder the mountains they climbed to play football at the highest level. They also hope to shed light on what they know is a deep family history, but it is this aspect Neale approaches with some trepidation. He knows Jim holds the key, however he says their father–son relationship has not involved much in the way of discussion. ‘I’m not sure what we’ll get out of Dad,’ he says. ‘He doesn’t usually like talking about himself or his boys, doesn’t want to be a bighead.’ Soon the car slows again and pulls into Danihers Lane. Tall eucalypts line the road. Every tree, every fencepost, holds a childhood memory. ‘We used to do fartlek training here,’ Neale recalls while pointing towards a huge gum tree. ‘That was one of our stopping points.’ A speck of moisture hits the windscreen. Neale winds down the window and thrusts his face into the air. His smile widens. ‘It smells like rain.’ As he drives along the roughly graded red dirt, he is no longer the one-time Boy Wonder who could have been among Essendon’s greatest players. He is not The Reverend, who preached the virtues of the Melbourne Football Club to the masses and almost delivered the Demons a long-awaited flag. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, he is simply a bloke from the bush again. And although it is more than three decades since he has lived here, when he pulls up outside the modest farmhouse where he grew up, Neale Daniher is most definitely home. ‘It’s going to be a great few days,’ he says, walking towards the front door. There is a feeling of warmth, of strong family ties, as Edna, matriarch of the Daniher clan, greets us at the door. She is tiny in every way, her voice soft, almost a whisper. She smiles broadly, embracing Neale and Ben, before piling home-grown roast lamb, pumpkin, potato and gravy onto dinner plates. Feeding a sitting of five is a cinch for a

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woman who raised 11 children. It is almost 7 pm. Jim sits at the head of the table, keen to start dinner. He is a big man, with broad shoulders, slightly hunched by old age. A full head of white hair is parted solidly and swept to one side. Gnarled hands, resembling often-pruned trees, rest on the tablecloth. They are the souvenirs of a tough life. But in his old age, Jim has a face that radiates a certain friendliness belying his hard-man reputation. ‘Good to see you fellas,’ he says with his booming voice that knows only one volume. The lamb and vegies are wolfed down. Smiles all round. Edna quietly checks if everyone has enough food and something to drink. Predictably, conversation starts with mention of the weather. ‘Oh, she’s dry alright, she’s bloody dry,’ says Jim. He will keep taking an active role on the farm until he can no longer climb out of his chair. Chris now runs the show, having returned to the bush after finishing up at Essendon. A dry start to the growing season has held back the already planted wheat, barley and canola. Jim offers a critique on Chris’s approach to farming. ‘He’s got a bit of bloody crop over here and a bit over there. He loves bloody driving around. We’ve gone past one paddock four times.’ Jim grins as he talks, his face wrinkling with lines, like Paul Hogan’s once did. It seems he loves an audience. Slowly conversation turns to football, to the recent debut of Anthony’s son Darcy for Essendon. Then the book is mentioned. And with little prompting, Jim begins passing on his oral history of the Danihers. He talks freely about himself, about playing ‘Rules’, as the native game is known in New South Wales. About suiting up again on Sundays for Rugby League matches. About the journey of his boys from the outback to the big city. Soon Neale is asking questions. He is being introduced to a new side of his father. Ben listens quietly. Jim will barely take a breath until we head back to Melbourne three days later. The following day we take Jim for a drive. Remarkably, there is no sign on the outskirts of Ungarie proclaiming the town as ‘the home of the Danihers’ and Jim likes it that way. First stop is the footy ground, where Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris began their careers and where Jim ran around for almost three decades. A wide open expanse, it is ringed by a gravel trotting track. The oval is dry, with small patches of green. The tiny brick change rooms are basic to say the least. Battling to

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find enough players, the once-mighty Magpies are fighting for survival, their struggle matching that of the local community. Ungarie is a dying town. We drive along Wollongough Street, its broad thoroughfare lined by disused shops. Just a few cars and the odd ute park under the tall gum trees that cast shade along the middle of the road. The place feels empty. Paint peels from the façade of a store once owned by FR Hayes, a legendary local businessman. At one stage he pretty much ran the town and owned half of it. He opened an everpopular billiard room that Jim says ‘was the hub of the place’. Written on one shopfront nearby are the words ‘Rick and Sue’s WelcomeMart’. Below the fading letters, the entrance is boarded up. Many locals now purchase their groceries in West Wyalong, while others travel the more than 400-kilometre round trip to shop at the big supermarkets in Wagga Wagga. Some journey north to Condobolin, the outpost that produced Australian Idol runnerup Shannon Noll. We drive slowly past the Town and Country Tavern, painted a deep maroon. Known as the bottom pub, it is a testament to understated 20th century architecture. A large XXXX sign remains atop the small verandah. First licensed in 1935, it closed for the last time in 2006. Colin Baker’s much loved pies and pasties (yes, the baker was a Baker) are also long gone. For Ungarie’s centenary celebrations in 1972, Col handled an order for 14 000 hamburger buns. Eight years later his bread oven, first fired up in 1928, began gathering dust. A few businesses hang on, despite the prolonged drought which threatens to wipe the entire community from the map. A chalkboard outside the Ungarie Butchery advertises minced beef for $8 per kilo. The Majestic Café stands between two empty buildings and the proprietor still dishes up fish and chips and hamburgers, although the flow of customers is just a trickle. Jim tells us about the times when people would queue at the counter for milkshakes and lollies during intermission at Lampard’s picture theatre. The theatre now stands empty. Back then, floods were the norm. Every couple of years the Humbug Creek would inundate the town. Now the meandering watercourse rarely breaks its banks. Only the Rural Transaction Centre, a one-size-fits-all bank branch, post office and Internet facility, looks alive and modern.

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Further up the street, the two-storey Central Hotel watches solemnly over yet another example of Australia’s rural decline. Still called the Top Pub even though it’s now the only watering hole, it is a substantial red brick building erected in the 1950s when times were good and people plentiful. It has four different Tooheys beers on tap, a dining room and rarely used guest accommodation upstairs. Hardy wheat and sheep farmers and the few other workers left in town gather in the bar to solve the world’s problems over middies of New or Old. The publican tries to look on the bright side but admits leasing the Central has not proven to be the smartest of investment ideas. On Wednesday nights a few local footballers might wander in but most weeks only four or five blokes turn up to training. Ungarie, a place whose history has become indelibly linked with that of Australian football itself, is fading away. Soon it might be just a dusty collection of houses like Girral. From a peak population of 800 it now has just 380 residents. The surrounding district has suffered an even more startling exodus. Out on the land, a whole family was once settled on each 740 acre block. Then, working men were employed to help sow and harvest the crops. Now the average farm is more than ten times the original size. Technology, in the guise of enormous tractors, means a farmer can manage such a vast tract of land on his own. Jim seems sad at the state of Ungarie, the place where he has lived his entire life. We visit the Catholic primary school, where his sons began their education. Although the weatherboard building is no longer used it sparks many memories. Walking through the overgrown playground, where a couple of goalposts and a concrete cricket pitch can be found, Ben shakes his head. It is like being on another planet, compared to his experiences at the prestigious Xavier College in Melbourne. In just one generation, family circumstances can change enormously. We leave Ungarie and drive for half an hour to the old sandy ground at Four Corners, where a club existed without a town. Then we travel along bumpy gravel roads to Burgooney, a long-forgotten outpost of Northern Riverina footy. Neale drives, while Jim talks constantly in the front seat, his sentences littered with classic bush humour. He speaks of his father, Jim senior, and tells us he was a renowned

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storyteller. He knows the ownership history of every block of land. We are treated to an example of how tough the footy was in Jim’s era. ‘When a fight started in those days the game would stop,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘They would form a ring around them and let them fight. Then, when she was over, they’d start the footy off again!’ Finally we visit Tullibigeal, Ungarie’s arch-rival on the footy field. Neale played in his only senior premiership there in 1978. He and Ben take out their Sherrin and re-enact some of the game. Later Jim tells them of the politics involved with Neale’s selection in the team, because he had been away at boarding school for much of the year. Three generations of Danihers share their history. When we arrive back at the farm, Edna has laid out some ingredients to make salad sandwiches. She senses it has been a successful and enjoyable morning. Neale continues to ask questions and Jim delights in responding. Edna occasionally chips in, offering some of her countless life experiences. It’s like this for the duration of our stay. Later in the week, when we begin the long trip back to Melbourne, Neale says, ‘I didn’t know so much of that stuff. Maybe the old man has got to 80 and decided it’s no good taking all those stories to the grave.’ Maybe he just needed to know someone would listen. Either way, so begins the Daniher story.

CHAPTER ONE

DA NIHER COUNTRY

O

n the first day of September in 1990, four boys from the bush

cemented their place in Australian football folklore. On that early spring afternoon, Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris Daniher made history by all playing for Essendon in its 6-goal win over St Kilda. Modest blokes, the Danihers never dreamed they would achieve such a feat. After all, in the 93-year history of the VFL and AFL, never before had a quartet of brothers run out in the same team. As the boys sat in the change rooms, ice-packs on their sore limbs, their knockabout demeanour suggested they might have just played for Ungarie at an oval ringed by cars rather than screaming fans. In their country drawl, they said the occasion had been ‘t’riffic’ and a ‘bloody good show’. They had capped a remarkable journey, one that began in Ungarie, their tiny home town, surrounded by Rugby League territory, amid the dusty plains of western New South Wales. But the Danihers were a football family long before Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris became household names. In the early part of the 20th century, when the VFL was not two decades old and contained a team called University, a farmer by the name of Jim Daniher dominated matches held in muddy paddocks in north-east Victoria. It was his grandchildren who would bring the family fame. Jim was a first-generation Australian, and his Catholic faith and Irish ancestry were key parts of his identity. Through stories told by

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relatives and friends, he knew his father, John Daniher, had been part of an extraordinary exodus. John was just a child when his parents decided to leave their home county of Tipperary. It was the 1860s and the Emerald Isle was a decimated place. The Great Famine, which began 20 years prior, had resulted in the deaths of more than a million people. At least that number fled the country, most to England, the United States and Australia. Before the famine, Ireland’s population had been greater than eight million. Today, despite recent boom times, the total population (counting both the Republic and Northern Ireland) is still only 6.2 million. Oral history passed down through the generations suggests John Daniher’s father initially worked on the docks in Melbourne before the family acquired a block of farming land near Kyneton. A subsequent dispute over its ownership led to a move north-east, to the tiny community of Miepoll outside Euroa. From there the Daniher history becomes more definite and takes a rather unlikely early turn. In 1887, John Daniher married Miss Ellen Danaher, herself from a local Irish clan, at St John’s Catholic Church in Euroa. That Ellen’s new surname sounded just like her maiden name certainly turned a few heads. Three years later, she and John welcomed Catherine (known as Kate), the first of their three children. On 22 January 1890, Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris’s grandfather, Jim, was born. But just as the family prepared for its third addition, John was tragically killed after being thrown from his buggy during a trip back to Miepoll from Euroa. He died at the scene, having broken his neck. Only a few days later John junior (usually referred to as Jack) was born. Losing the head of the household placed enormous pressure on Ellen. Yet, like so many pioneering women, she possessed an unbreakable will to succeed. With the help of her community she raised the three kids and ensured they would have a positive future. Despite the later departure of her sons, and of Kate when she married farmer Patrick O’Connel, Ellen lived out her days on the property at Miepoll. She died aged 70 in 1948, and left the land to her brother Michael Danaher. Jim first brought the Daniher name notoriety on the footy field when just a teenager. Tall and wiry, he received at least one best and

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fairest award while playing with the Longwood Football Club. With no reserves or juniors in those days, it was a case of taking to the field against grown men or not at all. Jim later repeated his success at nearby Euroa, where he won a premiership in 1913. Around this time, the New South Wales government began opening up large tracts of the Riverina, to be allocated under the Closer Settlement Scheme. Since white settlement, the area had been divided into enormous sheep and cattle properties. Their leases, including that of the 15 000 acre Ungarie Station, were taken back by the government and the land subdivided. Opportunities to settle on the newly surveyed blocks were advertised all over Australia. Inspired by the idea of relocating to the wide open plains, both Jim and Jack entered the ballot for a piece of red Riverina soil. Although some were set aside for servicemen lucky enough to return from the horrors of Gallipoli and the Great War, they were both awarded 740 acre allotments. Neither of them had laid eyes on the place. Late in 1914 the brothers finally decided to take a look at their new assets. Due to a lack of finances, they took the extraordinary step of making the 485 kilometre journey on bicycles. Pedalling their way up and down hills, over barely made dirt tracks, they took a few weeks to complete the trip. Impressed by what he saw, Jim immediately made plans for a permanent move north. But maybe due to the arduous bike ride, Jack decided it was not the place for him, handing control of his block to Jim and returning to Victoria, where he later joined the police force. During 1915, Jim settled on the property at Ungarie, which he named ‘Hillview’ in honour of the farm at Euroa which he had left behind. Judging by stories contained in local history books, he would have lived in a rudimentary tent on his own for at least a year while the task of clearing the land began. In between felling the large eucalypt, pine and currajong trees, he constructed the first fences, necessary to prevent his horse from escaping. Given the need to cart water out to the block from the Humbug Creek, 8 kilometres away, the horse was Jim’s most valuable asset. Along with an enormous workload and the lack of basic provisions — without running water there were no luxuries like showers or plumbed toilets — isolation and loneliness were major problems.

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As a consequence, the settlers were quick to establish sporting clubs in Ungarie to provide a vital social outlet. Although the tiny town was in Rugby League territory, the great number of expatriate Victorians meant an Australian Rules club was among the first to be established. Jim Daniher played a major role in its formation. According to an obituary published in the West Wyalong Advocate upon his death in 1959, Jim ‘occupied various positions in the club for many years, including that of patron’. He ensured Ungarie adopted black and white for its guernsey after he had worn these colours at Euroa. Pictured in an early team photo in which players are wearing a mixture of horizontal and vertical stripes, Jim was a tall man for his time, his broad shoulders and arms bulked up by days spent bringing down trees with an axe. Legendary for being a great storyteller, he was very popular among the players and would often entertain large numbers of men at the local pub with tales of his many experiences. Football matches were roughly organised affairs, with teams made up of whoever felt like having a run. Some away games were held close by at now forgotten places like Girral and Calleen. On other occasions the team would travel up to 80 kilometres by horse and cart to take on men from settlements like Lake Cargelligo, while racial tensions were stirred when contests were staged against an Aboriginal side from the Murrumbidgee Reservation. Predictably, Jim Daniher was among Ungarie’s best players in its formative years. He helped them win a premiership in 1923 and the medal he received remains a treasured possession at the family farm. Surviving records from the time note that club membership was five shillings for men and two shillings and sixpence for ladies. Visiting team members and followers paid one shilling at the gate. Having spent seven years setting up the farm on his own, Jim returned to Euroa after the 1923 footy season to marry Eileen Cullen. The service was held at St John’s Catholic Church where his parents had married. Once the celebrations had wound up, the couple returned to Ungarie and began their life together at Hillview. They had six children in the next nine years. John (once again nicknamed Jack) was born in 1925, followed by Mary in 1927. A year later, the father of Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris arrived. Named after his father, Jim

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junior would become a local sporting legend in his own right, as would Leo, born in 1930. The fifth born, Joan, tragically died at three months of age. Terese rounded out the family when she entered the world in 1934. Despite their new family commitments, the Daniher family continued to strongly support their community. Jim senior’s passion for Aussie Rules saw him play the game well into his forties, on one occasion even running out alongside his oldest son. He also embraced the rival code, serving as president of the Ungarie Rugby League Club. In later life he was a keen lawn bowler. Away from sport, he was a director of the Condobolin Pastures Protection Board for 18 years and a member of the Ungarie Hospital board of directors. Eileen also was active within many groups, among them the Country Women’s Association, the Agricultural Society, and the Patriotic Committee. She was, according to an article in the West Wyalong Advocate, ‘willing to assist every worthy and charitable organisation’. A devout Catholic, Jim took an active role in building the first church at Ungarie, spending many hours carting timber to the site. When the church was firmly established in the district, he became a close confidant of the local priest. Jim and Eileen later played an active role in welcoming the Sisters of St Joseph when they were invited to set up a convent in the town. The Danihers subsequently helped build a primary school, to be run by the sisters. They did all this while surviving droughts, floods, mouse plagues and dust storms, not to mention trying to make the farm profitable. Eileen died suddenly on Mother’s Day in 1950, aged just 55. ‘One of the best known and most highly esteemed ladies in the Northern Riverina,’ according to the obituary in the West Wyalong Advocate, her funeral was among the largest in Ungarie’s short history. The article written about her life also provides a glimpse of prevailing attitudes at the time. ‘Despite home ties, Mrs Daniher displayed very commendable interest in public affairs,’ it read. Unfortunately she did not live to see any of her children marry. Nine years later Jim died, aged 69. A huge number of people attended his funeral, held in the church he helped build. Demonstrating the political leanings of the bush at the time and its broad Catholic

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support, wreaths were sent by the Temora Electorate Council of the Australian Labor Party and the Ungarie branch of the ALP. Of course, among many others was a floral tribute from the Ungarie Australian Rules Football Club. Jim had claimed the town for the native game. On the field his boys were already bringing local kudos to the Daniher name. And given the players that would emerge in the ensuing decades, the code has plenty to thank him for.

Jim, Jack and Leo

CHAPTER T WO

THE PR IDE OF THE DISTR ICT

T

he sons of Jim Daniher senior were a fearsome trio on the football

field. Jack, Jim junior and Leo wore Ungarie’s unique black and white horizontal stripes from their early teens until they could barely walk. The boys began their love affair with the game at home on the farm where their father ensured they always had a ball to kick around the paddocks. It was never the finest piece of sporting equipment; mostly it was a leather casing stuffed with barley grass. ‘Well, he never grew a crop so he didn’t have any straw,’ jokes Jim, reminiscing about the time. At school the young lads preached the values of the Victorian game to fellow students more inclined to throwing passes. However, by growing up on the footy frontier where Rules and League met head-on, they had no option but to become proficient at both codes. All the boys attended the Eugalong Primary School, a tiny building located close to Hillview. Later they attended Ungarie Central for a time, although Jack and Jim went on to further their education at the Forbes Catholic College. By the time football could resume in the Northern Riverina following World War II, all three brothers had finished school and returned to the family farm, although Jack would later move into town and pursue a new career as a shearer. In 1946, when Ungarie’s team took the field for the first time in five years, the Danihers immediately established themselves as key players. In particular, Jim became the one to watch. The tallest of the

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trio, he was skilful, could play in any position and was renowned for his toughness. Having suffered a broken arm one season he asked the league if he could play with a cast on. When the response was no, he insisted on getting the plaster taken off each weekend so he could play. He ran around for the afternoon with the broken bone shielded by a few bandages. Upon finishing the game Jim would get the doctor to set him a new cast. The club secretary of the time was captivated by the uniform worn by Ganmain players at a knock-out carnival. ‘They had the white shorts and a red jumper with a white V,’ Jim remembers. ‘They had all the same guernseys and all the other teams had stray guernseys.’ Desperate to smarten up his team’s on-field appearance, the secretary decided Ungarie should ditch its black and white colours. He ordered two new sets of red and white jumpers. ‘But he got it wrong,’ Jim continues. ‘Instead of being red and a white V they were white with a red V. The bloody red V ran into the jumpers. They used to call us the galahs!’ Given Jim’s appetite for a contest, few of his opponents dared rib him on field about Ungarie’s pink jumpers. With the Danihers making their presence felt, Ungarie was competitive but couldn’t stop arch-rivals Tullibigeal, a fellow bunch of farmers and labourers from 40 kilometres north, winning three successive flags. In 1949, West Wyalong entered the Northern Riverina League and brought with it the Griff Evans Cup, to be awarded to the competition’s best-and-fairest player each season. Now an established local footy star, Jim won the cup in its first year and the Daniher name has since been engraved on a further nine occasions. Leo took it home in 1951. Once again wearing black and white stripes, Ungarie finally broke its 15-year premiership drought in 1950. It was the first of many flags for the Daniher brothers. ‘We had a big fella playing full-forward, Norman Stidwell,’ Jim says. ‘He was like a draughthorse and he could not turn. Anyhow, we were neck and neck and it rained at three-quarter time, poured. We were into the last quarter, about half way through it. The ball came up and Norm came out to the flank, grabbed the ball. He was a strong, big bugger. He ran over about two fellas and he was going cross-ways across the field. He threw the ball on his boot and it

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went straight up and through the goals. That was the turning point of the game. Never forgot that.’ Celebrations involved warm beer (fridges were an unaffordable luxury) and a dance at the local hall. The Danihers were all among the most influential players. Footy in the Northern Riverina was still rough and ready. Teams rarely trained. Given they all did plenty of manual labour, and the game was played at walking pace compared with today, fitness was not really an issue. Occasionally the boys would get together on a Wednesday evening and let fly with a few drop kicks. Ungarie players travelled to away games along potholed roads, standing up in the back of a truck. The starting time of the matches would vary according to the standard of each side’s transport. One week Ungarie’s truck broke down and it was 4 pm before the team arrived at its destination. A game consisting of 10-minute quarters was played, finishing in near-darkness. In later years the Ungarie boys enjoyed the relative luxury of a school bus, in which they all had a seat for the journey. Playing fields were often marked out in a paddock. In wet years the Ungarie ground would become waterlogged and unplayable so the men would simply find a piece of higher ground in a paddock close by and mark out an oval there. Jim reckons Ungarie held matches in every paddock that adjoined the town. Away games were played on all sorts of surfaces. The patch of dirt used by the Four Corners Football Club was one of the finest examples. Flying High, a publication released for Four Corners’ fiftieth anniversary in 1987, gives an insight into its history: Much time was spent by local men at organised working bees to prepare an oval. First they cleared the timber, which sometimes had to be cut off below ground level. This was very hard work as the dirt had to be removed from around stumps with a pick and shovel. All the fallen timber was stacked and burnt after the completion of the clearing. Then the whole area was harrowed to loosen and even out the ground. A single furrow plough, drawn by a draughthorse, marked the line of the boundary.

The playing area’s initial circumference was rather misshapen, leading to each side having one very deep pocket and another shallow.

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But once the locals learned that it gave them a greater home-ground advantage, the shape was never changed and the ground was never enclosed by a fence. ‘They played it to perfection on a windy day,’ Jim recalls. ‘They had a great old player, Dud Ireland, a big torpedo kick. He’d kick it out this dead wing and it would take you half a bloody quarter to get it back.’ The Four Corners area got its name from being situated at the point where a quartet of giant sheep and cattle stations met, before they were carved up for closer settlement. At one stage the area had its own school and hall, although it was the footy team, wearing its maroon jumper with a yellow V, that was the pride of the district. Four Corners, mostly men from the surrounding farms, and Ungarie enjoyed many spirited battles. Often the ball would get stuck in the branches of a huge gum tree, which stood close to the boundary. Sometimes the game was stopped for ten minutes while the Sherrin was rescued. At most grounds, facilities were rudimentary to say the least. There were no showers to use after the games, rather the players would not get to wash until they returned to their homes. Flying High provides another wonderful description of the early arrangements at Four Corners: Wheat bags had been opened down both seams and sewn together lengthwise and attached to a tree and three other posts. They enclosed an area approximately 10 feet square, which served as a dressing place for the players. One enclosure on the north-west side for the visiting team and one on the eastern side, close to the boundary fence, for the home side.

Later a small iron-clad building, replete with a creaking wooden floor, was constructed. It still stands. When it was in use, just a thin tarpaulin separated the two teams, meaning both could hear each coach’s address. Former players remember the coach who spoke second would often try to outdo his rival by producing a more stirring speech. In the process, he usually fired up both sides. The place was last used for football in 1994 when the Redlegs folded, larger farms and smaller families having brought on its demise. It’s hard to believe the patch of red dirt saw action that recently. There is not a blade of grass on the

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oval, just a few weeds forcing their way through the dusty surface. At one end, four pine goal posts stand proudly. Once they were painted bright white, but that has long since peeled away. Next to the change rooms the tiny canteen remains, its serving window forever boarded up. Visiting Corners, as he calls it, is an almost spiritual experience for Jim. His white hair reflecting in the midday sun, a broad smile emerges as his mind flashes back to the great afternoons of male bonding; to the times when he could single-handedly control the flow of a match; to the beers afterwards with the boys. The lack of grass at Corners didn’t concern him as a player. Rather the sandy soil was much easier on joints and skin than other grounds like Tullibigeal, which he says ‘was either hard as flint or wet as a bog’. In the days when Jim and his brothers were at their peak, there were no well-grassed surfaces to play on. The Magpies’ home ground at Ungarie was notoriously rough. Sometimes this could be attributed to the efforts of the League players, who liked to dig their boots into the soil when packing scrums. To make the surface loose enough they would often plough it up before matches. For members of the Rules team, whose game involved much running across the top of the ground, this was a disaster, heightening the chances of knee and ankle injuries. At Tullibigeal and Burgooney, the grounds were covered in stones. Knees and elbows were red and raw by the end of matches. If you call in at Burgooney today, it is almost impossible to imagine the many battles fought there. The oval is covered in scrub. Two lonely pine goal posts lean on large trees. Shrubs grow along the edge of the decaying concrete cricket pitch. The soil between the bushes is still sprinkled with pebbles. But when Jim Daniher steps onto the red earth, he forgets the arthritis and other complaints that come with old age. Instead, he remembers playing there like it was yesterday. ‘They were hard to beat. I don’t remember beating them here,’ he says, while showing how the combatants would scrape the stones out of their knees after full-time. ‘If they had the blood rule then, we would never have finished a game.’ Teams were not always so accepting of haphazard playing surfaces. In a famous local incident back in 1931, Girral and Four Corners won their way through to the grand final and it was decided

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the match would be played at Weja. Today, it is nearly impossible to find the oval in question, but even back then it must have been in poor condition. Upon arrival at the ground, Girral players were so disgusted their captain declared they would rather forfeit the premiership than take to the field. Flying High provides the details. Players and spectators waited anxiously to hear the result of the very hostile delegates’ meeting. Ungarie was announced the venue for the grand final the next Saturday. This game, for all interested, was the topic of conversation for the week and big bets were placed by punters. Police protection was sought for the umpire. As well as the Ungarie police, the policeman from Tullibigeal was in attendance to help control the crowd before and after play had commenced. The umpire was determined to keep control of the game, although play was very rough and several fights were witnessed. Men from both teams were injured because of the rough play but Corners took control of the game and ran out winners.

In 1954, Jim won his second league best-and-fairest award. He was the most respected player in a very tough competition. Those around at the time recall that if a young opponent won a contest for the ball against Jim, he was immediately labelled ‘a good footballer’. Two years later Ungarie won another premiership, defeating Tullibigeal. A photo taken at the post-season presentation night shows the Daniher brothers standing proudly side-by-side, dressed in freshly laundered footy gear. They wear Brylcreem in their hair and boots that cover their ankles. Their big white shorts seem to sit just under their rib-cages. Leo, the fresh-faced baby of the trio, wears the broadest smile. They had achieved a lot together on the field. Off it, they followed a remarkably similar path. Beginning with Jack’s marriage to Beryl in 1954, the Daniher boys each married one of the three Erwin sisters. The girls had grown up on a farm not far from Hillview and their father had been a talented footballer, playing alongside Jim senior. In July of ’56, Jim junior and Edna tied the knot. It was an event of such note that the local paper carried two reports detailing the festivities. The first described Edna’s presentation evening, held prior to the wedding.

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As Miss Erwin entered the hall, a beautiful shoulder spray was pinned to her frock by Miss Nancy Murdoch. For the evening, Miss Erwin chose a ballerina length frock of red velvet, trimmed with bands of guipure lace. Bright music was provided for dancing and the evening was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended.

The wedding took place at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, the paper noting that Edna wore a ‘gown of heavy satin brocade’. The service was followed by a reception at the Ungarie Hall, attended by almost 200 guests. Later in the evening, Edna donned a new outfit as the couple prepared to leave for their honeymoon. ‘For travelling, the bride chose a wine coloured suit, set off with grey accessories and a white hat,’ it was reported. It had been a grand occasion. Finally, Leo married Dorothy in 1959. There were few quiet moments for the three Daniher–Erwin couplings in following years. Between them they had 28 children, four of which whom entrench the family name and their home town in Australian sporting legend.

CHAPTER THREE

YOU PL AY A NY THING WHEN YOU ’R E YOUNG

T

erry daniher was born on 15 August 1957. The eldest of Jim

and Edna’s children, who would eventually number 11 in all, Terry arrived when the northern Riverina was a bustling place. Ungarie’s population was almost 800. Twelve years after the end of World War II, it was a time of both optimism and confrontation. Around the world, race relations were among the big issues. In the US, Senator Strom Thurmond was about to set a new benchmark, with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill. Indigenous Australians were nine years away from being counted in the Census. Despite a post-war commodities boom delivering good prices for wool, meat and grain, living conditions were tough at Hillview. Edna began life as a mother without even electricity. She has memories of standing by the sink listening to news of John F Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 on a battery-powered radio. By the time the farmhouse was connected to mains power a year later, her brood numbered four — Estelle having arrived in 1959, Neale in 1961

Opposite above: Hillview 1956 Opposite below: Jim and Edna’s wedding

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and Anthony in 1963. Being a housewife was more than a full-time occupation. Everything had to be done by hand, including chopping wood, the vital energy source of the time. Wood was needed to heat the oven, stove and water for bathing. ‘There was no boiling the jug, you’d put on the wood-chip bath heater,’ Edna remembers. ‘It was a real big job just to get some hot water.’ The same vessel was used for cleaning clothes, another arduous task. There were no air-conditioners to provide relief from the scorching summers. To help the young ones cope, Edna would drape wet sheets around their cots, hoping to cool the hot northerly breeze. Devout Catholics like their parents, Jim and Edna would never miss Sunday Mass. With Ungarie’s only service conducted at 7 am, Edna would rise in darkness, bathing the babies by the light of kerosene lamps. ‘Those big lights were very good but they were a bit of a nuisance to light,’ she remembers. ‘They had the little mantle and they seemed to be always blowing out. We were in our first house, the old Daniher homestead, and the wind was coming through the walls. It was not lined or anything. They were tough times but you didn’t worry about it. That was just how it was.’ As the family expanded — Dorothy arrived in 1964, Chris in ’66, Colleen in ’67, Angela in ’69 and Julie in 1970 — she would rise earlier and earlier on Sunday mornings. The children would always be bathed and immaculately dressed for Mass. It was not negotiable. ‘I used get up at 4 am to bath the baby so I could get to Mass on time,’ Edna says. ‘You didn’t notice it as a trial or difficult because everyone was in the same boat. Now I look back and wonder how on earth I coped.’ As in every comparable household, the male and female roles were clearly defined. Both parents worked tirelessly and selflessly. Edna did all the cooking, cleaning and child-minding. She changed every nappy. Jim devoted himself to the farm, visiting the house during the day only to eat and discuss his many concerns about the state of agriculture. He and Leo rode the ups the downs of droughts and floods, mouse plagues and locust invasions. Football remained the highlight of Jim’s week, and as more children arrived his sporting reputation grew. Soon he was appointed captain of Ungarie’s Rules team, a position he held for a decade. In

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those days there was no coach, so Jim ran the show. Beginning in 1959 he led the Magpies to three successive premierships. In ’59 he was voted the Northern Riverina League’s best-and-fairest player for a third time. During the 1950s, Jim also established a reputation as one of the finest Rugby League players in the Riverina. Each Sunday, he would drag his creaking body out of bed to attend Mass before suiting up for Ungarie’s League team. As if the endless manual labour on the farm wasn’t enough, he was spending almost his entire weekends crashing into burly men. Desperately trying to free up limbs stiffened by playing Rules the day before, Jim found the opening minutes of each week’s League encounter tough going. ‘It was alright when you were playing against a side that had also played Rules on the Saturday,’ Jim says. ‘But if they were fresh it took you 20 minutes to slow them down. I didn’t mind it. You play anything when you’re young.’ Playing as an outside centre, Jim’s performances early in his League career were so impressive he was selected in the Riverina team to play Great Britain at the Wagga Wagga Showgrounds in 1954. A crowd of more than 10 000 watched as Jim, aged 25, scored two tries against some of the best players in the world. The effort against the British convinced many people that Jim could play League at the highest level. He was sent letters by a number of Sydney-based clubs, including Manly, yet rejected each invitation to try out. ‘I don’t know how many times I got told “give that bloody Aussie Rules away and play League. You’ll play for Australia.” All this rubbish.’ The home-grown code was Jim’s passion and nothing was going to change that. He wanted nothing more than to see his sons carry on the tradition. As soon as Jim’s boys could walk, they were given a footy. On some occasions they were not as keen as might be expected. When four years old, Terry was made the mascot for Ungarie’s 1961 grand final team. With Jim the captain, father and son were to lead the team out onto the field. Edna kitted Terry out in a new guernsey and boots for the big day. But when it came time to leave the dressing sheds he refused. ‘They bribed and coaxed him but he wouldn’t do it,’ Edna recalls with a chuckle. It was perhaps the only time in Terry’s life he wavered from an infatuation with the game.

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Later Jim became an inspiration for his sons. They watched in awe as he controlled matches and survived what seemed, to the youngsters, like life-threatening injuries. Anthony was with Jim at Four Corners when he suffered a nasty leg gash from an aluminium stop on an opponent’s boot. Ignoring the steady blood flow, Jim strapped up the leg and kept playing. Those metal stops were later banned. Although most of the men played both codes, Ungarie’s two football clubs fought a constant battle for survival. In the mid-1960s, Jim tried to encourage promising youngsters to play Rules by offering to step down as captain, only for tragedy to intervene. ‘We had a young bloke lined up, a good kid,’ he explains. ‘He went for a joy ride on show day and got himself killed in an aeroplane accident.’ Jim hung in for another two years, grooming another young man, Jim Miller, to take over. ‘He was real good and real keen. He was welding the knife on a header at harvest time and unbeknown to him he had it sitting on half a can of petrol. It exploded and burnt him to death. Then we collapsed.’ Jim had no option but to continue as captain. Rules faced its greatest challenge as most of the promising juniors were lost to League. ‘We’d won three premierships in a row and the blokes had hung on for the premierships, then they all retired,’ Jim recalls. ‘Rugby League was firing and they were busting for us to fold, but we weren’t going to bloody fold. They said “you forfeit, you forfeit”. But you never forfeit. You’ve got to give them a game.’ Ungarie started one match at Four Corners with just 12 men. ‘We flooded the backline!’ Jim jokes. ‘We got a few more to come along in the end. For a while we played 15-a-side. We got rid of the ruck rover — he should’ve gone out with the plague — and the centre wingers. It was good. Someone had to win the ball in the middle and you didn’t get that great bloody scramble.’ As a result of the commitment of Jim and his brothers to Rules, eventually the Rugby League club disappeared and aerial ping-pong, as the non-believers still refer to it, prospered. When Terry and Neale, Jim’s first two sons, began their education at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Jim became concerned at the lack of organised junior coaching for budding Aussie Rules players. Supported by Bob Bryant, Tom McGrane and Ned Ward, he started teaching the game to local

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youngsters. Initially it was a struggle. Jim recalls many had already received tuition in the ways of League. ‘They’d try and kick it straight into the arms of the bloke standing on the mark. I thought I’m not going to have my kids brought up like that.’ At St Joseph’s his efforts to improve the youngsters’ skills were commended. There he had many Daniher children to work with, as the sons of both Jack and Leo also showed great promise. But he struggled to steer the Central School’s teachers, often from Sydney, away from League. The headmaster at the time said he wanted the children to focus on just one code of football. Jim was furious. ‘Eventually I shamed him into letting us get Rules in there,’ he remembers. ‘I went to the butcher shop, the café, the little shop, the store and pub and said the bloody headmaster wouldn’t let us go in and coach kids. Within ten days he was ringing us up and saying, “She’s right.” They’re like bloody politicians.’ The new generation of Danihers was much like the old. Sport dominated their lives. At school, Terry and Neale lived for the breaks between classes when they played what was dubbed ‘The Real Game’. Whether it was football in the winter or cricket in the summer, teams were picked each Monday. The oldest boys acted as the umpires and team captains. For a whole week the sides would do battle, with a winner declared each Friday afternoon. On the following Monday, the process would begin again. When Anthony began at St Joseph’s, the three brothers took the competition to a new level. Passers-by would often comment on the intensity of the footy played in the school’s small playground. ‘One bloke told me it was like a semi-final every morning and a grand final at lunch time,’ Jim says. ‘It was a good education. The boys learned how to compete.’ When it came to learning in class, Terry was not so keen. He would joke with his classmates and count down the minutes until he could begin kicking the footy or playing cricket again. His poor maths results especially concerned his teacher, Sister Mary Sebastian. In an effort to make Terry improve, Sister Sebastian began keeping him back each Wednesday, after the last classes had finished. ‘I used to watch all my mates going home and I was bloody stuck there,’ Terry laments. With a cane at the ready, she taught him so well that he breezed through Form 1 and 2 maths when he headed across the Humbug Creek to the

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Central School. Outside her teaching, Sister Sebastian became a close friend of the Daniher family and followed Terry’s football career with great interest. After all, she had been there when it had all begun. During Terry’s time at primary school, a football game between St Joseph’s and the Central School — essentially Catholics versus the rest — was introduced to the calendar. The grudge match was supported by Sister Sebastian and her fellow nuns, unless conditions were too wet, when they would step in and call it off. Jim had coached most players on both teams, but for this game he was firmly behind his boys. With up to 11 Danihers in the team, St Joseph’s usually won. Even at primary school, the very different personalities of Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris shone out through sport. At one stage in his early years, Terry seemed to stop growing and was among the smallest kids in his class. Despite this, he boasted an interesting mix of happygo-lucky and ultra-competitive attitudes. Neale was a calculated and thinking player, combining his prodigious natural talent with a stern nature. Anthony was the cruiser, the lad who often looked like he was not trying, yet could do anything he wanted if he decided application was necessary. Nine years younger than his oldest brother, Chris idolised and resembled Terry. Always a joker, he also hated being beaten. Today, the weatherboard school, with a cross on its roof, sits abandoned. Its cricket pitch, footy oval and netball court are overgrown examples of rural decline. However, the Daniher boys will never forget the fearsome duels that took place there. Out at Hillview, the backyard contests were every bit as fierce. The brothers and sisters would do battle for hours, often coming to blows. As the oldest child, Terry took it upon himself to bait and goad the others. On one occasion, Estelle, the oldest sister, responded by knocking out one of his teeth. ‘You used to have to biff him when he wasn’t looking and then hope Dad was home, or run to the bathroom and put your foot down on a cupboard near the door,’ Estelle explains. ‘Then no-one could get in there.’ Edna remembers many fights and squabbles. ‘But it was all outside,’ she says. ‘There was no television or anything. They used to play touch footy out on the lawn. Up and down, wrecking the garden, knocking fruit off my trees. Before the verandah was built in, I’m sure they used to practise kicking the ball through the

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posts. We had many holes in the fibro wall.’ For cricket, Jim built the boys their own concrete pitch, a safe distance away from the house. They also spent many hours on a crude tennis court, where the whole family, including Edna, competed for bragging rights in the ‘Barbwire Cup’ each year. Sport was only interrupted by chores. Edna relied on the youngsters to help keep the household functioning. Chopping wood, feeding lambs and poddy calves, washing dishes and milking cows were the main responsibilities of the children. All the four boys and seven girls have distinct memories of dragging themselves out of bed on freezing winter mornings to attend to the cows. ‘You couldn’t feel your hands when you got home,’ says Chris. ‘But then we got a bowl of warm porridge and it was beautiful.’ Jim also gave the boys plenty of jobs on the farm. Picking up rocks in the paddocks, to enable easier passage for the plough when sowing crops, was one task they were not especially fond of. An analytical child, Neale knew at an early age he did not want to be a farmer. That was confirmed after he was run over by the trailer and suffered a broken leg during an afternoon of rock-picking. A few weeks trapped in a full-leg plaster cast hardened his resolve to one day escape the bush. By the time Jim and Edna’s brood reached double figures — Nerolee, the tenth child, arrived in 1973 — living conditions at Hillview had improved. The first shower was installed, although with the water still being heated by the wood stove, it was not a massive step forward from the communal bath. ‘You’d finish up having a lukewarm shower if you were lucky,’ Terry recalls. ‘If you had a hot one the old man would be going “Get out!” You had to get in, have a quick scrub and get out. If you were fourth or fifth in line the water was getting a bit cool. You were bloody shivering.’ The purchase of an oil heater was regarded by Terry as a great luxury. ‘That used to put you to sleep pretty quick. The fumes would knock you out. She used to cook a few mice in the plagues.’ Although the house had been extended, each new arrival created a further shortage of space. Eventually, the home’s broad verandah was enclosed to create extra bedrooms. Still, all four boys shared one room until Neale won a scholarship in 1973 and headed off to boarding

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school in the New South Wales rural city of Goulburn. Chris recalls their delight when Terry was given a cassette player for Christmas and the four brothers would lie in bed listening to ‘Crocodile Rock’. During summer’s sticky nights, a small air-conditioner was parked in the corner of their room, causing numerous fights over the direction in which the air was blowing. Finding a car large enough for the family was another challenge. For many years the Danihers squeezed into a battered station wagon. There was never any room for luggage but they never went far anyway. A trip to Condobolin or Lake Cargelligo for footy (an organised netball competition for the girls had not yet started) was about the extent of their travels. The short journeys to Mass on a Sunday morning created a game the siblings still laugh about. On those occasions the children raced to secure the seat behind the driver, always their father. Whoever had the prized position would then incite the others to play up, knowing the seat offered protection from Jim’s settling blows. Growing up on a farm, in a huge family, also presented plenty of hardships, yet all 11 Daniher siblings — Terry, Estelle, Neale, Dorothy, Anthony, Chris, Angela, Colleen Julie, Nerolee and Fiona (born in 1976) — look back fondly on their childhood. They remember having two dinner sittings each night, with the little kids eating first, followed by the big ones. They remember sitting in the same seats at Mass each Sunday morning. There were so many Danihers, they filled almost every pew on the left side of the church. On the way home, Jim would always buy all the children ice-creams, although by the time he had a brood of 11, he struggled to remember all of their names. They remember Edna making everyone, including Jim, recite the Rosary each night during Lent. They remember summer days spent swimming in the farm dam and the time when Dorothy nearly drowned, only to be dragged out by Jim in the nick of time. They remember setting rabbit traps. Neale even has a scar on one finger to prove the dangers involved. The girls jovially recall their frustration at their youngest sister, Fiona, being Jim’s darling, and escaping the ordeal of milking cows. They also remember the many restrictions their parents imposed when it came to watching television. Shows like Dallas, Dr Who and The Goodies were all banned, the comedic antics of Tim Brooke-Taylor,

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Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie regarded as pollution for the young Catholic minds. Colleen recalls her devastation when Molly was about to die in A Country Practice but Jim stormed in and changed the channel. For the boys, their weekly TV highlight was The Winners on the ABC. These VFL replays provided much inspiration for the young men, especially as they lived in a region where the media focused on Rugby League. The newspapers available in Ungarie were mostly from Sydney, hence were full of League news. The local ABC radio carried broadcasts of League games from the harbour city. Sometimes Jim or the boys would back the family car out of the shed and try to find a crackly signal from Melbourne so they could hear the VFL scores. Unlike most children, they did not feel the need to strongly support any of the teams. Rather, they preferred to follow the fortunes of star players. Terry loved Royce Hart. Chris did have a soft spot for St Kilda. During the school year, pushbike races from where the bus dropped them were the day’s most anticipated event. It was a 1.5-kilometre mad dash up the hill to the house. Each afternoon, one rider would face the disadvantage of having to carry Edna’s order from the bakery. ‘She would order sometimes four or six loaves and it would come wrapped up in brown paper, tied up with string,’ Terry says. ‘We took it in turns to cart the bread home. When you were going like buggery, the string was sawing through the bread. Before you knew it, you’d get halfway home and there’d be bread going everywhere. You’d be stopping to collect it and brush the dirt off. Then you’d eat half of it at home with cream and jam, you were that bloody hungry. It was beautiful fresh bread. They were good times. You were always on the go.’ By the age of 12, Terry was allowed to load the kids in a battered old ute and drive to and from the bus stop. This practice almost ended tragically. One afternoon after school a huge storm swept across the Riverina, bringing heavy rain and howling winds. ‘I told the kids to park in under the old bike shed while I backed the car around under that damn gum tree,’ Terry explains. ‘I said, “Righto, all aboard” and they all jumped in, squashed in.’ As Terry began letting out the clutch, a huge gum tree landed on the cabin, pinning him against the steering wheel. His little sister, Colleen, had been kneeling down watching the bus pull away through the back window. She was suddenly trapped under

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the roof. ‘The others bailed out across the bonnet,’ Terry continues. ‘Estelle had a cut foot, I think she had to have a couple of stitches. She ran home and got some help.’ Anthony headed across a paddock to seek assistance from the neighbouring McGrane family, arriving at their front door lathered in sweat. Colleen and Terry waited in the car until Jim, his brothers and Tom McGrane arrived to cut them from the wreck. The men removed the steering wheel and Terry was able to clamber out. But Colleen remained in a life-and-death situation. Eventually a crane, driven by truck from Ungarie, arrived at the scene and a delicate operation began to break open the ute without dislodging the tree. Terry looked on, his heart racing. ‘If the tree moved another fraction it would have crushed her head.’ Finally there was good news as Col emerged battered but alive. Her head was swollen and she took a few days to recover. Up at the house, Edna breathed enormous sighs of relief. Away from such dramas, Edna’s cooking is always fondly mentioned by the Daniher children. Her main meals often featured home-grown lamb and vegies. Roasts, grilled chops and pies were her specialty. Chris remembers he did not taste exotic fare like spaghetti until he moved to Melbourne. Dessert always made use of the fruit growing on the trees around the house. The ‘Daniher Delight’ was among the kids’ favourite dishes. It involved placing a couple of WeetBix in a bowl, then smothering them in stewed apricots or peaches. It was topped off with cream and custard. Edna’s hearty fare fuelled, and on some occasions hindered, the boys’ efforts on the sports fields. ‘I remember a lot of times feeling bloody crook in games and that was primarily because we were always big eaters,’ Terry says. ‘I used to love my rice, milk and sugar, and I used to eat a belly full of rice before I went to footy. I was wondering why I was getting so crook in games, but it was just that gut full of rice. Mum always said ‘eat up, you’ve got a big afternoon. You know tea’s not till after dark, when you come home and milk the cows’. So you used to feast up but it was to your detriment.’ Jim’s constant focuses were work and footy. Having managed to bring Aussie Rules into the schools, he set about establishing an organised Northern Riverina junior league. In the late 1960s, when Terry was approaching the end of his primary schooling, Jim formed

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Under-12 and Under-16 teams in Ungarie and encouraged other clubs in the district to do the same. Once the competition started, he became the local king of the kids. ‘I recruited them, coached them, picked the teams, marked the ground and umpired. I was the only one interested.’ His brothers, Jack and Leo, actually did lend a hand, but Jim was very much the boss, and footy’s driving force. While he was still playing in the seniors himself, Jim’s work with the young players added to his standing in both Ungarie and the broader football community. He became well known for his habit of writing the teams on the inside of a Cornflakes box. During the games, he would stand on the sidelines scribbling names on the cardboard. The following weekend he would use a new box. With 11 children to feed, there was never a shortage of such material. ‘We used to go through a shit-load of Cornflakes,’ Anthony says. ‘Every time we’d go shopping Dad would buy a carton of Cornflakes. It used to measure a metre by a metre by a metre. We couldn’t get it through the checkout, we’d always have to drive around the back to get it out of the loading bay. That’s how we bought things. Always in bulk. It was so embarrassing.’ There are many locally famous stories from the days when the Daniher boys — including the sons of Jim, Jack and Leo — formed the backbone of an almost unbeatable Under-16 combination. Numbers were short one weekend because many kids from Ungarie had travelled away to a junior Rugby League carnival. Six Danihers and a friend took on 13 players from Lake Cargelligo. The Danihers won. Jim was not an overbearing father. He wanted his boys to be hard at the ball but he never put too much pressure on them. Nor did he ever offer much in the way of encouragement. Yet under his tutelage, Ungarie won nine consecutive Under-16 premierships. ‘We had a great crop of kids,’ says Jim. ‘We’ll never get another crop like that.’ As reward for their efforts on the football field, Jim would each year take a couple of the boys to Melbourne for the VFL grand final. His position as secretary of the Northern Riverina League gave him yearly access to tickets. ‘They were only standing room tickets,’ Anthony remembers, ‘so by half-time you’d be standing on cans trying to see.’ These marathon trips — Jim’s one annual holiday — fuelled his sons’ ambitions to play in the big time.

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While Aussie Rules was very much their favourite code, Jim’s sons followed in his footsteps by playing some Rugby League. They featured in some school games and often took part in the many knockout tournaments that were held throughout the Riverina, where the make-up of teams was decided by weight rather than age. Not surprisingly, the boys all showed plenty of talent. Terry developed quite a love for League, which endures to this day. By the time he was old enough to play against men, Ungarie’s club had folded. So, for one season in 1972, he ran out with Lake United’s Under-16 League team every Sunday in the Group 20 junior competition, travelling to big towns like Leeton, Narrandera and Griffith, the latter more than two hours’ drive away. In the same year, Terry’s best mate, Mark McGrane, travelled south to play with West Wyalong. They remember it was a ‘ding-dong battle’ when the two sides met. ‘Quite often you had bark off your knees from the day before,’ he recalls. ‘You put grease on your wounds, on your forehead, on your eyebrows. You were pretty stiff and sore on Monday. It would take you all week to get over it.’ Terry gave up on his brief flirtation with League the following year when he began to show his full potential as a Rules player by consistently holding down a position in Ungarie’s senior team. Aged 15, he played alongside his father, aged 44. Such footballing longevity is surprisingly common in Ungarie. Of the 1973 team, rover Lindsay Henley did not retire until 44. Ruckman Harry Rowling continued until he was 45, by which time he had run out with both his sons. Almost three decades later, Terry would finally wind up his playing career aged 42. With Jim at full-back most weeks and Terry in the centre, Ungarie finished third on the ladder. The first semi-final was held on the sandy surface at Four Corners, with the Magpies taking on Yoogali, a team based on the outskirts of Griffith. ‘Centre’, writing in the West Wyalong Advocate, certainly liked what he saw that afternoon. Australian Rules fans, who in some instances travelled up to 100 miles to witness the opening games of the 1973 finals series and ringed the Four Corners oval three cars deep, were treated, under perfect weather conditions, to three clashes worthy of the occasion. The piece

YOU PLAY ANYTHING WHEN YOU’RE YOUNG

35

de resistance, the semi-final between Ungarie and Yoogali, with the winner eligible for further honours, provided football equal to, if not superior to, contests often decided in the cities. Both sides provided fans with one of the most open and best examples of amateur football ever decided in the Riverina.

‘Centre’ was surely overstating things just a fraction, although it was a great day for Ungarie. In a surprise move, Jim Daniher started the match up forward, booted the Magpies’ first goal and finished with five. Terry, then a gangly yet courageous teenager, kicked three. However, late in the game the pair were involved in a passage of play that has become family legend. ‘I was getting too old,’ Jim says. ‘I got the ball and there was a bloody gap there a mile wide. It was closed by the time I got to it.’ Jim was crunched, badly injuring his shoulder. ‘He wouldn’t handpass to Terry,’ Edna chips in. ‘The cheeky little 16-year-old kid reckoned his dad should handpass to him,’ Jim retorts. ‘I never even bloody saw him. I never had a handball in my life.’ It is certainly true that handballs were few and far between in those days. A player had to be in deep trouble before he would elect to dispose of the Sherrin by hand. Ungarie won the preliminary final two weeks later. Still battling constant pain, Jim refused to rule himself out of the grand final. Each evening he would come home from a day’s work and lie on the floor with a red heat lamp aimed at his shoulder. Anthony remembers him constantly rubbing lotion into the injured joint, willing it to get better. Jim declared himself fit for the big match against Lake Cargelligo. His arm would have to have fallen off for him to miss it. Unfortunately the recuperative powers of his middle-aged body were not up to the challenge. He was a shadow of his usual dominant self. ‘The local doctor gave me some painkillers in a bottle but I reckon he only had water in it,’ Jim recalls. ‘Never done a bloody thing, not a thing.’ Terry put in a typical hard-running, high-flying performance but Ungarie lost to the Tigers by 65 points. Battered and bruised, Jim retired. He was four months shy of his forty-fifth birthday. It was time for his sons to step up.

Anthony, Neale and Terry

CHAPTER FOUR

SOMETHING A BIT SPECIAL

A

skinny kid with freckles on his nose, a big mop of hair and a

toothy grin, Terrence John Daniher did not immediately look like a sporting champion in the making. But the true extent of his talents became clear in 1974, and it was not only on the football field. During the summer he dominated the local cricket competition with both bat and ball. A fast bowler, he often picked up hauls of five or six wickets against teams like West Wyalong Teachers. Terry had always shown plenty of promise as a cricketer. Some years before, when playing for the West Wyalong Association in the Under-15 Newham Cup, he had smashed 127 in a game against Grenfell, then backed up by taking three wickets. Earlier still, in 1971, he, Neale and their first cousin Pat, led Ungarie to a junior premiership when they bowled out Easts for 18, twice. Terry took seven wickets in the first innings and another three in the second, then opened the batting. But footy was the game Terry loved most and the winter of ’74 was a breakthrough time. At just 16 years of age he became the dominant player in the Northern Riverina League. Lining up in the centre each week alongside his mates McGrane, ‘Red’ McLintock, Lou Henley and Noel Ward, Terry shone out in one of Ungarie’s finest teams. Without a premiership for 13 years, the Magpies had scored a major pre-season coup by snaring renowned hard-man Harry Sanson as coach. From a staunch Lake Cargelligo family, Sanson played in

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the ’73 grand final win over Ungarie. However, he decided to spend the season travelling 85 kilometres south for the princely sum of $24 per game. Built like a bulldozer, he arrived with a reputation for toughness and talent, having been judged best on ground while playing for a Riverina representative team in a practice match against South Melbourne in 1972. In something of a twist, he spent the ’74 season playing Rules against his brothers and mates from home, then running out beside them in League games each Sunday. Sanson modestly says he knew nothing about coaching. He just put the players in their best positions and told them to have a go. With him crashing packs and Terry running all day, Ungarie stormed through the home-and-away matches, finishing on top of the ladder. Terry confirmed his rising star status by jointly winning the league best-andfairest, the same trophy Jim had won three times. Not even a countback could separate the teenager from Four Corners legend Terry Ireland, who claimed the award for a third successive year. ‘There wasn’t much of him but Terry would jump into packs and come out with the ball, over and over again,’ remembers his ’74 team-mate Lindsay Henley. ‘He was just one of those blokes who knew where to be.’ Midway through the season Terry came to the attention of VFL scouts for the first time, when he was nominated by the Northern Riverina League for selection in the New South Wales Under-17 Teal Cup team. Try-outs were in Sydney, so Terry and Jim travelled 600 kilometres east to give it a shot. In pouring rain, Terry excelled in the trial game and won his place in the squad to play at the carnival in Canberra. Originally the Teal Cup was awarded to the winner of an annual match played between the NSW and Queensland junior state teams. The first such game was played in 1953 but strangely it took another ten years before the rivalry was resumed. In 1973, moves commenced to make the Teal Cup a national carnival. Initially, the ACT was invited to also field a team. Heading into the 1974 matches, Queensland had won the cup in each of the 12 years it had been contested. Terry won a spot in the New South Wales squad alongside fellow Ungarie player Peter Bryant, a strongly built ruckman. The team was captained by Ardlethan’s Greg Smith, a ruck-rover who would later

SOMETHING A BIT SPECIAL

39

play 127 games with Sydney and Collingwood, his ability to play while injured earning him the nickname ‘Bionic Man’. Most other members were also from south of the Barassi Line, areas like Leeton and Albury. Only three were from Sydney. Played at Manuka Oval, the games were fierce contests. Jim, Edna and the kids all travelled to Canberra in the old station wagon to watch. A passionate supporter of New South Wales footy, Jim was delighted when Terry’s team won its way into the final against the perennial title holders. Queensland’s team was built around two giant ruckmen, and when New South Wales struggled to match them, it seemed a hopeless cause. ‘Pete Bryant had a bad ankle, he couldn’t play, and the other fella dogged it,’ Jim recalls. ‘So they had to put Terry in there.’ At three-quarter time Jim walked out to the huddle. Just a small margin separated the teams. Terry looked bruised and battered, with a big bump showing on his forehead. ‘What the hell’s going on?’ Jim asked. ‘Don’t worry Dad, we’ve got ’em,’ Terry replied. The final quarter was a rugged affair. New South Wales led by a point when one of the Queensland ruckmen looked set to take a vital mark in defence. But Terry flew in from the side, hauled in the ball with one grab, played on, and kicked the match-winning goal. For those few triumphant moments after the game, Jim was the proudest father in Australia. New South Wales had pulled off an America’s Cup–like achievement. Queensland was forced to hand over the trophy for the first time since it was struck. From there came more representative football when Terry was chosen in the Northern Riverina team for the minor league championships. The NRFL lost to the Hume League by 40 points at Ungarie, but Terry, playing in the centre, was his team’s best contributor. ‘Daniher was easily best afield to half-time and continued to be dominant even when Hume were in no danger of defeat in the last quarter,’ read the West Wyalong Advocate match report. When Terry returned to Ungarie, it was finals time. In the second semi-final Ungarie took on Harry Sanson’s old team, Lake Cargelligo. Sanson had a strategy to ensure victory. The Lake’s best players were his three brothers, but they were prone to losing interest in the game and concentrating more on fighting. From the first bounce Harry

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baited and goaded his siblings. He wore a few hits, yet as expected they lost the plot and the Magpies coasted to victory. Tullibigeal then scored an upset win in the preliminary, setting up a clash of the arch-rivals in the grand final. The big day at Lake Cargelligo began in slightly farcical circumstances when the main oval was declared too wet for play. The game was subsequently shifted to a ground that usually hosted junior matches and the players were forced to change in tents. Nevertheless, a large crowd turned out and Ungarie thrilled its many supporters. Presented with his best-and-fairest medal before the opening bounce, Terry, who had just turned 17, capped off a brilliant season by booting two goals in a best-on-ground performance. The Magpies won by 6 goals, with Harry Sanson also among the best players. It had been some year for Sanson. He had also featured in a League premiership with Lake United and played in the second row for Riverina in a representative match against a touring Great Britain team. The premiership was celebrated long and hard. Among those leading the festivities was Peter Miller, who famously drank a bootful of beer, to the delight of his team-mates. Some years later he would turn his back on such shenanigans and become the local parish priest. For Terry, things could not have been better. His League medal meant he was hot property. He was also enjoying a growth spurt, which helped him mix it with the big boys. Terry received letters from many major league clubs, including North Wagga from the powerful Farrer League. The Saints counted among their committeemen George Watt, who had previously owned a store in Ungarie. However, Terry had left school after completing Year 10 and wanted to work full-time on the farm. Travelling across to Wagga was ruled out. Closer to home, two clubs from the strong South West League, which then played its matches on Sundays, began chasing his signature. Terry tossed up whether to join Leeton, 160 kilometres from Ungarie, or Ariah Park–Mirrool, a drive of only 120 kilometres. Eventually, he chose the shorter journey, although it still meant a 240-kilometre round trip to get to training. Terry’s decision was made easier when Ariah Park–Mirrool pulled off a huge recruiting feat by luring local heroes Rick Quade and Jim Prentice home from South Melbourne.

SOMETHING A BIT SPECIAL

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Just 24 and in the prime of his footballing life, Quade had grown up on a farm outside Ariah Park. The youngest of 15 children, his older brothers had been friends with Jim Daniher for many years. Quade was appointed coach, with 25-year-old Prentice his assistant. ‘I was a bit disillusioned with South Melbourne, the way they were heading,’ he says, recalling his move back to the country. ‘I couldn’t see them going places at all and there was an opportunity to buy into the property up home. And there were lifestyle reasons. I was pretty disillusioned with the city at the time.’ Ariah Park had finished on the bottom of the ladder in 1974. Now the Bombers were the pre-season’s most talked about club. Their signing of Terry Daniher, who still shared a bedroom at home with Anthony and Chris, created yet more excitement. Unsure if he had the talent to mix it with the region’s best, Terry looked to Jim for advice. Jim was very keen for him to learn from two players fresh out of the VFL and told his son to ‘go over there and have a go because you just never know’. Ungarie’s committee members also encouraged their young star to try his luck at the higher level. Prior to the opening game of the season, local footy reporter Peter Baker tipped big things for Jim and Edna’s oldest son: Ariah Park–Mirrool’s new captain–coach Ricky Quade will not be the only player keenly watched by supporters against Ganmain at Ariah Park tomorrow. Rangy 17-year-old Terry Daniher will be making his South West League debut and his performance will be of great interest. Daniher, who is a cousin to Mike and Peter Daniher, both of whom play with Turvey Park, is predicted to be VFL material.

Terry played on the half-forward flank in that match against Ganmain and in later games alternated between the ruck and centre half-forward. ‘He was unbelievable, he really had something a bit special about him,’ remembers Quade. ‘The things that stood out to me most were his tremendous courage, his marking and his goal kicking. He had great accuracy for a young fella. He was a great mark for his size and he had a tremendous leap. He didn’t look very big so I think a lot of people underestimated him. He was a real terrier. In country footy

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then a lot of blokes would go for a mark and if they missed it that would be it. But Terry’s second and third efforts just astounded everyone. You could tell he’d played a bit of rugby the way he’d go barrelling in after the ball and always come out with it. The other thing that stood out was his football nous. Most of the young kids were like a bull at a gate, which Terry was a bit, but he always knew where to go. He never got many easy kicks but he always had a bit of time and space.’ Quade recalls that for Terry there was only one way to play footy. Flat out. ‘The grounds in those days were pretty hard, dusty and dirty and Terry would come off looking an absolute mess after a game. He’d be battered and bruised but it never worried him. He’d always play the next week.’ On the rare occasions he made it to training, the level of commitment was exactly the same. ‘He couldn’t get over to training a hell of a lot but when he did it was full-on. He didn’t muck around. It was as though he was playing a game of footy, he was pretty serious about it.’ His consistently impressive form led to selection in the South West interleague team. He handled the step-up in class with relative ease and was judged best on ground in a match at Narrandera. The effort caught the eye of South Melbourne, which had the Riverina as part of its recruiting zone. Today, similarly talented youngsters are taken to draft camps, given media training and often pursued by potential managers. In Terry’s case, South secretary Max LingwoodSmith simply sent him a letter and a pair of cufflinks as reward for his performance. ‘South Melbourne are very interested in you coming to Melbourne next year to play for us and, as soon as I can, I would like to come up to your farm and talk to you and your parents re your future,’ Lingwood-Smith wrote. ‘We are led to believe you are interested in going to school to learn engineering for a few years and perhaps work in an engineering shop so that you could do almost all the maintenance work on the farm. With regards to these courses, when I receive brochures I will send or bring them up to you.’ With so much happening it was a challenge for Terry to concentrate on running out each week with Ariah Park–Mirrool. The Bombers had not made the finals since 1968, when Prentice and

SOMETHING A BIT SPECIAL

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Quade were teenage stars. But with their gun recruits all firing, they became the league’s glamour team, picking up ‘an army of supporters’ according to the local paper. Terry was one of the boys, both on and off the field, especially once he turned 18. ‘Having to drive home was the hard part,’ he remembers. ‘You’d get on the turps and you’d be bloody knocked up. She was dangerous and it got too bloody dangerous. I knocked a white post over one night because I was half nodding off.’ Eventually Terry came to his senses and began staying in Ariah Park on Sunday nights, where he was put up by footy club supporter Bill Pleming. ‘It was bloody good. You could have a real good drink and relax and enjoy the night. Back then the pubs were chock-a-block. They were great nights. There was always tucker on and you’d drink plenty of grog.’ The excitement continued into late August. After big wins over the likes of Grong Grong–Matong, Coolamon and arch-rivals Ardlethan, Ariah Park–Mirrool finished third on the ladder and faced Griffith in the much-anticipated first semi-final at Narrandera. The player profiles in that day’s South West League record listed Terry as 6" 2' (188 cm) and 12 st 10 lbs (80 kg). His description read: ‘Ruckman. First year player. Outstanding potential with great mark and kick. One of AP–M’s reasons for rise to finals.’ The Bombers beat Griffith in a typically tough and fiery encounter, but in the preliminary final the added pressure and some less than ideal preparations took their toll. ‘We had a bit of a party there one night after a game and it was freezing cold and wet. We had a big fire going and we were all wrestling. Half of us finished up with the flu after that.’ Ariah Park–Mirrool was bundled out of the premiership race by Turvey Park, a Wagga Wagga–based team led by Terry’s cousins (sons of Jack) Mick and Peter Daniher. Turvey Park went on and won the premiership. ‘We should’ve bloody done better than what we did,’ Terry says. ‘That was bloody disappointing. They were just too good on the day.’

CHAPTER FIVE

A YOUNG BLOK E COMING THROUGH

T

erry’s disappointment at Ariah Park–Mirrool’s finals exit was

soon pushed to the back of his mind when he and six mates headed off on a cruise to Fiji. It was a torrid couple of weeks, as the lads spent most the time determining their drinking capabilities. When Terry returned to the farm, a letter from Lingwood-Smith was sitting on the kitchen bench, an official invitation to try out for South Melbourne’s 1976 squad. ‘No worries,’ Terry thought. ‘Here’s another fortnight holiday.’ The Swans had been won over by a glowing endorsement from Quade, who had decided to give the VFL another shot and subsequently won the ’76 best-and-fairest. South was under new leadership, with businessman Craig Kimberley now president, and legendary St Kilda and Richmond player Ian Stewart beginning his second season as coach. Quade was deputy vice-captain, under skipper Peter Bedford and vice-captain John Rantall. ‘I said I’d be bringing two blokes down with me,’ he says. ‘One was Terry Daniher, the other was Leo Lucas [of East Wagga], who didn’t end up playing a game. I told them Terry just had to come down and that’s how he got started.’ In January, after finishing the grain harvest on the farm, Terry headed to Melbourne with Lucas and a number of other hopefuls from the Riverina. The young men were given accommodation at the

A YOUNG BLOKE COMING THROUGH

45

Bayview Hotel in Cecil Street, not far from South’s headquarters at the Lake Oval in Albert Park. Living upstairs from an unlimited supply of beer did not exactly help their efforts to win over Stewart on the training track. However, the triple Brownlow Medallist was impressed with Terry, and with Neil Durnan from Narrandera. After the first couple of practice matches, Terry felt certain Durnan would be selected by the Swans and he would not. But Durnan’s efforts ended in disaster when he seriously injured his knee on the eve of the season. In a flash, the boy from Ungarie was signed up. Aged 18, he was, for at least one year, a VFL player. This was many years before the introduction of the player draft. In fact, Ariah Park–Mirrool was not compelled to relinquish its rights to Terry, despite his agreement with South. Terry had to lodge a clearance form, completing the same process as he would if simply seeking clearance to play with another club in the bush. Hoping he would change his mind and return to the bush, Ariah Park–Mirrool did not immediately clear Terry to the Swans so he needed match permits to play the first two rounds of the VFL season with the South Melbourne reserves. And it turned out the city was indeed making Terry homesick. After his second game with South on Saturday 10 April, he drove more than 500 kilometres north and lined up in the Bombers’ senior team on the Sunday. ‘I was more than happy to stay at Ariah Park for another year,’ Terry explains. ‘I was still coming to grips with whether I should go to South. Any opportunity to go back home, I jumped at it.’ Terry felt he owed Ariah Park–Mirrool something. The brilliant team of ’75 had disintegrated. Quade was back in the city, while Jim Prentice had suffered a serious injury. The benefits of a VFL pre-season showed. Terry was best on ground, booting five goals, as the Bombers beat Ardlethan by 25 points. However, a week later he received a stern letter from South, basically saying he should either stay focused on the VFL or go home for good. He decided to give the big league his all. Needing accommodation for another six months, he arranged to stay on at the Bayview, where Kerry and Robyn Gawley took care of him. ‘I lived upstairs in one of the rooms and Robyn used to cook for me,’ Terry says. ‘I only had to make myself breakfast before I went off to work.’ Needing a job to supplement his meagre footy payments,

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Terry and fellow Riverina recruit Colin Hounsell, a carpenter by trade, were initially given odd jobs around the club, maintaining the rustic facilities at the Lake Oval. Terry was also sent out to a number of schools to conduct clinics with junior footballers. He will never forget one of the first, when he and Richmond youngster Cameron Clayton were sent to a primary school but wet weather meant the children had to stay inside. ‘We would’ve been OK if we could’ve taken the kids out on the ground and kicked the footy,’ Terry remembers. ‘But we couldn’t do it so we had to go in and talk to them. That put us on the spot a bit. We were pretty rusty. But we weathered the storm and got through it alright.’ After a few weeks, Terry gained employment with transport company TNT and began to settle into city life. ‘It was very hard to get a good job. You had to get a labouring-type job to be able to get time off to get down to training at five. It didn’t worry me. I was a labouring type of guy anyway. Dad always told me, “You get a job and anything you make out of footy you put in the bank.” ’ Some promising performances in the Swans reserves followed and Terry worked his way into contention for a senior game. It was only round 8 when he received the call-up. South rover Norm Goss had been struggling with injury, and despite being named to play Hawthorn when the team was announced on Thursday, his condition failed to improve and he withdrew late on the Friday night. As first emergency, Terry was drafted into the side. The selection was an even bigger shock for Jim, who was in the middle of sowing his grain crops at Ungarie. He got the news at 11 pm from South secretary Ray Lord. Terry rang the Ungarie pub to tell his mates. ‘You’d better get down here,’ he told the boys. ‘It might be the only game I play.’ Terry became the talk of the town and many Ungarie locals sent telegrams wishing him well. But desperate to see his boy make his VFL debut, Jim, along with a couple of Terry’s best friends, rose in the early hours of Saturday 22 May 1976, caught a bus to Wagga Wagga, followed by a train to Melbourne. They arrived at Princes Park, then the Hawks’ home ground, just in time to see Terry run out alongside Quade and players like Mark Browning, Graham Teasdale, Gary Brice and Rantall, all sporting big hair and sideburns. Also in the South team that day was a man who would make a bigger impression off the field.

A YOUNG BLOKE COMING THROUGH

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Denis Pagan, later a dual premiership coach at North Melbourne, lined up in the back pocket and amassed 17 possessions. Although the Hawks were sitting second on the ladder with a 7–1 record, a wet and wintry day meant the Ungarie contingent was among a crowd of just 7827. The Swans, then eleventh on the table having won two of their eight matches, were no-one’s idea of a drawcard team. With Melbourne sloshing through one of its wettest winters on record, the ground resembled a bog. Two months shy of his nineteenth birthday, Terry lined up on a half-forward flank, wearing number 40, against Ian Bremner, a tough, fearless and deadly serious premiership defender. ‘He was all oiled up ready to go,’ Terry says, remembering standing beside his veteran opponent. In a torrid game, the young man from the bush held his own, collecting 15 kicks, four handpasses and three marks. Yet the Hawks were untroubled, winning with 60 points, with Michael Moncrief booting four goals and Leigh Matthews three. Moncrief would finish the year with 94 majors and the Hawks would go on to win the premiership, defeating North Melbourne in the grand final. Jim began the arduous journey home unsure if his oldest son would make the grade. The South selectors reacted to the loss by dropping Terry back to the reserves, where he would stay for the rest of the season, sometimes playing on fading stars like Peter McKenna and Royce Hart. ‘Poor old Royce actually played on me one day at centre half-back,’ Terry remembers. ‘The poor bugger couldn’t turn, he needed a paddock to turn around. His knee was buggered. But I looked up to those guys and it was just great having a run against them. They might not have thought much of it, being in the seconds, but I was rapt just to be out on the football paddock with them, even though they were about finished and I was a young bloke coming through.’ Despite being confined to the reserves, Terry grew to love the atmosphere at South and the camaraderie between the boys. Even training sessions were fun. ‘They were good times down at South, I thoroughly enjoyed it,’ he recalls. ‘I’ll never forget the runs around the lake. On Mondays we’d go for a gallop around the lake to warm up and you’d hear a ‘plop’. You never ran on the inside of the track because you’d finish up in the water. Some bloke would nudge you in there. I was a bit lucky, I never finished up in there.’

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Where Terry was among the club’s best was off the field. ‘I was having a good time alright,’ he remembers. ‘I got hooked up in the lifestyle a bit.’ It was not great for his fitness, but going out on the town with the older, better-known players opened his eyes to a whole new world of entertainment. Barry Goodingham, Barry Round, Vic Aanensen, Ricky Quade and Greg Miller (later an influential football administrator, first at South, then at North Melbourne and Richmond) were key members of the gang. ‘You had to do your initiation and earn their respect but they were always very good to me, the senior core. They were all terrific blokes. We had a real good club.’ Good times continued after the season and Terry furthered his education by heading away on his footy trip to Fiji. In something of a New Age move, the players voted to take their wives with them. It was the first and last time that happened. ‘It was the biggest mistake they could’ve ever made,’ Terry says, with a grin. ‘I’ve never seen so many blokes blueing with their missus. It was a good trip for us single blokes. We had a bloody good time. But, oh gee, there was some strife there. “Never again,” they said after that. A footy trip was just for the boys.’ After the drama-filled two weeks, Terry headed home to Ungarie, where he met his latest sibling for the first time. At the age of 42, Edna had given birth to Fiona, her seventh daughter. Working on the harvest, Terry reflected on his first year in the big smoke. It had been an up-and-down affair but he was not about to give up on his dream. So while he spent much of the summer driving truckloads of wheat and barley to the silos, playing cricket and drinking with his mates, Terry also trained like he never had before. He marked out running tracks along the dusty roads around Hillview and sprinted up hills over and over again. Some days, when ploughing a paddock far from the house in preparation for the winter crop planting, he would finish his shift then run home through the stubble. ‘You’d work and work until dark and then you’d run home between the wattle trees in a pair of old runners or your workin’ boots.’ Tiny insects posed the greatest obstacle when running at dusk. ‘If there was some rain around you’d be running home and you’d be covered in bloody insects. I used to go straight down the dam and have a swim to get the bugs off me. Other times I’d run home and it would be pitch dark. If it was a full moon that was a bonus.’

CHAPTER SIX

A K ID NA MED TER RY DA NIHER

W

hen terry arrived back at South Melbourne for training in

January 1977, he was ready for action. He began boarding with South supporter Vi Woods in Moorabbin rather than living at the pub. Vi provided a motherly influence for many young South players over the years. The benefits of Terry’s improved fitness and diet were subsequently evident when he kicked two goals and was named in the best players as South easily defeated Geelong in a practice match at Kardinia Park. With Quade now captain and pushing his case in match committee meetings, Terry was selected at centre half-forward in the Swans’ team to play Melbourne in round 1. In what turned out to be a sign of things to come, 21-year-old emerging star Graham Teasdale booted eight goals as South thumped the Demons by 69 points, in front of just over 22 000 people at the MCG. Playing just his second VFL game, Terry suddenly seemed right at home. Wearing number 2, he booted a goal and set up numerous others, leading Harry Beitzel to sing his praises in the Truth. ‘They have many promising young players, especially a kid named Terry Daniher, who looks a real chance at centre half-forward, the toughest position on the ground,’ he wrote. Round 2 was even better. A 23 000–strong crowd crammed into the Lake Oval to see South demolish Essendon by 77 points: 23.13 (175) to 15.8 (98). Matched against one of the Bombers’ toughest defenders, Terry booted four goals, collected 20 kicks and hauled in five marks.

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Tony Peek’s match report in The Age, under the headline ‘bombed’ by slick swans, summed up the breakthrough performance. ‘Daniher, 19, . . . gave hard-hitting Ron Andrews one of his worst ever drubbings,’ Peek wrote. He awarded Terry best-on-ground honours and an 8 out of 10 rating, ahead of Teasdale, who booted another nine goals, and Quade, who picked up 31 possessions. Essendon’s hierarchy headed back to the northern suburbs believing they had witnessed a champion in the making. After only two September appearances in the previous 32 years, South fans began talking finals. Suddenly Terry was a big ticket in a very big town. He was invited to appear on Channel 7’s much-loved Sunday morning program, World of Sport. ‘I used to love getting in there with Louie, old Jack Dyer and Bobby Davis,’ Terry says. ‘For me, being a country bloke, it was a real experience. Watching them on the set was just great. And they’d come out with the salami for you. That was the award!’ The following week Herald reporter Steve Perkin paid Terry a visit at the Sanyo warehouse where he was working. Published with a photo of Terry wearing a checked shirt, a mop of hair and carrying a box of Sanyo electrical goods on each shoulder, the article revealed it was a make-or-break year after the disappointment of ’76. ‘I wasn’t as fit as I should have been,’ Terry told Perkin. ‘When the season finished I went back to my parents’ wheat farm . . . and made up my mind that I had to get serious about my football or give it away. My dad wanted me to stay and work on the farm because he didn’t think I could make it in league football.’ Terry put the brilliant effort against the Bombers down to improved fitness. ‘If I make it this year I will stay. If I don’t, I will go back to the farm. Melbourne doesn’t grab me very much. I’m just down here for the football and every chance I get I go home.’ With the Swans second on the ladder, there was no time for homesickness, although the reality check soon came. In round 3, before almost 26 000 people at the Lake Oval, South started well, using a combination of pace and handball to boot the opening four goals. However, Richmond proved too tough and too experienced, running them down to win a great game by 12 points. Terry was held goalless. Playing in the ruck, Neil Balme was best on ground for the Tigers.

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One week later South’s season was already faltering badly. Two games were played on Easter Monday, with almost 92 000 packing the MCG for Richmond v Collingwood, while out at Waverley a little over a quarter of that number saw Geelong easily account for the Swans. Terry kicked two goals, yet none of the players escaped the wrath of Ian Stewart after the loss. ‘Last week was poor, today was pathetic,’ the coach told the assembled media. Signs of improvement were hard to find the following Saturday when Carlton made it three losses in a row for South. Now even the scribes began lashing out. In the Sunday Press Greg Hobbs wrote: ‘If South Melbourne think they are good enough to reach this year’s finals then they are barking up the wrong tree.’ A round 8 clash with Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval gave the Swans a chance to prove themselves and they started like a team inspired, kicking five goals to two in the opening quarter. They still led by 10 points at the long break. The last half was a disaster. South did not kick a goal. Hawthorn put through 12. Shifted to the back pocket, Terry held his own to again feature in the best players. Fellow rising star Terry O’Neill, a youngster from Narrandera in the Riverina recruiting zone, also battled manfully in the backline. But feeling let down by his established stars, Ian Stewart erupted after the game. ‘Some of my players are fat cats, fed on caviar and cream — if they lived in the Depression they’d starve.’ It remains one of the great postmatch diatribes. Terry recalls that Stewart’s ranting often distracted both the players and the coach. ‘He used to love joining in at training and getting out and kicking the footy. He’d always do the warm-up with us. I think he wished he was still playing a lot of the time. The only deficiency with him was that he rode every bump, he got very uptight when things didn’t go right. In the heat of the game I don’t know whether we frustrated him or I frustrated him, everything would upset him a bit. He looked like he was on the verge of exploding a couple of times. I think that took a bit of the gloss off his performances and spoilt them on occasions.’ Now controlling games in the ruck, Teasdale helped South regain its respectability. He was inspirational in a courageous win over finals contender Collingwood at Victoria Park, which Stewart labelled the club’s greatest victory in a decade. The Swans then upset North

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Melbourne and their season was alive again. Terry missed both wins after being replaced in the side by debutant forward Michael Smith. A gangly kid, Smith took his chance against the Magpies, booting five goals in his first VFL game. In a rude shock he was held goalless the next week and then dropped back to the reserves. Terry was recalled in his place for the round 12 match against Melbourne. Picked as twentieth man, he did not let the selectors down. On a day when the Lake Oval lived up to its name, players slogged it out in a sea of mud as rain poured down all afternoon. Having kicked seven behinds in the last quarter, the Swans trailed by a point at the 22 minute mark. Out of a scrimmage Quade kicked the heavy ball deep into South’s attacking area. Desperate to make an impact after coming on at the final change, Terry held his ground and grabbed a vital mark, just metres from goal. Calmly, he went back and put it straight through. The Swans hung on to win by that straight kick: 8.22 (70) to 9.10 (64). Some serious celebrations followed the narrow victory. South’s improved on-field fortunes had not come at the expense of the players’ enjoyment. Following matches, most would go out until the early hours of the morning, before resuming the festivities on Sunday afternoon by drinking Melbourne Bitter tinnies in the outer at a VFA game. They usually went to matches at either Sandringham, where they watched close friends and former Swans Rod Coelli, Max Robertson, Alf Bews and Greg Miller, or Port Melbourne. Terry and his mates loved seeing the wild men of the Association like Fred Cook. The start of the working week rarely put a stop to the South boys’ ongoing party. A gang of the lads who lived in the southern suburbs — Terry O’Neill, Colin Hounsell and Tony Franklin among them — would often gather at the Post Office Hotel in St Kilda after training on Monday nights. ‘There’d be an army of us,’ Terry says. ‘We used to have a ball. You’d be talking about what you got up to on the weekend. There were always plenty of stories. That was the thing I really enjoyed about footy, the social aspect of the game.’ The coaches were unaware of these sessions until Terry’s cover was blown by his unsuspecting host mum. When he failed to arrive home for dinner one Monday, Vi became worried he might have been involved in an accident. She phoned the club. ‘Is Terry still down there training?’ she innocently asked. It was after 9 pm.

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‘No, training’s been finished for hours,’ she was told curtly. The person on the other end of the phone knew exactly what Terry would be doing. It was not a matter of whether he was partaking in a few cold ones, just where. Before the next training session, Terry recalls he and his drinking buddies were given a very stern talking to by Stewart. ‘You blokes aren’t fair dinkum,’ they were told. It was fair enough. After all, the team’s finals hopes were in peril. For round 17, South travelled the few hundred metres across Albert Park to meet Fitzroy at the Junction Oval. Before just 10 200 people, Teasdale dominated from start to finish as the Swans booted nine goals to one in the first half and went on to keep their finals hopes alive with a 62-point win. Back in the starting 18 (at full-forward no less), Terry booted 3.3 from nine kicks. In another big win the following Saturday, this time over St Kilda, South’s forward line drew high praise from Herald reporter Rod Nicholson. ‘The dominance came in the form of brilliant high marking, where Dean, Teasdale, Round and Daniher out-pointed their opponents with demoralising aerial supremacy,’ he wrote. By now, Jim’s grain crops were planted and prospering (wet conditions prevailed throughout the ’70s), so he travelled to Melbourne on a couple of occasions and watched his son in action. Anthony, now 14, and Chris, 11, usually travelled with him. When they reached Melbourne, Jim was so nervous his car would be stolen, he opened the bonnet and removed the distributor cap each time he parked it. He would repeat this habit on each subsequent visit to the big smoke. Anthony and Chris both found the deeds of their older brother inspirational. Upon their return from one trip, Chris confidently announced to his sisters: ‘I’ll play in the VFL one day.’ Up at the farm Edna still had her hands full, caring for eight children aged between 14 and nine months. She spent much of her free time each Saturday sitting beside the radio, waiting for VFL updates during the ABC broadcasts of NSW Rugby League games. If the scores were close, she would head out into the garden and prune some roses to calm her nerves. Much to her delight, the Swans’ two victories over Fitzroy and St Kilda were relatively straightforward affairs. However, round 19 would prove whether they were good enough to play in September. In

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the late ’70s, games were no tougher than those played against David Parkin’s star-studded Hawthorn side at VFL Park. Adding to South’s challenge, the Hawks were super-confident after winning the night series premiership four days earlier. It proved a classic contest. With just three kicks to his name, Terry was replaced at three-quarter time. From the interchange bench he witnessed a red and white stampede. O’Neill was best on ground as the Swans piled on five goals to one in the last quarter. Their supporters danced in the aisles, while the Monday newspapers printed pictures showing a beige-suited Stewart jumping for joy. Behind him, trainers grinned while lighting each other’s cigarettes. For a club that had featured in the finals just twice since World War II, these were halcyon days. South was in the top five and would stay there for another week with a scrappy win over Footscray at the Western Oval. Then came a huge setback, as seven days later the Swans were torn apart in the second half by Collingwood before a capacity crowd of almost 30 000 people at the Lake Oval. They dropped back to sixth place on the ladder as Carlton took their position in the five, despite a three-point loss to Richmond, which ensured the Tigers would be there at the business end of the season. With the Blues taking on seventh placed Footscray in the final home-and-away round, and South drawn to meet second-placed North Melbourne at Arden Street, most media outlets wrote off the Swans’ chances of pinching a spot in the finals. The Sporting Globe’s headline screamed ‘SWANS OUT. Five is set!’ Printed on the Globe’s iconic pink paper, the match report declared ‘it seems an impossible task for the Swans. It’s a desperate end to a great battle between three clubs for the last two positions in the final five.’ Terry’s form in the backline was solid, yet he knew there was fierce competition for places in the team. He was relieved to be selected in the side to play North Melbourne. For him and his team-mates, it was the biggest challenge of their football careers. Win and the season continued; lose and it was all over. At three-quarter time, a disaster loomed. South trailed by 23 points. Ian Stewart had just one trick left up his fashionable sleeve. The Swans’ coach had rested Teasdale in the forward line during the third term, aiming to have him fresh for a last quarter onslaught. It seemed a very risky plan. But it worked brilliantly.

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Teasdale returned to the ruck for the final 30 minutes and inspired his team to a remarkable victory. He dominated around the ground and booted a 60-metre goal, as South finished the game by booting six majors to one. ‘Don’t ever play cards, dice, roulette or even ludo with Ian Stewart,’ Lou Richards wrote in the Sun after the Swans’ 10-point win. ‘He’d have to be one of the best gamblers I’ve seen since Amarillo Slim.’ The South players left the field to a delirious ovation from their long-suffering supporters. And as news filtered through of Carlton’s upset loss to the Bulldogs, the party began. They were in the finals. There were murmurings of conspiracy theories, with Carlton accusing the Kangaroos of allowing South into the five at their expense. But Barassi was having none of such talk and to the Swans it mattered little. An elimination final meeting with September specialists Richmond awaited them. A premiership player with the Tigers, Stewart spent the week declaring his players would not be intimidated by a team celebrated for its toughness. Disappointed by his recent form, Terry was locked in a battle with Michael Smith for a spot in the line-up. After a couple of nervous training session he was given the news he wanted. ‘I remember Stewie coming over to me and saying “look we’re going with you mate because you played most of the year”,’ Terry says. For a young boy from outback New South Wales, it was a dream come true. His photo and a short profile was included in the special finals edition of the Footy Record (retailing for 40 cents), which featured a full-page advertisement for Marlboro cigarettes inside its front cover. Near the back was a report on the Ampol VFL Girl of the Year. The award had gone to 26-year-old payroll analyst Sue Sumner. The whole finals experience was new for almost everyone at the club. Only five players on South’s list — John Rantall, Gary Brice, Steve Hoffman, Greg Lambert and David McLeish — had featured in the club’s previous finals match in 1970. On that occasion more than 104 000 people had packed the MCG to see if legendary coach Norm Smith could guide the Swans to further glory. The result was a 53-point loss to St Kilda. South was the team on everyone’s lips as the first weekend of finals approached. The red and white frenzy lifted a notch when

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Teasdale (now 22) won the 50th Brownlow Medal, polling 59 votes (both umpires were then required to cast votes separately) to beat Richmond’s Kevin Bartlett by 14. Collingwood cult hero Billy Picken finished third. Originally from Charlton in north-central Victoria, Teasdale was one of South’s great recruiting successes, having been traded by Richmond for John Pitura in a deal that cost the Tigers dearly. It was not just Teasdale’s on-field form that was cause for celebration that night. His suede suit set a benchmark for men’s Brownlow fashion that has rarely been matched. Terry and many of Teasdale’s other team-mates gathered at the Golden Gate Hotel in Clarendon Street to toast his big win. ‘We weren’t to have a big night but we had to have a bit of a celebration,’ Terry says. Union heavyweight Bob Hawke and television presenter Mike Willessee were among the crowd at the pub. ‘The place was pretty packed and the beer was flowing.’ A further distraction came later in the week when South president Craig Kimberley (founder of the Just Jeans clothing company, who sold his stake in 2002 for $64 million) halted a training session to announce he was offering the players $30 000 towards an end-of-season trip to Hawaii if they beat the Tigers. ‘We regard next Saturday’s game against Richmond as the big one on the way to the premiership,’ Kimberley told The Age’s Jack Dunn shortly after. It proved very wishful thinking. In Terry’s own words, South was ‘beaten rotten’. Trailing by five points at half-time the Swans managed just one goal in the second half to Richmond’s six. Teasdale had been cleaned up early in the match by Tigers hard-man Merv Keane and had little impact on the contest. Such was Stewart’s confidence in Terry, he had started at full-forward opposed to young defender Noel Jenkinson. But he had a dirty day, collecting only nine possessions and booting one goal. With Jenkinson one of the best players on the ground, Terry was shifted to a half-forward flank where he was picked up by canny veteran Kevin Sheedy, who, along with Mick Malthouse, had been among the Tigers’ most impressive contributors. Sheedy decided to teach the young Swan a lesson when awarded a free kick after a scrimmage. ‘Sheeds grabbed the ball and tucked it up into my guts and then grabbed hold of my jumper and my arm. He appealed the umpire that I wasn’t giving him the ball back and got a 15-metre penalty out of it. I said “You bugger!” I’ll never forget that.’

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In the second half, Stewart moved Terry into the centre, telling him to target Pitura. ‘I’d never had a call like that,’ he says. ‘I told the runner, “You go and get Quadey or someone else to do that.” Then they put me back to the back pocket and that was the end of that. It was a really dark day and a real education for me.’ The Tigers had handled the occasion far better than their opponents. As the crowd of almost 64 000 headed home, Stewart’s mood turned to gloom. ‘South has got no future unless its recruiting is updated and it takes more than one summer to do that,’ he told the assembled press. ‘South’s future is not as bright as everyone thinks.’ In the rooms, players sat slumped against their lockers, dejection written on their faces. Ashley Porter described the scene in the Sunday Press. ‘The people were grim faced, looking almost too frightened to talk or smile. One of them was ACTU president Bob Hawke, who has looked happier after union discussions have broken down. Shane Zantuck, who went on in the fourth quarter, burst out of the room shouting and with tears running down his face.’ Richmond lost to North Melbourne the following week and the Kangaroos went on to win the premiership, defeating Collingwood in the grand final replay after a thrilling first-up draw. At the same time, cracks began appearing in South’s promising foundations. Stewart resigned and was appointed to the top job at Carlton. Yet Terry was not overly concerned. He lived the high-life in the city for a few weeks before his annual pilgrimage back to the farm for harvest. With a good year in the seniors under his belt, he had grown to love the Swans. And after Magpie legend and former Bomber Des Tuddenham became South’s new senior coach, he saw no reason why they could not go even further in ’78.

CHAPTER SEVEN

FAIR DINKUM ABOUT FOOT Y

H

e might have been an emerging VFL star, but back at Hillview

life was little different for Terry Daniher. Between stints driving the old Ford truck to the silos or shifting field bins full of grain, he kicked the footy in the backyard with his many younger siblings. He also shared a room with his brothers. Anthony, 15, and Chris, soon to turn 12, still lived at Ungarie, while Neale spent a few weeks there before heading back to complete his secondary education at Assumption College, near Melbourne. He had moved back into Aussie Rules territory after four years at Goulburn. Edna was constantly cooking and cleaning. Only the eldest of her seven daughters, Estelle, had left home. The youngest, Fiona, was barely 18 months old. During the summer, Terry continued to pull on the whites. Walking out to bat at Ungarie before two men and a dog was a far cry from 60 000 screaming fans at VFL Park, yet he loved it. Being back with his childhood mates, being one of the boys, and having many beers at the Central Hotel were still among the highlights of his year. On the cricket field he was valuable as ever, making 92 in one particularly productive innings. In another match against Teachers, he took four wickets and made 60 not-out, leading his team to an easy victory. He was even chosen in the West Wyalong Association representative team and knocked over six Temora batsmen in a memorable display of fast bowling.

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Despite enjoying his time on the farm, Terry was excited about returning to Melbourne, where he now felt much more comfortable. The promise of a big year at South had him counting down the days until pre-season started at the Lake Oval. Adding to his air of enthusiasm, his long-time mate Quade had been made captain. The anticipation only increased when South’s recently appointed coach Des Tuddenham, physical education advisor Frank Brown and recruiting officer Hugh McLaughlin travelled to Wagga Wagga to pay the Swans’ Riverina boys a visit. In a meeting at the Wagga Tigers’ clubrooms, Tuddy told the young men he had set the bar high. Given their appearance in the finals, he was expecting the Swans to finish third or better in 1978. He also declared to local reporter Peter Baker that he was grooming Terry to be South’s centre half-forward. ‘Terry has proven he can handle the big time but we want him down there for pre-season training and trials,’ Tuddenham told Baker. A stickler for discipline on the training track, Tuddenham and Brown had earlier put their best bushies through their paces. Unfortunately for Terry, he did not allow enough time to make the 160 kilometre journey from Ungarie to Wagga. By the time he arrived, the other players had already showered. Refusing to let anyone escape the workout, Tuddenham changed back into his running gear and ran a few laps with Terry panting by his side. Although Brown had mailed him a training program, Terry was not in peak condition due to the harvest being in full swing. ‘I used to get affected by the wheat dust,’ he recalls. ‘I got asthma from it so I couldn’t do a lot of the running.’ Little did Terry realise at the time, but he now believes Tuddenham returned to Melbourne unsure if his young forward was ‘fair dinkum about footy’. Other factors were also at play. Believing they were on the verge of winning a premiership, South’s backroom powerbrokers, led by fitness guru John Toleman, had for some time been targeting opposition players to strengthen their list. Late in the previous season, they had approached classy Essendon centreman Neville Fields. ‘Neville was very talented, silky skills, a beautiful mover,’ says Oberon Pirak, who was the Swans’ general manager at the time. ‘South were obsessed with him. Just like Richmond had been with John Pitura. They were

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prepared to sell their soul — they would’ve sold the grandstand at the Lake Oval — to get Fields.’ A meeting between the Swans’ then-senior coach Ian Stewart, along with Quade, assistant coach Tony Franklin, Toleman and Pirak, had taken place at a hotel on Queens Road, near Albert Park. Disillusioned with the Bombers because ‘they were a club that really didn’t look after their players’, Fields told the men he was keen to move. A key factor was the chance to play under Stewart. ‘He was the main reason I wanted to go,’ Fields recalls. ‘I’d played a lot of footy against him and we used to always catch up for a beer after a game. I had a lot of respect for him and thought he was a good coach. I think there was a fair amount of mutual respect there.’ Money was another consideration. In nine seasons at Essendon, Fields had won a best-andfairest and played for Victoria, yet his annual match payments from the Bombers totalled $7000. South offered him $15 000 per year. That was equal to the wage he received from his day job as a sales rep with CocaCola. Fields could not say no. In a handshake agreement Fields agreed to join the Swans. The deal was thrown into doubt when Stewart announced his shock departure from the Lake Oval and Fields became more concerned when Tuddenham, who had previously coached him at Essendon, was appointed. ‘I’ve got nothing against Des personally but I didn’t rate him as a coach at all. He was a wonderful inspiration as a player. The boys would run through brick walls for him. But his coaching left a fair bit to be desired once he couldn’t play anymore. I certainly wouldn’t have agreed to go there if I knew Tuddy was going to be the coach.’ However, by the time the coaching change happened, Fields had told the Dons’ hierarchy he wanted to leave. And the extra cash remained appealing. South just needed to convince the Bombers to release him. It was a drawn-out process. South Melbourne also chased Fitzroy captain and five-time bestand-fairest John Murphy. They reportedly offered Murphy upwards of $30 000 a season, which would have made him among the highest paid players in the VFL. Having battled to be competitive in recent seasons, the Lions were not about to give up their marquee man without a fight. As the battle for Murphy raged, Fitzroy president Frank Bibby

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told journalists: ‘South can have John if they give us Terry O’Neill, Terry Daniher and Mark Browning.’ Swans board member George Camakaris soon hit back. ‘They must be joking,’ he said. ‘There’s not a chance of getting one of them.’ In fact, despite the claims, Fitzroy’s request tempted the Swans. Toleman began using Terry as trade bait to get either Murphy or Fields. ‘I think the fact that Terry wouldn’t go and fix up Pitura in the final was an issue,’ says Pirak. ‘Toley was very influential. He was the type of guy who believed that if you wouldn’t go to war, you should not be part of the troop.’ As negotiations continued, both the Lions and Bombers expressed their interest when it became clear the young forward was up for grabs. The first Terry knew of these dealings was when Truth published a story suggesting his name had been thrown up in discussions. Then the Danihers received a surprise visit at the farm from Fitzroy secretary Kevin Dickson. Unbeknown to Terry, the Lions had been given permission to gauge his interest in being part of the Murphy deal. ‘It was stinking hot,’ Jim remembers. ‘We were down the shed, starting to knock up so we headed up to the house for lunch.’ As the men walked towards the front door, they noticed a car parked under the giant tree next to the garage. Jim peered in the window. A smartly dressed bloke, who could only have been from the city, was asleep in the drivers’ seat. ‘Geez, we might get a hand here, we might get a few more bales in,’ Jim pondered. He rapped his knuckles on the car window. The stranger woke, gathered his thoughts, then stepped onto the dusty driveway, careful not to dirty his carefully pressed slacks. Jim looked him up and down, then remarked to Terry: ‘We’re not gunna get any hay cartin’ out of this fella.’ Dickson introduced himself. He had knocked on the house door a few minutes earlier but no-one was home, as Edna and the young girls were in town doing the grocery shopping. Jim was unimpressed when Dickson announced he was from Fitzroy. ‘You can’t bloody come up here making an offer for a player from another team,’ Jim told him. ‘We’ve got ways and means of getting around that,’ was Dickson’s reply. Terry was shocked. He could not believe it. ‘Why should I have to start out all over again?’ he thought. All his city mates were blokes at the Swans. The club felt like home.

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Nothing had been finalised by the time Terry returned to Melbourne to start pre-season training. He arrived back at South later than many other players after being granted additional leave by Tuddenham. Around 75 millimetres of soaking rain had fallen at Ungarie and Jim wanted him to help cart some recently baled lucerne hay before it was spoiled by the wet weather. Terry phoned the club asking if he could stay at home for another week. Tuddy begrudgingly obliged. Eventually, Terry began training again at the Lake Oval. Tuddenham wanted him to stay a Swan, although Terry felt the writing was on the wall. On the eve of the season, he was called into Pirak’s office. South’s general manager made it clear he was being offered up for trade. It was, to say the least, a rude introduction to the ruthless nature of elite football. Tuddenham insists this decision was actually made much earlier, before he arrived at the Swans. ‘I wanted to keep Terry at South,’ he says. ‘I worked like mad to keep him there. But Stewart had done the deal with Fieldsy before I got there. I had nothing to do with it. The committee at South Melbourne was very ordinary. They didn’t know what they were doing with football.’ Disillusioned with the situation but desperate to continue his VFL career, Terry met Frank Bibby and Fitzroy senior coach Graham Campbell. They introduced him to a number of the senior players, including Laurie Serafini. Following the meetings, Terry decided to join the Lions. ‘I thought I’d still be pretty close to my mates if I went down the road to Fitzroy, down to the Junction Oval.’ Bibby and Campbell believed they had their man. Yet Essendon remained desperate to get something for Fields — its pin-up boy and 1972 best-and-fairest. President Colin Stubbs rang Terry. No-one at Windy Hill had any doubts about his talents. They were still talking about his demolition of Ronnie Andrews early in the previous season. Stubbs, football manager Kevin Egan and 35-year-old coach Barry Davis — back at Essendon after captaining North Melbourne to its first VFL flag in 1975 — believed Terry could be a future champion. They, along with general manager Roy McConnell, launched a lastditch effort to win his signature. ‘I’ve got the contract with me,’ Terry told Stubbs over the phone. ‘Sorry boys, you’re a bit late. I’m going to Fitzroy.’ Stubbs was

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not prepared to give up. He persuaded Terry to take part in a training run with Essendon at the Showgrounds in Flemington. It proved a masterstroke. Davis told Terry he would be given the chance to prove himself at centre half-forward if he was prepared to work hard. Impressed by the reception, Terry changed his mind, much to the dismay of the Lions. ‘It wasn’t a money issue or anything like that. It was a bit of a gutfeel in the end,’ he says. Terry felt bad turning his back on the Lions. ‘Fitzroy put a fair bit of work into it. Frank (Bibby) was a terrific fella and it was one of my big regrets that I never went back to Frank to thank him for the opportunity to consider having a run with them.’ Terry’s final decision began a flurry of negotiations and a new key player emerged. In those days Jim Daniher acted like a manager for his boys. He might have been a bloke from out in the sticks but he was a very canny wheeler and dealer. Initially the main player movements appeared settled with a three-club deal. Terry headed to Essendon and Fields to South. Hawthorn then entered proceedings by sending ruckman Bernie Jones and ruck-rover Peter Bennett to the Bombers, in return for receiving rover Norm Goss from the Swans. That was that, or so it seemed. Behind the scenes, Jim was conducting some business of his own. Aware that his second son Neale — at this stage attending boarding school at Assumption College and showing limitless talent in both football and cricket — was tied by zoning regulations to South Melbourne, he insisted both the boys be included in the settlement. Over the phone, Jim gave the Swans an ultimatum: Terry was not going unless Neale went with him. ‘We only get down twice a year and we want to see them both play if we get there,’ Jim told Pirak. As the conversation was taking place, 15-year-old Anthony was sitting at the dinner table in Ungarie, tucking into a giant bowl of dessert. Realising what was happening Edna piped up. ‘Put Anthony’s name on it too,’ she said. Jim ignored the request. ‘This kid might never play bloody football,’ he recalls thinking. ‘It was a bit rushed. I was on the phone and she was happening pretty quick.’ Having by this time also secured Murphy’s signature, Pirak finally agreed that Neale would be part of the deal. But Jim refused to take his word for it. Although Neale still had another year to go at

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Assumption College, Jim had no doubt the 17-year-old was talented. And because his second son had already been awarded the best player trophy in a Riverina recruiting zone lightning premiership at the Lake Oval, Jim realised South knew it as well. Fearing the Swans would later try and stop his release, he demanded a letter be written, stating that they had agreed to let Neale play for Essendon if he desired. Dated 6 March 1978, it read: Dear Sir, As previously arranged by our two Club Presidents, the South Melbourne Football Club hereby agrees to release Neale Daniher, brother of player Terry Daniher, to the Essendon Football Club, if and when he chooses and it will be free of any encumbrances. Yours faithfully, OBERON PIRAK GENERAL MANAGER

For the Bombers, it was the deal of a lifetime. Stubbs admits they barely knew Neale existed. But thanks to Jim they unwittingly landed two budding stars for the price of one. The letter would be vital evidence only a few months later. While the Swans failed to realise it then, everything they gained in securing Teasdale from Richmond had just been given away. The Daniher deal took place without the knowledge of the club captain. Quade was a father-figure to Terry. ‘Unfortunately, I think Terry, like a lot of us, didn’t have a very good game in the ’77 final against Richmond,’ Quade says. ‘That may have been the start of thoughts that Terry might not make it.’ Quade recalls the moment when he found out what the Swans had done. ‘It was a Saturday and we were about to play a practice match. I couldn’t work out why Terry wasn’t playing. So I made some pretty discreet enquiries after the game and I heard that they’d traded him to Essendon. It was one of the most disappointing days of my life in 1978 when they let him go.’ The relationship between the new skipper and Tuddenham, the new coach, was suddenly strained to breaking point. And it was only

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pre-season. ‘It was pretty devastating because in those days the captain was on the match committee and I wasn’t told anything. I think Des came in and wanted to put his stamp on the club. Terry was shunted off. It wasn’t so much what was done, it was the way it was done. It was a total lack of respect for Terry and his family. I knew that Jim Daniher and Edna would’ve been really disappointed in the whole thing and I was pretty concerned about that because of my involvement in bringing Terry down to Melbourne.’ Soon after the practice match concluded, Quade discovered Terry was digesting the move over a few beers at a South Melbourne pub owned by former Richmond and Swans ruckman Brian ‘Whale’ Roberts. He had a couple of cold ones with his mate and did his best to ensure their relationship had not been tarnished. ‘He was pretty emotional about it and rightly so. Being captain that made it worse because I thought Terry probably assumed I knew what was going on. But I certainly didn’t.’ Quade still feels betrayed by the events that led to the departure of a player he knew would be a star. ‘I think unfortunately South Melbourne at the time just weren’t patient enough with him and Terry found it difficult to adjust, coming from Ungarie. Terry was from a terrific family. He was very respectful. But I think this was something that was alien to him. It was completely alien to me. Even by today’s standards that was pretty ruthless what happened to Terry. It wasn’t pretty ruthless, it was very ruthless. It was pretty unsavoury to be honest. Good clubs don’t do that. The club didn’t have a good culture, there’s no question about that. Decisions like that certainly led to its demise.’ Quade was still at the pub with Terry when he discovered the second Daniher brother had been included in the deal. ‘I’d followed Neale’s career at Assumption College pretty closely. I knew how good he was. When I heard the both of them were gone I was just stunned. I couldn’t believe it.’ Quade’s disappointment was immediately matched by others. Ian Stewart was among the first to express his surprise, stating in a newspaper report that Terry only needed experience to become a top player. Loyal Swans supporters also expressed their displeasure at the situation. ‘Storm over swap’ was the headline above an article by John

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Rice in the Sporting Globe. ‘Losing Terry Daniher in the three-way swap for crack Essendon centreman Neville Fields is hard enough for South fans to swallow,’ Rice wrote. ‘Now it has been discovered that Daniher’s younger brother, Neil [sic], was also part of the deal.’ Rice then drew attention to the fact that Neale had recently been best afield for Assumption College in a curtain-raiser against Coburg Technical School at VFL Park. The murmurs of dissent only grew louder when Terry dominated his first two practice matches with the Bombers. In the second against Hawthorn, he collected 32 possessions, while spending time at centre half-forward and also ruck-roving. ‘Swans swap a star,’ read the headline in the Sun. ‘South Melbourne smiled smugly last year when Graham Teasdale, one of the players Richmond swapped for John Pitura, won the Brownlow Medal,’ wrote Tony Peek. ‘But this year South might be guilty of letting a similar thing happen if Terry Daniher’s form for Essendon against Hawthorn yesterday is any indication.’ Sad at being forced to play against his great mates, Terry continued to board with South team-mate Peter Murray in Moorabbin and drive across town to training at Windy Hill. He also maintained his job with electrical goods wholesaler Jasper Coote Pty Ltd, which had been arranged by his former club. Yet on the field he set about proving South wrong. ‘I always trained hard but I’d been having a good time with it,’ he recalls. ‘I probably wasn’t quite professional enough. But at Essendon you soon got pulled into line if you weren’t doing the right thing. And I had to earn my stripes all over again, so you had to knuckle down and earn your keep.’ The wait for a first crack at his old team was short. Essendon was drawn to host South Melbourne in round 1 of the 1978 home-andaway season. If Swans fans were not already seething at the summer’s events, they departed Windy Hill that Saturday night 1 April wishing the clock could be turned back. Terry lined up at centre half-forward and made fools of the South defenders. Wearing the number 5 jumper for the first time, Terry’s crowning glory came in the third quarter when the Swans were mounting a comeback. Two one-grab pack marks and two goals ended the match as a contest and immediately endeared the new boy to the

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often critical Essendon faithful. It could not have been a worse day for South. On top of the 22-point loss, gun signing Neville Fields was thrashed in the centre by former team-mate Stephen Robins, who Lou Richards awarded best-on-ground honours. Fields managed only four kicks for the afternoon. Robins had 24. A disjointed pre-season, caused by the drawn-out campaign to be released by the Bombers, had done Fields no favours. ‘I had nowhere to train and I had to train on my own,’ he says. ‘It didn’t do my first year at South much good.’ Pintsized forward pocket Wayne Primmer, a 19-year-old from the Mallee outpost of Woomelang, kicked seven goals for Essendon. Quade was among the Swans’ best, yet watching Terry carve up his defenders was a bittersweet experience. ‘Every time he played against us he went alright, don’t worry about that,’ Quade says. Terry missed round 2 due to a sprained ankle, but 1978 proved to be a breakout season. Bulked up, thanks to some solid sessions in the gym, he returned for round 3 and deepened Fitzroy’s disappointment at not signing him by turning on a brilliant display against the Lions at Windy Hill. With Essendon trailing narrowly at three-quarter time, Terry was shifted to full-forward for the final quarter. He proved the match-winner, kicking the Bombers’ last three goals of the game, as they won by four points. In a frantic finish, star rover Gary Wilson had a chance to grab victory for Fitzroy, but his running shot just before the siren shaved the goalpost padding. Terry was rapidly becoming a crowd favourite and the rabid Dons fans were inspiring him. ‘At South it was good but at Essendon I’d never seen supporters so vocal and passionate about their club,’ he says. ‘You couldn’t move in the Windy Hill social club after the games. There’d be a freezing cold draft blowing through the change rooms and when you got up there you were cookin. The place was just chock-a-block.’ Primmer lit up the forward line again a week later with seven goals as Essendon defeated Carlton at VFL Park and moved into the top five. From there the Bombers’ season was marred by six losses where the margin was 18 points or less. The first came in round 5 against Footscray at the Western Oval, when Terry was again in the best players but this time could not haul his team over the line. However, he did win the Kentucky Fried Chicken Mark of the Week award, for

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a big grab in the forward line. Seven days later, at Windy Hill, came a glimpse of both Essendon’s and Terry’s potential. Trailing Richmond by 29 points at the last change, the Bombers piled on 9.6 to 1.4 to ruin Kevin Bartlett’s 300th game. Primmer finished with another haul of seven goals but again it was Terry who did the most late damage. Playing alongside fellow young-gun Paul Van Der Haar, who was back in the side after recovering from a pre-season motorbike accident, his three final-quarter majors gave him five for the match and best-onground honours in all the papers. A career-high score of 8 in the Sun’s player rankings (known as the Sunscore) was a further accolade. As he had in the weeks prior, Sun reporter Tony Peek pondered Terry’s preseason change of clubs. ‘Regardless of who they got in return, it seems incredible South Melbourne cleared Daniher to Essendon,’ he wrote. A wild encounter with St Kilda at Moorabbin in round 7 ended in a six-point loss and Merv Neagle and Terry Cahill in hospital. The pair were both felled by king-hits behind play, leading Stubbs to stand on a seat in the visitors’ change rooms after the game and declare, ‘They played like animals.’ Shaking off the setback, Essendon charged on, thrilling crowds with its fast, open brand of football. Sun reporter Tom Prior labelled the youthful combination ‘the glamour team of ’78’. Hawthorn coach David Parkin went a step further, following a narrow win over the emerging Dons. ‘Essendon are as aggressive and run faster and further than any team in the competition, even North,’ he said. The Dons won six of their first nine games and snatched third place on the ladder. The only criticism from footy watchers was the high number of handballs used, which occasionally topped 100. Such was the team’s form, after a round 9 defeat of Melbourne, coach Barry Davis declared, ‘We are serious when we say we have the 1978 premiership flag in our sights’. Terry was similarly confident. ‘I reckon we’ll get the double chance this year, let alone next year and the years after that,’ he told Lou Richards. Almost as soon as the words were printed, the Bombers fell away, losing their last eight matches to finish tenth on the ladder. Davis, a university lecturer with a penchant for wearing skivvies, sometimes tried to lift the team with unorthodox coaching methods. During one pre-match speech he asked the players to lie on the floor and close their eyes. He turned the lights off and asked for complete

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quiet, before telling the boys to relax. Then they were asked to tense-up their bodies, starting with their toes. Today, yoga is used by many clubs as part of their training programs, albeit not usually minutes before the opening bounce. In the late 1970s, rough-nut footballers thought it was hippie nonsense. As Davis continued addressing the players in the dark, Terry was struggling not to laugh. Ron Andrews whispered in his ear: ‘What the bloody hell are we doing here?’ Chuckles could be heard throughout the room. ‘He only did it once,’ Terry jokes. ‘I don’t think it worked too well for him.’ The coach also learned that in-depth analysis was wasted on Terry. ‘At our team meetings he’d say “C’mon mate, get on with it,” ’ Davis chuckles. ‘He couldn’t take too much time in lecture-type situations. He didn’t like complicated instructions. His favourite saying was: “I just want to kick a few snaggers and take a few screamers.” ’ Despite the fade-out, there were many brave Essendon performances late in the 1978 season, none more so than in round 10 against North Melbourne. More than 28 000 people crammed into the Arden Street Oval for the eagerly anticipated contest, only for the Bombers to fall 35 points behind by three-quarter time. But having played in the night series four days prior, the Kangaroos tired. They registered a paltry one behind in the final term, while Essendon booted 5.3, to fall only three points short. Terry finished with three goals and another mention in the best players. Daniher was now becoming a name synonymous with toughness and talent. This was again made clear to Terry’s former club when he made his first appearance at the Lake Oval wearing red and black in round 12. Lining up at full-forward, he was opposed by John Rantall, who was celebrating his 300th game. On a miserable day for the South legend, Terry kicked the match-sealing goal deep in the last quarter as Essendon won by 23 points. ‘I have nothing against South for letting me go but I wanted to show a trick or two,’ he told reporter Jim Main in the rooms after the game. ‘I am with a good club and my entire football future is with Essendon. South are in the past as far as my career goes.’ Essendon ended its 1978 campaign with a nine-point loss to second placed Hawthorn in round 22 at Princes Park. Although it was

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a disappointing finish for the team, Terry concluded his first season as a Bomber by turning on a brilliant performance for the 14 500 spectators in attendance. He kicked five goals, all of them in the third quarter. Along with Van Der Haar, Tim Watson and Simon Madden, he showed that Essendon’s youngsters would soon be a finals force. Terry’s final tally of 46 goals for the year saw him finish just one straight kick behind Primmer, who took out the club’s goal kicking award. The eldest Daniher brother had shaken off his controversial move to the northern suburbs and proven himself an elite footballer. A very solid performance on the footy trip to Hawaii completed his transformation from emerging Swan to Bombers star. Even his personal life was now becoming a matter of public interest, according to Lou Richards anyway. In a profile story on the emerging star, Richards wrote: ‘A bachelor, he answered with an embarrassed “no way” when I asked him if he had a steady girlfriend in the city.’ Terry made sure to mention his younger brothers as well. Anthony and Chris, now 12, were ‘already looking like footballers’, according to their big brother. As Terry departed Melbourne on his annual trip to Ungarie for harvest, he knew that his future, and the team’s, was bright. He was also in no doubt that the farm would eventually call him back to the bush for good. As a result he had already purchased some land and a house, which was rented out to a local school teacher, next to the existing Daniher property. Most of his football money (around $30 000 per year) was being invested in the farm. ‘I will always go home,’ he said in an interview for the ’78 Essendon yearbook. ‘After my football days are over I will be a farmer fulltime.’ Things could not have been more different at his former club. During pre-season South Melbourne had built themselves up as premiership contenders. But they missed the finals, finishing eighth on the ladder after winning nine of their 22 games. Their big recruiting campaign had yielded mixed results. While John Murphy won the best-and-fairest, Fields initially struggled. Although he later managed some brilliant performances for the Swans (he twice finished in the top four in their best-and-fairest, and was named in the centre in Truth’s 1979 Cazaly Awards All-Stars team), and ironically returned to Essendon some years later, ‘Neville Fields’ became the answer to one

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of footy’s most popular trivia questions: ‘Who did Essendon trade to get the Daniher brothers?’ ‘People have made a lot of jokes about it and in hindsight you can’t blame them,’ Fields says. ‘But I don’t think Essendon knew they were getting someone as good as Terry turned out to be. The credit’s got to go to Terry. He really knuckled down at Essendon and became a champion footballer. He became a legend and the rest is history. From my side of it, I’ve only got admiration for the Daniher boys. They did wonderfully well. It was Essendon’s gain and the Swanners’ loss. But I did my best. The second and third years were probably some of the best footy I ever played. I can certainly walk around with my head held high.’ However, late in ’78, the barnstorming form of Norm Goss at Hawthorn made matters even worse for the South Melbourne faithful. A player they had let go would be part of the Hawks premiership team. Like the Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, their club had committed a monumental blunder. And the second Daniher brother was about to deepen South’s misery.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A BOR N LEADER

‘W

hat a gift !’ exclaimed the headline in the Sporting Globe.

It was February 1979 and Essendon’s pre-season campaign was underway. ‘Look what South Melbourne gave away,’ wrote John Rice. ‘Last year Terry Daniher was in a swap between South Melbourne and Essendon for centreman Neville Fields, a veteran with 150 games under his belt. It was a story that made headlines but Neil’s [sic] part in the deal was kept well in the background. Look at him now.’ Beside the article was a photograph of Terry and Neale running through a park in bare feet. The new boy, aged 18 and with a boyish face, looked resplendent in his Essendon guernsey and red shorts. Standing 188 centimetres tall, the same height as his older brother, upper arms bulging with muscle, he appeared a supreme athlete, a ready-made senior player. Terry, now 21, seemed wiry in contrast. ‘The Danihers, of Essendon — a “gift” from South Melbourne,’ read the caption. Neale had arrived at Windy Hill. He was determined to make his mark on the VFL. Little did the Bombers supporters know what a most circuitous journey it had been. A talented sportsman and academic, Neale discovered at an early age he was not cut out to be a man on the land, so his parents encouraged him to concentrate on his education. It paid off. At the age of 11 he won a scholarship to attend the prestigious St Patrick’s Catholic College in the rural New South Wales city of Goulburn. ‘I had to write an essay,’ Neale says. ‘Didn’t put much time into it. Somehow

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they selected me.’ Edna recalls he was working as a rouseabout in the shearing shed when a brother from St Pat’s rang the Danihers to say their son had been accepted. She was delighted. This was an opportunity to move up in the world. In late January 1973, when Neale was not yet 12, Jim and Edna drove their son 350 kilometres west to his new school, where he would board for six months of the year. ‘I think I cried all the way back to Yass from Goulburn,’ says Edna. ‘It was very hard dropping a little Form 1 boy off at this big school.’ Neale was taken aback by the sudden change in environment. The stately school buildings, crafted from stone, daunted him. His bedroom, a huge dormitory, felt cold and impersonal, more like a jail than a learning institution. ‘What the fuck am I doing here?’ he thought. ‘What crime have I committed?’ But his Catholic upbringing had taught him to accept whatever challenges life threw up. He had not chosen to shift across the state to Goulburn. He had been encouraged to make the move by his elders and that meant he had to do it. The coming years shaped his personality, making him more independent and serious, and less carefree. Run by the Christian Brothers, St Patrick’s College controlled its students by demanding strict adherence to rules and regulations. Boarders were only allowed to make unaccompanied visits to town on Friday afternoons between 3.30 and 5 pm. For this brief excursion they were permitted to withdraw 60 cents of spending money from their bank accounts. In addition, the brothers ensured the boarders sent a letter to their families every Sunday. Edna always wrote back. In a letter dated 27 May 1974, she wrote about Terry being selected to play Teal Cup for New South Wales, gave a rundown of the local footy scores and an update on the sowing of crops. ‘Dad said he may sow a few more acres of oats but has finished all the wheat in between all the wet weather. So we are very lucky as some are only half finished.’ On 15 February each year, Edna would mail him a birthday cake in a tin. Neale quickly made the best of the situation. He became used to wearing a tie and blazer and knuckled down in class, impressing the teachers with his ability in maths and science. However, it was on the school’s vast and finely manicured sports fields where he really made a name for himself. This was despite not being able to play Aussie Rules,

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the game he loved most. At the time, St Patrick’s College was renowned as a breeding ground for sporting stars. Two years ahead of Neale was Simon Poidevin, who went on to captain the Wallabies and was part of the 1991 team that defeated England to win the World Cup. One year ahead of him was Gavin Miller, who later played 222 first-grade games in the NSW Rugby League, where he achieved widespread acclaim by winning the competition’s best-and-fairest, the Dally M Medal, in both 1988 and ’89. Inter-school rugby competitions, which included matches in Canberra and Sydney, were taken very seriously. Neale had no option but to take up the game. Luckily for him, the rugby teams grouped together players of similar age, rather than those in the same school year level. One of the youngest kids in his class, Neale began in the Under-12s. But he was already sporting a solid frame and big hands, so this grading method enabled Neale to quickly become a star. Playing in the inside centres, he scored numerous tries, yet according to classmate Mark Carmichael ‘was a strong defender, never afraid to commit to the tackle, which is the essence of rugby. You have to be prepared to get a little knocked around in defence and Neale was certainly prepared to do that.’ He achieved popularity among the boys and his teachers, winning the best player award in his first season. ‘He was certainly the best player in his age group by a long way,’ Carmichael says. ‘It was a disappointment that Neale left at the end of Year 10, as I am sure he would have played in the school’s First XV as a Year 11.’ Another classmate, Jim Dixon, who went on to play first-grade Rugby Union in Sydney, remembers Neale’s kicking game was, not surprisingly, his great strength. Despite the success, Neale maintained a steadfast indifference to Rugby Union. Every Saturday, when he and his classmates would be made to sit on the sidelines and cheer while the senior boys played, he would try and sneak away to find a television showing a VFL game. Nevertheless, his coaches wondered if they had a future Australian Test representative on their hands. Neale dominated other sports as well. Because of the many hours he had spent batting and bowling in the backyard with his brothers, he found cricket a relative walk in the park. Aged 14, he was selected in St

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Pat’s First XI. Playing alongside 17- and 18-year-olds, he made 242 runs at an average of 27, with a highest score of 51. He won praise in the endof-season cricket report, in which was written, ‘Daniher was the only batsman who could stay at the crease almost as long as he chose.’ Tennis and table tennis opponents were beaten with similar ease. The many athletics carnivals Jim had insisted he attend during his early childhood also paid off, as he took out the cross-country running and featured prominently in track events. ‘He was an outstanding hurdler,’ recalls Dixon. ‘He had the record for the school hurdles in each age group as he came through and I know they stood for a very long time after he left.’ Neale even prevailed in handball tournaments, played on a court surrounded by three walls, governed by rules unique to St Patrick’s. ‘It was always a talking point if Daniher got beaten,’ says Carmichael. ‘As Neale’s great talents became apparent, what I recall is his humility and the sheer enjoyment he derived from playing. He wanted to win and he played to win, but at the same time would always play fairly.’ After four years at Goulburn, Neale’s scholarship ended. He was tired of playing so little Aussie Rules. A few games for the Ungarie juniors during his school holidays were not enough. Terry’s effort to make the grade at South Melbourne was also an inspiration. Neale asked Jim to consider sending him to Assumption College, a Catholic school located at Kilmore, just outside Melbourne. A run of wet years meant the farm was doing well enough for Jim to handle the cost and he agreed the move was a good idea. Despite the years Neale had spent playing rugby, Jim thought he was a better Aussie Rules prospect than Terry had been at the same age. Boarding at Assumption, known as ‘the Football Factory’ for its ability to produce VFL stars, would give his second son a golden opportunity to make the big time. Now 16, Neale arrived at Assumption College in 1977. Although the dormitories were similarly cold, he felt far more at home there than he ever had in Goulburn. Most of the boarders were from the bush, places like Robinvale, Rushworth, Finley and Colbinabbin. He was delighted to hear them talking about Hawthorn and half-back flankers rather than Randwick and loosehead props. Needing to make some new friends he found that his sporting talents once again made the task easy. In just his second innings for Assumption’s First XI cricket team,

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Neale shocked both teachers and students by making 157 not out, including 22 boundaries, against Ivanhoe at Kilmore. Assumption’s total of 4/344 was the First XI’s highest in 84 years. Cricket and footy coach Ray Carroll (who in 2008 celebrated his 50th year at the school) could barely believe his eyes. Neither could one of the resident Marist Brothers. He had actually handcrafted Neale’s bat. ‘He was an old Englishman,’ Neale says. ‘I think that was the best day of his life.’ Even the Melbourne newspapers picked up on Neale’s run spree. Writing in the Herald, school sport reporter Jim Black came to the conclusion that he ‘could also be a future Test player’. Interviewed for the article, Neale praised his father and the concrete pitch he had built. ‘We are able to get in plenty of practice with Dad and we three boys all batting and bowling,’ he said. Funnily enough, Neale played in a friendly match the day after his unbeaten century. Facing an attack far less threatening than Ivanhoe’s, he was out for a duck. ‘It was a really good lesson for me,’ he explains. ‘I actually tried to play like I was still 157 not-out. He just bowled one at me, it swung a bit, and I tried to play a full-blown drive rather than get my eye in. He knocked me over. I remember the zero as well as the 157.’ By the end of the 1977 school cricket season Neale had regained his touch and amassed 420 runs. His average of 60 was not only the best at Assumption but also the benchmark across the whole Associated Grammar Schools competition. Not surprisingly, he won Assumption’s Champion Cricketer award. When winter came and football began, Neale shook off the effects of his four-year dalliance with rugby, which had taken its toll on his skills yet dramatically improved his tackling. From his first game, he looked a star in the making. ‘On the football field for the Blue and Blue, Neale Daniher was a champion, pure and simple,’ Carroll wrote in his book From the Boundary . . . Football at Assumption. ‘A thoughtful, determined approach, cool in a crisis, and genuine class made him an invaluable member of the XVIII.’ Wearing number 36, Neale played at centre half-forward in his initial season, helping lead Assumption to yet another AGS premiership. ‘The footy was fantastic and Ray was fantastic,’ Neale says. ‘Assumption had a very famous record and you knew you were part of that. It was part of Ray’s whole motivation — not

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being the team that was the dud. Because it was so keenly contested to get into the team it had a life about it and an urgency about it that matched VFL football when I went there.’ Neale was later selected in an AGS representative team to play a side made up of the brightest prospects from Ballarat’s finest schools. Carroll was anxious to see how his young gun would handle the rise in standard. Neale kicked eight goals. During term one of his final year at school, Neale was suddenly again in the newspapers when he unwittingly became part of the deal that transferred Terry to Essendon. ‘I just ended up in it and that was fine,’ he says. ‘I thought I would be given an opportunity at South Melbourne. The fact that I ended up at Essendon was fair enough. I wasn’t aware of it. There was no choice. There was no “What do you want to do, son?” It was a bit like going to boarding school. You just end up where your parents decide. I can’t ever recall being brought into the discussion.’ Unfazed, he dutifully completed all the academic necessities to pass his HSC and devoted the remainder of his time to sport. Elected the cricket captain, he led an Assumption team containing a young Simon O’Donnell to its first premiership since 1969. The 17-year-old Daniher excelled with the bat, making 351 runs at an average of almost 44. He also won much praise from Carroll for his brilliant fielding. Subsequently, Neale’s his peers also made him football captain. While he missed some games with a hand injury, he became Carroll’s trump card and played at various times up forward, in defence and also as a ruck-rover. Many people connected to VFL would watch the matches. On one occasion, Richmond general manager Alan Schwab walked up to Carroll and told him Neale would be the superstar of the ’80s. ‘He said Neale was one of the most outstanding talents he’d seen in his time in footy,’ he recalls. Assumption was unbeaten in the AGS competition, defeating fellow Marist Brothers school, Marcellin College, in the grand final. Played at Marcellin’s Bulleen campus, the match attracted a record crowd of around 3000 people, including former Assumption players Peter ‘Crackers’ Keenan and Laurie Serafini. The Blues seemed beaten at various stages. Trailing by five goals during the second quarter, they were still 11 points down at the

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last change. They needed a hero. To no-one’s surprise Neale Daniher grabbed the game by the throat. Changing between ruck-rover and centre half-forward, he hauled in many strong marks, kicked a vital goal — his third — and drove his team forward on countless occasions. Assumption piled on five goals to one in the final quarter, to win by 15 points. It was the school’s sixteenth AGS football title in 20 years. Neale and his close mates Jim Morgan (full-back) and Phil McEvoy (centre half-back) were all named among the best players. By leading Assumption to both the AGS cricket and football titles Neale ensured he would be remembered as one of the school’s finest sportsmen. ‘He was an incredibly talented guy, not only on the field but he had a real grasp of the tactics of both games,’ Carroll says. ‘He nearly made me obsolete. They were the easiest years I had. Neale had a bit of an aura around him. He was a natural leader and he was able to take training in both games if I was caught up doing other things. He ran it like clockwork. The kids absolutely followed him. It was very clear then he was a born leader.’ The Assumption First XVIII football team’s only loss in 1978 came against Moorabbin Technical College in the grand final of the Herald Shield Night Series, in which Neale could not play due to injury. ‘Daniher’s presence would, I am certain, have brought Assumption victory,’ Carroll emphatically stated afterwards. In his final year at school, Neale was also selected to play for New South Wales in the Under-17 Teal Cup in Melbourne. Unlike when Terry was chosen, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all competed. For the ’78 carnival, a team from Papua New Guinea was even involved. It was during this tournament Essendon realised what a coup it had pulled off. Neale and his cousin Pat won places in the squad after excelling in a series of trial matches at Lavington, near Albury. Demonstrating the struggle to keep Aussie Rules alive in the northern states, NSW was defeated by Queensland in an ordinary contest, then suffered a 22-goal thrashing at the hands of Victoria. But with Jim, Edna and a host of VFL scouts watching on, Neale proved a class above his team-mates. He lined up at different times as a ruck-rover, ruckman and centre halfforward, his opponents including Roger Merrett and Justin Madden. ‘He never gave them a bloody touch,’ says Jim. Neale was voted New

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South Wales’ best-and-fairest player. A place in a forward pocket in the All-Australian team followed, confirming his standing as one of the best 20 junior footballers in the nation. What a gift indeed. At long last, South Melbourne realised what it had given away. The club began a belated effort to make Neale play for the Swans. When, in July, Essendon moved to have Neale’s clearance to Windy Hill formally processed, South refused. The young man himself knew little of the stand-off until the Bombers decided they would take the matter to the VFL Appeals Board. A couple of days before Neale was scheduled to front a hearing, officials from the warring clubs met. Essendon president Colin Stubbs produced his trump-card. It was the letter Jim Daniher insisted be written. There for all to see were the words: ‘The South Melbourne Football Club hereby agrees to release Neale Daniher, brother of player Terry Daniher, to the Essendon Football Club, if and when he chooses and it will be free of any encumbrances.’ Case closed. Neale’s clearance went through immediately. Football manager Kevin Egan drove to Assumption College to complete the paperwork, with Carroll watching on. Neale was a Bomber and that was that. Capping off an action-packed year, Neale travelled home in the school holidays and played enough games in the Ungarie seniors to qualify for the Northern Riverina League finals. Under the coaching of Terry’s Teal Cup team-mate Peter Bryant, Ungarie had assembled its best ever team and was undefeated in the home-and-away season, having booted 41 goals in one notable performance. The Magpies easily progressed through to the grand final where they faced Four Corners at Tullibigeal. Neale was ambivalent about running out in the big game. If Ungarie wanted him to play he was happy with that, if not he was unfazed. The locals were far less laid-back about it. Ungarie had a history of choking in the finals. Many believed if Neale was selected such a fate would definitely be avoided but it also meant a player who had been in the team for most of the year would have to miss out. In the end, the club’s executive was forced to rule on the matter. The pro-Neale camp won by a single vote. Local shearer Clarence Ridley was axed and was, Jim remembers, ‘very sour on it’. Keen to avoid any backlash on match-day, Bryant named Neale on

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the interchange bench. He stayed there until the final break, by which time the coach had a crisis on his hands. The unbeaten Magpies were trailing Four Corners by 18 points. What had seemed a certain premiership was slipping through their fingers. Neale was thrown into the fray, at full-forward no less. Fed by some accurate delivery from his cousins (sons of Leo) Rodney and Pat, who was best-on-ground, the 17-year-old proved the saviour. ‘They just kicked it out in front of me,’ Neale explains. His opponent, John Ireland, a member of Four Corners’ legendary footy family, had already played for three quarters. ‘I’m fresh,’ Neale adds. ‘Bomber was tired. He was 20 metres behind me in ten steps.’ Neale booted three last quarter goals. Ungarie won by 10 points. The Magpies were premiers. Neale was a reluctant local legend. As the boys moved on to the pub for a long celebration, he headed home. He was too young to drink anyway. ‘It’s only early days, I’ve got plenty of footy left and bigger mountains to climb than this,’ he remembers thinking. There was never any doubt Neale would be fully prepared for his first season in the VFL. A holiday late in the year ensured he knew what to expect both on and off the field. After finishing the school year at Assumption and successfully completing his Higher School Certificate, Neale was taken on the Essendon footy trip to Hawaii. A naive country boy, he learned plenty. Upon his return, he headed to the farm and a summer of work and sport. The boys played plenty of cricket and tennis, both for Ungarie and at home, where the matches often lasted for hours. They were all very different characters, but they were great mates. Terry and Neale’s priority was training hard, so they could impress with the Bombers. When it came to running, Terry led the way. Not so keen on pounding the dirt roads, Neale’s favourite exercise during his school and university holidays at home was working out on the speedball they constructed in the shed. He would thump his fists into the ball, building up an upper body already equipped to match it with grown men. By the time Neale headed to Melbourne, he was both physically and mentally ready for action. His sporting career to that point had consisted of one success after another. Two years at Assumption College left him in no doubt he was good enough to play in the VFL.

CHAPTER NINE

K NOCK IN ’ AROUND WITH BLOK ES

ssendon’s 1978 fade-out did little to dampen enthusiasm at the club. Senior coach Barry Davis and the players were expecting to make the finals in ’79 rather than hoping. The arrival of Neale Daniher and the anticipated improvement from Terry simply heightened the degree of confidence. Neale’s first competitive hit-out in red and black was a February intra-club match. He immediately caught the eye of onlookers, taking a number of fine marks while playing in defence. Both Neale and Terry were selected for Essendon’s opening game of the pre-season Australian Football Championship Escort Cup against Swan Districts in Perth. With the temperature nudging 38 degrees, the Bombers fell 31 points behind by half-time and faced an embarrassing loss. As players on both sides tired, Terry’s long summer of training on the farm paid an early dividend. His four second-half goals inspired his team to an 18-point win. Neale’s contribution was far less influential, yet he did enough in that match and the subsequent pre-season fixtures to win a position in Essendon’s round 1 team to play Carlton at VFL Park. There would be no earning his stripes in the reserves for footy’s new young gun. Strangely, he felt less nervous at this time than when preparing for school games the previous year. ‘Essendon had a losing culture,’ Neale says. ‘I was from Assumption. There we never lost.’

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Almost 43 000 fans filled the terraces at Waverley (paying an entry fee of $2.75 per adult) to see the Bombers and Blues do battle. There were plenty of new faces in both sides. Along with the second Daniher brother, Essendon’s recruits included premiership ruckman Peter ‘Crackers’ Keenan, who had crossed from North Melbourne, and West Australian ruck-rover Barry Day. Carlton selected 22-yearold ex-Prahran half-forward Wayne Johnston for his game. In a tough and rugged contest, ruckman Mark Maclure proved the matchwinner for the Blues, setting up a 21-point victory. A bruising Escort Cup encounter with Collingwood four days earlier had done little to help the Bombers. Neale felt attitude had a bit to do with it as well. ‘I couldn’t believe how easily Essendon gave up,’ he says. ‘At half-time we were still in the game and I just sensed from the rest of the team that they didn’t think they could win. At Assumption, even when we were four goals down we never thought we’d lose. At Essendon, early in ’79, there seemed a sense that it was inevitable we were going to get beaten.’ To Neale’s dismay, even the Bombers’ supporters seemed happy enough with the result. As they slowly exited the car park (there was no other way at Waverley), they were buoyed by having witnessed a VFL debut to remember. Neale had lined up on the half-back flank and collected 22 possessions. Showing the poise and skill of a veteran, the 18-year-old was named in the Bombers’ best players, shading Terry, who kicked two goals. Off the field, Neale’s life was quickly falling into place as well. Although Edna had quietly held hopes he would become a priest, Neale began a computer science degree at Melbourne University and later continued his studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He also accepted the offer of accommodation at Newman College, an on-campus boarding house catering for Catholic students. The colleges have long been renowned for their social occasions, with an emphasis on making friends through alcohol. It was certainly no different in 1979. Neale enjoyed the youthful atmosphere. The freedom to make his own choices was in stark contrast to his school days. He spent plenty of time at the pub, sometimes a bit too much, considering he was a VFL player. Like it had at school, his sporting prowess made him an instant favourite among the college

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crowd. Without telling Essendon, he lined up for Newman on a few Wednesday afternoons in the inter-collegiate footy competition, once bagging 12 goals in three quarters at full-forward. In the grand final against Ormond, he sat on the interchange bench until it was clear Newman was in trouble. He entered the fray and his team won the game. Beer flowed at the Clyde Hotel. Luckily, training at Windy Hill was on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. None of these distractions affected Neale’s contributions for Essendon. Partly, this was because Davis appreciated how tough it was to mix football and full-time study. ‘A lot of coaches would have made him be there for every training session,’ Davis reveals. ‘But I’d done a science degree and I had an affinity with him. I was very pleased he was at university. I said, “You never know when your footy career might be over.” As it turned out it was not that long.’ On Thursday nights, Neale would complete his lectures then head to Windy Hill. ‘He’d arrive about six,’ Davis continues. ‘By then we were all finished. Col Hooper, who was the runner, and I would stay out. We’d put the lights on, although they weren’t great, and do a few drills. He trained for most of the year like this.’ His unorthodox preparation never reduced Neale’s effectiveness on game day. In the early rounds he was often in the best, as was Terry, who kick-started his season with five goals against North Melbourne in round 2. Up the other end, Malcolm Blight booted seven and the Kangaroos took the four points. After starting on Graham Cornes, Neale — in just his third game — was given the task of trying to quell Blight in the second half. He learned plenty from the encounter, although the loss put a big dent in the Bombers’ confidence. Predicted to challenge for the premiership, they were in disarray by round 5. Davis was booed by the home crowd as he walked out to make his three-quarter time address during the match against Fitzroy at Windy Hill. The Bombers went down by 96 points. In the social club, the members were not just restless. They wanted Davis, a club legend, sacked. It was crisis time. Essendon was tenth on the ladder, with just a win over lowly St Kilda and a draw against Footscray. Both positive results had been inspired by Terry Daniher. He was best-on-ground against the Saints and two weeks later

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slotted eight goals at the Western Oval. The performance against the Bulldogs saw him hit the lead in Truth newspaper’s Cazaly Awards and Inside Football editor Geoff Poulter named him Footballer of the Week. The prize was dinner for two at Ricardo’s Restaurant at the Commodore Queens Road Motel. ‘Ricardo’s restaurant is one of Melbourne’s finest eating houses, with its superb cuisine and service, in a unique setting,’ wrote Poulter at the end of his article, which was placed above a picture of the motel: a drab 1960s-style brick box. A unique setting indeed. Even in the pummelling at the hands of Fitzroy, Terry was Essendon’s best player. That day Neale, whose quiet demeanour had by now earned him the nickname ‘Rowdy’, also showed his class up forward. The two Daniher brothers booted six of the Bombers’ ten goals. Unfortunately for Davis, others had not been following their example. Essendon seemed set for another season of mediocrity. The coach tried to punish the team by calling numerous additional training sessions, which essentially just delayed the boys’ customary drinking session. On one Sunday morning he began berating the players before focusing on Keenan. ‘As for you Crackers . . .’ he began. Crackers leapt to his feet and immediately interrupted the tirade by comically claiming all responsibility for the previous day’s defeat. ‘I’m sorry, Coach, it was all my fault,’ he said, arms flailing. Soon everyone was collapsing in fits of laughter. ‘He put on a bloody good show,’ Terry says. ‘He stuffed up Davo’s whole speech.’ In the lead-up to the round 6 match against Collingwood, one tipster predicted nothing but more misery for the red and black supporters. ‘Essendon . . . have no form, no hope and are playing and talking like losers. It mystifies me a bit because they appear to have talent on paper.’ Then, the Baby Bombers (this team was the first to receive the moniker) found their spark. Along with the Danihers, young players like Tim Watson, Gary Foulds, Simon Madden and Paul Van Der Haar inspired a turnaround that won them nine games in a row. They toppled the Magpies at Victoria Park and defending premier Hawthorn at Princes Park. By the completion of round 14 they were second on the ladder. Early in the streak Terry could do no wrong. He slotted seven goals as the Bombers tore apart Melbourne in

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round 7 at Windy Hill. That thrust him into the lead of The Sporting Globe’s Bunton Medal, one vote in front of Demons captain–coach Carl Ditterich and North Melbourne’s Gary Dempsey. Two votes back were Blight and Geelong ruckman John (Sam) Newman. Eighteen months after being shown the door by South Melbourne, Terry was among the leading key forwards in the game. He was now regularly being profiled in the newspapers, with one particular article, under the headline ‘Farmer Terry reaps rewards’, revealing a few trivial facts about the young man. His car was a Cortina Ghia, his place of residence was Gillies Street, North Essendon, his favourite drink was ‘beer/shandy’ (shandy?!) and his favourite TV show was Willesee at Seven. Willesee certainly tackled the big issues of the day — Malcolm Fraser’s performance as Prime Minister, revolution in Iran, Australia’s 5–1 loss in the Ashes — in his inimitable style. Luckily for the footballers of the day, their behaviour was not on his radar. Terry and his mates, the closest of whom included Roger Merrett, Glenn Hawker, Stephen Robins, Paul Van Der Haar, and Merv Neagle, played very hard when both chasing the Sherrin and out on the town. After each Saturday match the drinking sessions would extend well into the morning, often ending at such salubrious establishments as the Tunnel, the Underground or Chasers. Owner of the Underground, Gary Spry, was a very keen Essendon supporter and would always pour on the hospitality for the boys. ‘There’d always be a line-up and we’d walk around and straight in,’ Terry says. The players had their own room upstairs with a fully-stocked fridge full of beer. ‘You’d get on the grog up there and have a bloody good time. And you could always drive home. You never got caught in those days. That got a few blokes into trouble, running off the road.’ On Sunday they would dust themselves off and start again. As it had been for Terry at South, the usual routine began with a few cans while watching a VFA game. Following the final siren, the party often moved on to the infamous Bear Cave, home of the Caulfield VFA club. Players from all league clubs would gather, wolfing down beers amid a thick haze created by hundreds of smouldering Winfield Blues. ‘They did a ripping trade,’ Terry remembers. ‘You had to get there early because the place used to pack out and you wouldn’t get in. You’d rush

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down there after the footy to get in and then away you went.’ There were consequences of this uninhibited revelry. The Bear Cave was later shut down after being prosecuted for serving drinks to under-age patrons and drink-driving was a key factor in the high annual road tolls of the era. More than 800 people were killed on Victoria’s roads in 1979. By 2006, this figure had fallen to 337. Terry and many of his team-mates believe they were lucky to play in that era. In those days, as long as footballers performed on the field, all else was forgiven. ‘That was the thing I really loved about footy,’ he says. ‘For me, that was my lifestyle. I enjoyed knockin’ around with blokes and getting out for a few laughs and drinks and banter.’ On the field, Terry’s standing in the game was confirmed when he won selection in the Victorian team to meet South Australia at Adelaide’s Football Park. The match took place on a Monday — it was a public holiday in South Australia — just 48 hours after players on both sides had run out for their clubs. With State of Origin rules still some years away, Victoria’s team was captained by Blight, a South Australian. Hawthorn’s David Parkin was the coach. It was on this occasion, before a crowd of 32 000, that Terry moved into football’s top echelon. He was pitted against former Melbourne defender Gary Hardeman at centre half-forward and his afternoon was almost ended in the first quarter. ‘I don’t recollect a lot about the game because I was flattened early,’ Terry says. ‘I went back into a pack. I just wanted to go at everything. I didn’t realise there was a big bunch of blokes coming at me. I got a whack behind the ears and I’ve never been so crook. I thought “That’s my welcome to state footy.” ’ But Terry was not going to let the concussion ruin his big day. After some encouragement from Michael Tuck, he recovered in remarkable fashion. By full-time he had torn the game apart, collecting 27 possessions, 13 marks and booting two goals. ‘He led with blistering pace, marked with great surety and fought for the ball with admirable tenacity,’ wrote Trevor Grant in his match report in The Age. ‘His domination was such that even his captain, Malcolm Blight, probably Australia’s most spectacular forward, was happy to stay out of his way.’ Playing a brand of football that, unlike in previous years, relied on rapid ball movement rather than big bodies, Victoria won by 61 points.

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Shattered Croweaters coach Neil Kerley took out his frustrations on his humbled players, declaring ‘they were so fat and so slow’. Terry was named his team’s best player by the South Australians at the after-match function. ‘I couldn’t remember half the game,’ he jokes. ‘I thought, “Geez I must have played alright.” ’ According to Grant, one Victorian official looked disconsolate when Terry walked up to collect his trophy (a digital clock-radio, which he still has on the table beside his bed). It was new South Melbourne president Graeme John. In contrast, Terry was in a great mood to celebrate and the party lasted until the early hours of the morning. Later he would receive one last accolade for his performance in the Big V when Adelaide radio station 5KA sent him an in-car cassette player for being voted the Sound Four Player of the Match. Terry promptly had the unit installed in his Cortina. Two weeks after the state game, Parkin was wishing he again had Terry on his side. In another commanding performance, the 21-yearold kicked seven goals, guiding the Bombers to a thrilling eight-point victory over Hawthorn at Princes Park. Terry now led the VFL goal kicking table, with 43 in 10 games, three clear of Collingwood’s Craig Davis and Footscray’s Kelvin Templeton. He also led voting in most newspaper awards, including those run by The Age, Truth, The Sporting Globe and Sun. Following the win, Trevor Grant (his picture by-line featured hair over his ears and a classic 1970s moustache) interviewed Terry. Once more, a familiar theme permeated the piece. Terry was only in Melbourne because of football. Despite all he was achieving, he could not take his mind off the farm. ‘I guess my heart is still back in the bush,’ he told Grant. ‘They are waiting back there for me, you know. To me, life on the land will always be the best thing in the world. I’ve got a lot of mates back home and I don’t think I could live for any length of time in the Melbourne bustle.’ With experts and punters now tipping him to boot 100 goals for the season, Terry fired up for the round 11 clash with his former club, hoping to further demoralise the Swans, who had won just three games. In fact, South Melbourne was in disarray. Des Tuddenham had been sacked when the Swans failed to make the finals in ’78. Ian Stewart was back after an ill-fated stint at Carlton, although he was again letting his emotions get the better of him. To the shock of reporters covering the

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Swans’ game against Footscray, Stewart wept openly before them after the Bulldogs won by eight goals. Shortly after, South general manager Oberon Pirak, one of the men involved in trading the Danihers, resigned because he had lost faith in the club’s recruiting program. Terry was expected to enjoy another day out when Stewart brought his battling team to Windy Hill. But, in a twist of fate, his dream run ended at the hands of none other than Neville Fields. During the third quarter, with the Bombers holding a narrow lead, Terry was scrambling for the ball on the ground when Fields collected him with an elbow. Terry jumped up, appealing for a free kick. Then his face began throbbing. ‘I staggered back to the goal square and tried to play on with it,’ he says. ‘But I couldn’t close my mouth.’ Terry’s front teeth were loose and he was bleeding from the mouth. ‘I’m not too sure it was an accident,’ he would later tell Lou Richards. Essendon’s trainers rushed him from the field. It was clear his jaw was badly broken. After a quick trip to the Sacred Heart Hospital in Moreland, he was transferred across the city to the Alfred Hospital, where the bad news was confirmed. Terry’s lower jaw had fractures in two places. Doctors immediately wired the teeth into place, however he would need to wait until Tuesday for a further operation to insert a metal plate in the worst break. A spell of 10 to 12 weeks on the sidelines appeared inevitable. It was a massive blow for Terry and left a big hole in the Bombers’ forward line. And, for an outdoors man, sitting in a hospital bed was infuriating. Terry became so fed-up with waiting around for the operation that on the Monday afternoon he checked himself out and headed to the gym at Windy Hill. To the amazement of his teammates, he completed a one-hour weights session, with bandages on his head and a hospital name tag still around his wrist. The following day he had surgery and upon shaking off the anaesthetic, asked to go home so he could begin running again. Heading back to North Essendon, Terry knew he would barely be able to open his mouth for nearly two months. Richards was the first reporter to interview him about the incident. ‘I have been told my jaw will be wired for at least six weeks,’ Terry told him. ‘Fancy going that long without a solid meal — I am dying for a steak already.’ His diet for the next six weeks consisted of thick shakes, smoothies and pumpkin soup.

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Despite feeling the wrath of the Bombers’ fans, Fields finished the match impressively, his efforts winning him a mention in South’s best players and somewhat making up for a disastrous showing against his former club the year before. Yet the Swans could by no means claim the deal to acquire Fields was working out in their favour. With Terry in hospital, the other Daniher they gave away stepped up to play a key role in Essendon’s gutsy victory. Neale’s 23 possessions in defence saw him narrowly pipped for best-on-ground honours by Paul Van Der Haar, whose wild hair and thick beard were a sight to behold. In his brother’s absence, Neale’s form improved each week as the Bombers just kept winning. Lining up in a defence led by veteran skipper Ken Fletcher, he was their most effective rebounding player in a shock win over flag favourite North Melbourne. By the time Essendon defeated Footscray to win its ninth match in a row, Neale was attracting more attention than many of his more seasoned team-mates. ‘Daniher is the recruit of the year,’ stated Inside Football. ‘The Bombers’ defence . . . is a springboard for attack. And Daniher has a lot to do with that development.’ After observing his steely determination, yet calm approach to the game, Lou Richards dubbed him The Iceman. ‘I played fairly unemotionally I suppose,’ Neale says, recalling the time. Essendon’s form saw it emerge as a challenger for the premiership. The club was the biggest drawcard in town. Almost 45 000 people squeezed into Princes Park for the Bombers’ next meeting with top team Carlton. Aiming for ten wins on the trot, their bubble finally burst as Mark Maclure led the Blues to a 43-point win. Evidence of Neale’s standing with the coaching staff came when, aged 18, he was given the task of quelling Maclure, regarded as one of the VFL’s best players, during the first half. He was given a reality check by the big Blue but so were three other Bombers. Neale’s solid form continued in the following weeks, yet as often happens with young teams, Essendon faded badly, losing six of its last eight home-and-away matches. The slump even featured a loss to second-bottom side Melbourne at the MCG. Seven days earlier, the Demons had lost to Fitzroy by 190 points, a record winning margin that still stands. ‘If Melbourne players were racehorses, stewards would call in the vets to swab the lot,’ exclaimed

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John Rice in the Sun. Little-known forward Robert Walters might have been the first swabbed. He emerged from obscurity to kick nine goals. The only bright point for the Bombers was the courageous return of Terry Daniher. Eight weeks since breaking his jaw, and just days after having the wire removed, Terry began on the bench before entering the play, replacing Neale at full-forward, and booting four goals. Every time he went near the ball, the Essendon supporters showed their appreciation by cheering loudly. His recovery had been aided by a week’s break at home on the farm, where the fresh air, sunshine and Edna’s cooking raised his spirits. Terry’s inspirational return failed to stop the Bombers dropping to fifth place on the ladder by round 21. With Geelong making a late charge, they needed a win over South Melbourne to ensure a topfive berth. It was always a big build-up when Terry did battle with his former club. This time the hype was even greater, given what transpired in the previous meeting. Concerns were raised about Terry’s ability to overcome any mental scars that might remain from the clash with Fields and the broken jaw. All such worries were cast aside on match day. Both Terry and Neale demoralised the club that had given them away. In most newspapers they shared best-on-ground honours. Neale, enjoying a rare start on the half-forward line, kicked a wayward 3.5, while also delivering a number of pinpoint passes to his brother, who booted seven goals. ‘Essendon’s Terry and Neale Daniher made the South Melbourne Football Club look like fools,’ began one match report. The brothers had combined to scored 10 of their team’s 13 goals. ‘Neale and Terry both have a nice sense of timing and Neale in particular is a very cool customer,’ a very happy Davis said after the match. Essendon was certain to play in the finals for the first time since 1973. However, there was another hiccup for Terry as September neared. During the match he had tired of the constant scragging from South full-back Max Kruse. The two men were mates, yet on the field they were fierce competitors. Terry felt there was only one way to quell Kruse’s annoying tactics. So he punched him. ‘I went whack but I didn’t quite have my thumb cocked,’ Terry remembers. His thumb hyper-extended, tearing its supporting ligaments. Suddenly it was

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simply hanging freely from his hand. Ignoring the pain, he ordered the trainers to strap it up so he could get through the game. To finish with seven goals was a rather miraculous achievement. ‘The ball was coming in pretty well so I still kicked a few,’ he says modestly. Given the severe nature of the injury, Terry was forced to watch the round 22 match against Richmond from the stands. The Tigers made the most of his absence to finish what had been a disappointing year on a high. For the Dons, a 59-point loss was far from ideal preparation for a knock-out final. With X-rays showing a number of small bone fractures, Terry knew his thumb could not heal in time for the elimination final meeting with fourth-placed Fitzroy. But he was not fazed by the prospect of playing injured. Already robbed of Van Der Haar and Keenan through injury, the coach was desperate to have him out there as well. Before the last training session, Terry had a pain-killing injection and a plastic cast fitted. Davis put him through a simple fitness test. If he could mark the ball, he was in. Terry gritted his teeth, put the pain aside, and wrapped his hands around a few short passes. He was selected at full-forward, Neale on the half-back flank. The spate of injuries meant the Bombers were going to need a special performance to keep their season alive. Simon Madden played with broken bones in his hand. Robert Hyde (bad knee) and Ron Andrews were also struggling. The rugged defender did take to the field, although he needed a cumbersome brace to support his knee. ‘We were a bloody team of walking wounded, we all had painkillers,’ Terry says. ‘Didn’t do much good.’ As a contest, the match lasted barely ten minutes. Fitzroy blew it apart in a brilliant first quarter. Inspired by former Carlton centre half-forward Robert Walls, the Lions, playing in their first finals match for 19 years, led nine goals to one at the opening break. They were never challenged thereafter. At half-time, the Daniher brothers had registered both of their team’s pitiful two goals. Fitzroy had 11 on the board. The Essendon forward line was described as a shambles. Terry was struggling but he was not the only one. The final margin of 81 points was a record for an elimination final. The Bombers had been completely unable to cope with the late-season pressure. Neale and

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Terry trudged off. They were bitterly disappointed but confident there would be plenty more finals to come. Davis, on the other hand, could not have been more downcast. He contemplated quitting as coach. ‘At the moment I’d be just as glad to walk out,’ he told Sun reporter Greg Baum. ‘I’ll have to decide whether it’s partly my fault or we just don’t have the material.’ A few days later Neale was voted the VFL’s Recruit of the Year, an award nowadays known as the Rising Star. He had played all 23 matches in his debut season and already had a reputation as one of the league’s best defenders. Terry headed off for an operation on his injured thumb. The procedure, done using only local anaesthetic, was quite an eye-opener. ‘It just deadened my arm. They put it on a table and sliced her open while I was watching. I’ve never been in such a lather of sweat.’ A piece tendon from Terry’s forearm was used to reconstruct the thumb’s support. ‘They hadn’t done a lot of them. They just used a normal old drill and drilled holes in the bone. At one stage I felt a nick from the knife and almost jumped out of the bed. They almost had to put me right out. I only just lasted. I said “For god’s sake, bloody hurry up!” As it turned out, the surgeon did a great job.’ His fine form up forward (57 goals in 15 games) during the season meant Terry was voted Essendon’s most popular player by readers of Truth, for which he received $250. More importantly, he gained an invitation to the Brownlow Medal count. He polled 13 votes, despite missing seven matches, finishing nine shy of the winner, Peter Moore. Shortly after, the Collingwood ruckman played in his second losing grand final with the Magpies, this time going down to a Wayne Harmes–inspired Carlton. Despite their club’s inglorious end to the year, Essendon people felt they were assembling enough talent to win a premiership in the coming seasons.

CHAPTER TEN

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erry and neale Daniher were expected to be among the

brightest stars of the 1980s. According to the newspaper pundits, a flag was imminent for their team. Essendon just had to find a cure for its late-season fadeouts. An off-season recruiting campaign appeared to strengthen the Bombers’ squad. Erratic forward Phil Carman was the highest profile addition. Originally from Edenhope in Western Victoria, Carman had proven a brilliant player at Collingwood, winning the club best-and-fairest and finishing third in the Brownlow Medal in 1975, despite missing nine games through injury. But his reputation was tarnished when he was suspended for striking Michael Tuck in the 1977 second semi-final. A two-match ban meant he missed the drawn grand final against North Melbourne and the replay. Magpie fans, and many people at the club, felt his lack of discipline had cost them a first premiership since 1958. Carman was shipped off to Melbourne in 1979, where his relationship with coach Carl Ditterich deteriorated soon after his arrival. A subsequent transfer brought him to Windy Hill, where Barry Davis had the big job of making him the star everyone thought he should be. ‘If Davis can discover what makes Carman tick he will have solved one of the world’s great mysteries,’ read the Inside Football season preview.

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Highly rated ex-Footscray centreman Alan Stoneham also arrived at the Bombers and was expected to help ensure plentiful supply to a forward line described by Geoff Poulter (now working for Truth) as an ‘attack where the talent is frightening’. Poulter went on to label Terry Daniher the equal of any key forward in the league. Inside Football agreed, listing Terry among the players tipped to become the superstars of the ’80s. Another solid summer on the farm meant Terry was confident a big season lay ahead. Neale was similarly excited. He had begun his second year of study at RMIT, although this time choosing living arrangements he hoped would provide a few less distractions. One year of fun and frivolity at Newman College was enough. ‘It was too full-on, all the partying,’ he recounts. ‘If I was fair dinkum about my footy I had to get out of there.’ Initially, Neale lived on his own, before moving in with Terry and a mate from university. Later, the Danihers and teammate Peter ‘Scrubber’ Bennett, who two years prior had been bundled into the deal that took them to Essendon, rented a place together As it turned out, that two-bedroom share-house (Bennett drew the short straw and set up camp in the lounge room) in Keilor proved more boisterous than college. Always keen for a party, Terry ensured both the lounge room and fridge were rarely empty. The trio’s diet was not exactly ideal for elite athletes. ‘We lived on pizzas and we loved those bloody cheesecakes and ice-cream, we all had a sweet tooth,’ Terry explains. ‘People used to come around and they were just fascinated by the pizza boxes, cheesecake boxes and empty beer bottles all over the place. But we enjoyed a good roast. Whenever we went home we’d always kill a couple of lambs and bring back plenty of meat. We’d go through that and it was back to takeaway.’ The coach discovered the Danihers’ dietary issues when he paid them a visit. ‘I knocked on the door and there was no-one home,’ Davis remembers. ‘So I went around the back. There was a stack of pizza at the back door. It was the highest stack of pizza boxes I’d ever seen in my life. That was on one side. On the other was stubbies. They were piled up to the top of the door.’ Despite his love of a good time, Terry was again among the most committed players on the training track. And the 1980 pre-season

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was the most demanding yet in the Davis reign. Desperate to ensure his team lived up to its potential, the coach made his men train five nights per week in February. When the practice matches began the Bombers were fit and ready for action. They defeated Collingwood in a high standard game, played before an estimated 11 000 people in the Wimmera town of Warracknabeal. Sporting a hairstyle that covered his neck and ears, yet featured enough length on top to narrowly avoid being termed a ‘mullet’, Neale was straight back into stride with an impressive performance in defence. Other valuable contributions came from Van Der Haar and Simon Madden, who, at the tender age of 21, had taken over the captaincy from stalwart Ken Fletcher. ‘Looking at the future, the inclusion of Terry Daniher will surely make Essendon a final five prospect again this year,’ read one match report. Having sat out the trip to the bush, Terry returned for an AFC Escort Cup meeting with SANFL premiers Port Adelaide at VFL Park. Mark Williams (later a Collingwood player and Port Adelaide Power coach) dominated in the centre as the South Australian Magpies almost pulled off a major upset. Down by 18 points at three-quarter time, the Bombers were saved by Van Der Haar, his inspiration sparking an eight-goal final term. Davis blasted the players’ attitude, fearing some were already getting ahead of themselves. Unfortunately for fans of the red and black, the scrappy effort against Port Adelaide was a sign of things to come. Essendon made an inconsistent start to the season. Narrowly beaten by North Melbourne at Windy Hill in round 1, the Bombers soon reached third on the ladder, thanks to a courageous win over Richmond (Carman was beston-ground) and another defeat of South Melbourne. But a slump followed and they lost four of their next five matches. Carman was ruled out for the remainder of the year thanks to a 20-week suspension for headbutting a boundary umpire then striking Gary Sidebottom during a typically fiery clash with St Kilda at Moorabbin. Terry’s form was among Davis’s other key concerns. Kept goalless by the Kangaroos, his gun forward had suffered a badly bruised hip against the Tigers and struggled to recover. He contracted a bout of the kicking yips and failed to boot his first goal of the season until round 6, when he slotted three in a five-point win over Fitzroy. In round 7, Terry was finally

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back to his old self, leading and marking with surety while kicking six in a dominant display against Geelong. But that was not enough to win the game for his team, the loss dropping it out of the top five. ‘We’re blasé about it all,’ despaired Crackers Keenan in the rooms afterwards. A week later Terry booted another seven goals as Essendon put Royce Hart’s diabolical Footscray side to the sword. The Bombers remained seventh, although Terry’s confidence was back and the team was ready to mount a challenge. As was now the standard routine, the Daniher family would travel to Melbourne each Easter to watch the boys run around. Anthony was already playing senior football in the Riverina, so 14-year-old Chris and his younger sisters (there were still five girls living at home) piled into the station wagon behind Jim and Edna for the seven-hour journey. It was often said the Daniher offspring all looked the same. During one visit to the city, Colleen, now aged 13, discovered this fact, much to her embarrassment. She was standing near her parents in the change rooms at Windy Hill when one of the players walked up and ruffled her short hair. ‘I hope you grow up and play footy like your brothers,’ she was told. ‘But I’m a girl,’ came the indignant reply. In those days, the clan stayed in an apartment in St Kilda. The children would count down the days until these trips. Going to the beach was among the grandest adventures they knew. On Saturday mornings, before heading to the game, they usually called in at Terry, Neale and Scrubber’s place. Edna especially wanted to make sure the boys were looking after themselves. They kept her bluffed by cleaning out all the pizza boxes prior to her arrival. These visits were a rude awakening for Scrubber, given his sleeping area was also the lounge. Terry remembers one particular morning when Scrubber was sleeping soundly until the Daniher clan arrived. ‘The kids were jumping all over him and turning on the TV,’ he says. ‘The poor bugger just had to get up.’ Neale was not a fan of such pre-game distractions. Yet for him the season had been a most consistent affair – no dreaded second year blues for ‘Rowdy’. The nickname story accepted by most is that Neale was much quieter than his older brother but Terry insists it was because Neale became very boisterous and loud after a few beers.

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Neale was not one to make a scene like Crackers (not when sober anyway). He just got the job done week after week. Now wearing the number 6 guernsey, he seemed to possess an ability to predict where the opposition would deliver the ball. This enabled him to consistently intercept passes, after which he would dash off down the field, often taking a couple of bounces, before hitting a leading forward on the chest. Supporters of all clubs marvelled at the young man’s courage and skill, as did the Victorian selectors. At the age of 19, Neale played his first state game against Queensland at the Gabba and handled himself with predictable aplomb. While the Vics won by 80 points with Richmond star Michael Roach kicking eight goals, it was a match that gave VFL administrators confidence that Australian Rules had a future in the far north. A crowd of more than 16 000 turned out on a Sunday, and Queensland’s coach, Norm Dare, later to spend some time at the helm of the Brisbane Bears, was content with his team’s effort, despite the margin. The reason became clear after the game when Dare revealed his aim had been to get within 15 goals of the almighty Vics. He was delighted to have achieved that with 10 points to spare. Later in the season Neale played for Victoria a second time, in a State-of-Origin match against South Australia. He partly attributed his brilliant form to a decision made early in the season. For the round 4 game against St Kilda at Moorabbin, he had decided to hitch a ride in the Cortina with Terry. Ever the joker, Terry had laughed and bantered all the way to the match. Pre-game nerves were not his thing. At a set of traffic lights on the Nepean Highway, he took the hi-jinks to a new level. ‘I noticed our team-mate Steve Carey was in front of me,’ Terry says. ‘I started bumping up the back end of him and part of his bumperbar fell off. Steve got the shits with me. Neale started cracking it. ‘Wake up to yourself’, he kept saying. I thought it was bloody funny. I told Neale to settle down and relax. ‘Get fired up when you’re ready to run out’, I said to him.’ Neale liked to prepare for matches in a quiet, calm manner. Once inside the change rooms, his routine involved sitting and thinking about the tasks ahead. No shouting. No pushing and shoving. No throwing rolled up bits of tape. Basically, no acting like Terry. ‘We used to get in the rooms, kicking floaters and carrying on like larrikins,’

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Terry recalls. ‘Neale used to be with the other blokes in another room. He’d be reading the program and thinking about the contest ahead. To me that was never a big issue. I never thought much about it. It was a matter of running across the white line and getting into it. I knew what I had to do.’ Neale drove himself to subsequent games and always arrived feeling far more ready to play. It should not be assumed that Neale lacked the ability to have a good time; the opposite, in fact. Once the final siren sounded each Saturday, he slowly emerged from his trance-like state and became one of the boys. In those days, the post-match period was a relaxed affair. After walking into the room, the players would be briefly addressed by Davis, before sharing in slabs of beer. Rehydration came in the form of a VB can. At least a third of the lads would light cigarettes and soon the room was a hazy, smoky den. Neale was not a talk-to-everyone, drink-all-night replica of Terry, but his weekends, like that of his teammates, were dominated by socialising, which was dominated by beer swilling. Neale just liked to do things his own way. ‘I’m really tense after the game,’ he told Herald reporter Mike Sheahan. ‘I bite at people sometimes and it takes me a while to settle down. I go home, rip the top off one and whack the telly on Channel 2 to watch the footy [replay]. I go back to the club about 8 o’clock when everything has settled down.’ Amid all the frivolity, Terry instituted one rule that could not be broken. No matter how hung-over you were on a Sunday, you had to get up and go for a run. Essendon players from that time still marvel at Terry’s extraordinary powers of recuperation after a long night on the town. On most Sundays he would drag Neale out of bed, insisting the two ‘go for a bit of a gallop’. This jog was rarely less than five kilometres. After that the boys would tuck into bacon and eggs, before heading to the VFA. Neale’s university homework was hastily completed when he had some free time. Adding to that, gatherings of the lads were by no means restricted to weekends. Even some of the Bombers’ most influential supporters made sure of that. Businessman Bruce Heymanson, a member of the prestigious Essendonians coterie group, was especially fond of hosting the players at his palatial home in Hawthorn. On many Wednesday nights, Heymanson’s wife, Rosalie, would cook dinner for a number

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of bachelors, usually including Terry, Neale and Paul Van Der Haar. Those invited were free to bring along any beverages they fancied. Terry and Neale always arrived with a box of Melbourne Bitter longnecks. Sometimes, these beers were lucky to make it to Hawthorn. The most infamous yarn about those times is often recited by both Terry and Heymanson. Both men tell differing versions but moulding the two together, it goes something like this. Terry often called in for a few quiet ones at the Ivanhoe Hotel (nowadays known as The Tote) in Collingwood, a watering hole where team-mate Peter Bennett pulled beers, which became known among the Essendon players as ‘Scrubber’s Pub’. During his visits he struck up a friendship with the publican, Mick Ryan. On this particular Wednesday, Ryan decided to take Terry on a pub crawl around Melbourne’s inner suburbs. By the time they returned to the Ivanhoe, both were ‘sozzled’. Neale and a couple of other Bomber boys met Terry at the bar where they purchased a carton of longnecks in preparation for a night of merriment at the Heymansons’ place. When it came time to head off, Terry carried the box of beers out to the Cortina and placed it on the roof while he unlocked the doors. He and the others then piled in and began driving towards Hawthorn. Pulling up at the first set of traffic lights, Neale noticed a police car next to them. Aware that he was most likely over .05, Terry remarked, ‘I’m just not going to look at them.’ The policeman in the passenger seat began winding down his window. Terry now had no option but to do that same. He feared the police were about to demand he take a breath test, but instead the copper leaned out of his car and said: ‘Excuse me mate, you might want to put those bottles on your back seat.’ The tale attracted much laughter when the pair finally sat down at the dinner table. ‘The Cortina had a vinyl roof,’ Terry jokes. ‘The box must have just gripped.’ Such adventures resulted in the weekly trip to the Heymansons’ place becoming one of the Daniher boys’ favourite activities. On some Wednesday evenings the party lasted so long that Van Der Haar would spend the night sleeping under the pool table. ‘As Sheeds said, “You’re never going to win a flag with a team full of Christians,” ’ Van Der Haar says. ‘You need the rouseabouts, the blokes who make life a bit more interesting. We had a good combination of that.’

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Dramatic form swings meant there was far less merriment on the field and by June Essendon’s season was in desperate need of some spark. The Bombers wanted wins, yet suffered a six-goal loss to Carlton at the SCG in a Sunday game televised live into Melbourne by Channel 7. Tough wins over the Demons and Hawthorn followed, leaving them four points behind the fifth-placed Swans, who were enjoying a brief revival. In round 12 they faced North Melbourne at a very muddy Arden Street Oval. Essendon lost by 29 points and the match was a disaster for Terry. Lou Richards laid the blame for Essendon’s scoreless second quarter squarely at his feet. ‘Key forward Terry Daniher was so deep in the horrors, his confidence so completely wrecked, it would have been a kindness if Essendon coach Barry Davis had replaced him instead of moving him,’ wrote Richards. Terry finished the game in the backline, where he watched Neale, Merv Neagle and Tim Watson bravely keep the Bombers alive until midway through the last quarter. North ruckman Gary Dempsey guided his side home. His extraordinary contribution included 40 possessions, 22 marks and 29 hit-outs. A loss to the Kangaroos, then second on the ladder, was no cause for crisis meetings, but the results of four ensuing matches would have farreaching repercussions. Essendon hosted top team Richmond at Windy Hill in round 13. In a nail-biting contest, the Bombers led for most of the afternoon before going down by 10 points. A berth in the finals, let alone the expected premiership charge, began looking highly unlikely. Terry’s two goals did little to boost his wavering confidence. Even the coach began openly questioning his position. When queried about his future by the press after the game, Davis declared he would resign if Essendon did not make the finals. ‘I’ll be out — and it will be my decision, not the match committee’s or anyone else’s,’ he said. Much of the blame for the latest loss had been directed his way, with Dons fans unhappy with the team’s excessive use of handball, especially in the last quarter when the game was on the line. The three matches to come sealed Davis’s fate. Essendon lost to lowly St Kilda by five points, Collingwood by four (Rene Kink booted the winning major) and a Rick Quade–inspired South Melbourne by the same narrow margin. That meant five losses by less than a goal

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for the season. Neale was very frustrated by the team’s form and the attitude of many players. ‘We had an after-match function at my place one night after we had lost,’ recalls Tim Watson. ‘We had a few beers and all that sort of stuff. Later in the night Neale could not believe Van Der was enjoying himself so much. He was really upset with Van Der. He said “You don’t care enough about your footy. This is serious.” That gave us a real insight into him.’ With just pride to play for, a breakthrough victory came at Windy Hill in round 17, when Merv Neagle booted the winning goal in a sixpoint win over battling Fitzroy. Simon Madden was the hero, kicking eight at full-forward. Terry was banished to full-back, yet he refused to sulk or complain. Instead he knuckled down and was among the Bombers’ best players, holding Lions spearhead Bob Beecroft to one goal. Another outstanding defensive performance followed two weeks later, when Terry held highly rated Footscray forward Shane Loveless to one kick. The effort earned him a spot at full-back in the Inside Football Ansett Airlines Team of the Week. Not to be outdone, Neale’s impressive display won him a place on the interchange bench. Amid what had been a disastrous season for Essendon, Neale’s form was among the few highpoints. Just in case there were doubters left, he was brilliant when Hawthorn visited Windy Hill for the final homeand-away match, collecting 29 possessions and booting a goal. Eight Sunscore votes boosted his final tally to 127, behind only Tim Watson (144), who was among the favourites for the Brownlow Medal, and Merv Neagle (137). Terry’s quiet afternoon against the Hawks reflected his year. It had been great in some patches and terrible in others. ‘Davis said that Terry Daniher, who represented Victoria last season, had gone backwards and fellow 1979 interstate player Gary Foulds had not played well throughout the season,’ Howard Leigh wrote in Inside Football after the Hawthorn game. Neale was now shading his brother. He confirmed his lofty standing by finishing third in the bestand-fairest, which was won by Tim Watson. But any hierarchies were about to be cast aside. As the Tigers blew away Collingwood to win the 1980 flag, Davis lived up to his word and resigned. He was a teaching and nurturing coach, very different to Ron

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Barassi who he played under in a premiership at North Melbourne. His downfall was his inability to engender a killer instinct in the young team. ‘Barry Davis was very organised . . . but he trusted everybody and had Vander and Ronny Andrews and all these lunatics running around taking advantage of him,’ Kevin Egan told Tim Watson for his book Kevin Sheedy, The Jigsaw Man. In an article published in the Australian Football Action magazine during 1981, Neale presented a similar view of the Davis reign. ‘Barry got his message across to me but some of the other players didn’t get it from what I could see.’ The exit of Davis allowed the Bombers to first chase Ron Barassi, whose contract at North Melbourne had finished. But he rejected their advances and returned to Melbourne. In the end, they went for an untried 33-year-old former plumber. Shortly after the grand final, in which he been involved as a Richmond assistant coach, Kevin Sheedy was appointed to Essendon’s top job. A three-time premiership player with the Tigers before retiring in 1979 with 255 games to his name, Sheedy departed Punt Road with the blessing of the club’s administration. ‘We really feel he’ll be a terrible pest to the yellow and black in future years,’ said vice-president Graeme Richmond. It would prove a prediction worthy of Nostradamus. An Essendon supporter growing up, Sheedy would be the first full-time senior coach in the game’s history. Professionalism was his buzz word. The laid-back culture at Windy Hill — the habit of head trainer John Kilby smoking a pipe in the change rooms while strapping ankles, the drinking on all nights of the week, the dank facilities — was to be cast aside. ‘I believe in playing football for premierships,’ Sheedy told reporters after club president Colin Stubbs announced his appointment. ‘I’m setting out to get the best out of the players here.’ With that, he declared pre-season training would commence on 20 October. It was to be the first of many shocks. Yet for the Danihers, Sheedy’s arrival would lay the foundations for a relationship that endures to this day.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JUST A NOTHER DA NIHER

F

or a time it seemed Kevin Sheedy’s reign would begin with the

addition of another young lad from Ungarie. Despite Jim’s early doubts, Anthony had developed into a fine player, causing the Swans and Bombers to squabble over his signature. But as his brothers had been, the tall, lanky and laconic 18-year-old was tied to South Melbourne by the VFL’s recruiting zone policy. Tormented by the decision to trade Terry and Neale, South was never going to give away a third Daniher. In late 1980, Anthony agreed to begin his league career at the Lake Oval. His journey to elite football had, like the journeys of his elder siblings, been punctuated by triumphs and high achievement. Anthony Daniher played junior football with the same half-asleep level of intensity that was Mark Waugh’s trademark on the cricket field. Blessed with natural talent, he rarely looked like he was trying. ‘He was very lackadaisical,’ Jim says. ‘He wasn’t quite as intense as these other fellas. Terry and Chris would attack the ball tremendously. They wanted the footy. Anthony was not so sure.’ This often frustrated his coaches, although Jim, who first gave him a run in the Under-12s when he was eight years old, was careful not to discourage his son. ‘He was extremely supportive,’ Anthony says. ‘He’d always encourage us to get out and have a kick. He always taught us how to play the game. He did that very well. But as far as weekend feedback and dialogue goes, there was never anything like that. He didn’t really say anything, positive or negative.’

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In contrast, his mother was sometimes annoyed by Anthony’s approach. Edna recalls becoming very frustrated one morning, when Anthony was casually gliding around the field in an Under-12 match for Ungarie. ‘I ran out on the ground at half-time and told him to start having a go,’ she says, grinning broadly. ‘After that he started really going in for the ball.’ Growing up on the farm, with plenty of space to practice, Anthony worked on the booming kicks that would become his trademark. In his early teenage years he could already use his long legs to boot the ball 50 or 60 metres. Big torpedo punts were his specialty. He also had to develop a competitive streak to complement his unflappable personality. It was impossible to get your hands on the footy in the backyard at Hillview if you didn’t. At the age of 15, in 1978, Anthony realised his potential when he began dominating junior games while switching between the ruck and centre half-forward. That year he won the Northern Riverina League’s Under-16 best-and-fairest. He received his trophy, the Brewer Cup, after leading Ungarie’s rising stars, including Chris, to yet another premiership. Unfortunately, not all the opposition clubs shared Ungarie’s passion for junior football. The West Wyalong Advocate reported the following week that ‘the young Magpies were never in trouble against Condo–Milby, whose side was rather depleted as Saturday was also the day of the Condobolin Show’. Eating fairy floss was obviously a far more appetising prospect for the Condo lads than playing in a grand final against a bunch of Danihers and their mates. It was later that afternoon when Neale became a hero by helping Ungarie’s senior team win the flag. In 1979, Anthony left school, moved to Wagga Wagga, and began a farm technology course, specialising in wool classing. Now 16, he was encouraged to gain the qualification by Jim because ‘back then it was all the rage to get a wool classer in the family, so you could manage your own flock’. The course, run by the Wagga Technical College, was supposed to run for two years, but Jim gained permission for Anthony to complete it in one. As a result, he attended both day and night classes. The boys were taken on many excursions, including one to a bull sale at the Narwonah Stud, near Tumbarumba. Anthony

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showed he could spot some quality beef by winning the Hereford judging competition. Given Terry’s achievements with South Melbourne and Essendon, the arrival of his tall and talented brother in Wagga had recruiting scouts from the local clubs in a frenzy. In the end Turvey Park, a club based in the rural city, won Anthony’s signature, mostly because his cousins, Michael and Peter Daniher, were already there. The Bulldogs were part of the strong South West league, the Sunday competition in which Terry spent a year with Ariah Park–Mirrool. At that stage, Anthony had not played a game of open-age football. The step-up from the Ungarie Under-16s to the Turvey Park seniors was huge. Two decades later, talented boys of the same age would be funnelled into development teams like the Murray Bushrangers or NSW/ACT Rams. Those lads would take on kids their own age until they were 18, but such a luxury was not available to Anthony. He was two years away from gaining his driver’s licence, yet he was thrown into battle against grown men. Hard and tough men at that. Turvey Park coach, star centreman Alan Hayes, initially played his teenaged recruit on the half-back flank, where Anthony impressed onlookers with his strong attack on the ball. He no longer needed the half-time rev-ups from Edna. Later in the season he moved to full-forward. Standing 190 centimetres tall and weighing 80 kilograms, he booted six goals in his first outing as the Bulldogs’ spearhead. Selection in the South West interleague team followed and Anthony travelled to Echuca for round 1 of the Winfield Country Football Championships against the powerful Goulburn Valley league. The souvenir program, emblazoned with an inviting packet of Winfield reds, contained profiles on all the players. For Anthony it read ‘has tremendous ability’. Coached by Ganmain footy legend Tom Carroll, who was the VFL’s leading goal kicker when playing with Carlton in 1961, South West fought hard but eventually went down by 35 points. The game-breaking blow came when captain Jim Prentice hobbled off with a knee injury. Although he struggled with the pace of that game, the experience held Anthony in good stead when he was again chosen to represent New South Wales in the Teal Cup carnival in Hobart. His height,

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strong hands, athleticism and polished skills impressed the many VFL scouts in the stands. The attributes especially caught the eye of Essendon’s recruiting staff, who were keen to add a third Daniher to their squad. Following the carnival, the Bombers despatched football manager Kevin Egan to the Riverina to have a brief chat with Anthony and a long one with Jim. Peter Baker, a reporter with Wagga Wagga’s newspaper, The Daily Advertiser, wrote about the meeting and even persuaded Essendon secretary Roy McConnell to comment on the matter. ‘We want Anthony to sign a release from South Melbourne to Essendon and then start negotiations for 1980,’ McConnell said. Jim desperately wanted all his sons playing at the same VFL club, so he instructed Anthony to sign the form. Not surprisingly, the Swans were furious when word of the approach reached the Lake Oval. They immediately lodged a complaint with the VFL. The league’s anti-poaching rules meant Essendon faced a fine of up to $100 000. VFL investigation officer Jack Chessell began reviewing the case. The key piece of evidence proved to be Baker’s article in The Daily Advertiser, in which the Bombers’ secretary admitted the club was making an approach to Anthony without South’s permission. Essendon was found guilty but fined only $2000, a relative slap on the wrist. It was back to concentrating on local footy, where Anthony was earning a big reputation. In June he was again selected in the South West interleague squad, this time to compete in the New South Wales Football Championship, at Narrandera. The event brought together the Sydney, Murray, Farrer and South West competitions in a tournament to decide the best in the state. Lining up in defence, Anthony was a stand-out as South West finished undefeated, thrashing Sydney by 103 points in the final. His reward was a spot in the New South Wales squad to play ACT in Canberra. New South Wales was coached by Allan Jeans, while ACT had former St Kilda hard-man Kevin ‘Cowboy’ Neale as its captain. It was a wonderful opportunity for a teenager, although Jeans dented Anthony’s confidence somewhat by naming him as an emergency for the game. Back at Turvey Park, Anthony’s season reached its personal high point when the Bulldogs took on Coolamon in the first semi-final.

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Named at centre half-forward, he was matched to the brother of his coach, a rugged defender by the name of Kenny Hayes. ‘He was a big, mean son-of-a-bitch,’ Anthony explains. ‘He was six foot four and had blonde hair and blue eyes. He was scary. I reckon I played ten yards away from him all day.’ The efforts to avoid any serious confrontations with his opponent did not stop Anthony dominating the game. He kicked seven goals from full-forward (six in the first half) but could not prevent his team losing by five points. On the field his footy season was finished, but the wrangling over his future continued. At first Anthony concentrated on finishing the farm technology course in Wagga. When he passed the final tests, with a commendable rather than outstanding degree of competency, he moved back to Ungarie. He was now a full-time farmer and was also sharing a bedroom with Chris once more. Harvest began, yet footballrelated issues kept interrupting the work. One afternoon the Danihers received a visit from new South Melbourne recruiting manager Greg Miller. He wanted Anthony to sign with the Swans and embark on a VFL career in 1980. Jim handled all of these negotiations. Adding to the complexity of the situation, he was still bitter about the way South had treated Terry three years earlier. Miller offered to take Anthony on the club’s footy trip to Bali. Jim accepted, perhaps momentarily forgetting the debauchery that is traditional on such jaunts. At the same time he insisted that was not a guarantee his son would sign a contract. The trip to Bali was a real eye-opener for Anthony, who had recently turned 17. Rick Quade helped him settle in among the boys and he enjoyed spending time with the Morwood brothers, Paul and Tony, along with older boys like Mark Browning and Francis Jackson. South’s administrators were very confident Anthony was about to sign with them as soon as he returned from the trip. Any doubts about his talent were erased when he was the standout player in a lightning premiership at the Lake Oval, in which the Swans pitted the best players from their Riverina recruiting zone against each other. Jim was then invited down to Melbourne for what South hoped would be a breakthrough meeting. But once again Jim declared his wish for Anthony to become a Bomber like his brothers. South’s manager’s frustration was clear when quoted by Inside Football. ‘He’s tied to us and

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he won’t be cleared,’ Barry Rogers said. ‘We’d like Tony to come down to play four or five games on match permits this season. We’re trying to convince him that he’s got something to prove here at South. If he went to Essendon he’d be just another Daniher and constantly compared to his brothers. He can make a name for himself on his own here.’ Jim was unconvinced. He did not trust the Swans. If Anthony could not play with Essendon, he was staying in the bush. That was that. ‘Dad knocked them back,’ Anthony says. ‘I had very little to do with any of that. But I understood South’s stand. At that stage Terry was flying, so they weren’t going to let another one go.’ His return to the farm meant Anthony needed a new club for the 1980 season. It was a two-hour drive from Ungarie to Wagga (210 kilometres), so another year with Turvey Park was ruled out. Many clubs approached Jim to enquire about his son’s future. Among them was Ganmain, which had appointed Tom Carroll as non-playing coach. Carroll had seen Anthony’s talent first-hand the previous season when he guided the South West interleague team. Almost 200 kilometres from Ungarie, Ganmain, then a bustling town of around 800 people, was not exactly close by. But Jim had the utmost respect for Carroll and told Anthony that if he played for the Maroons, he would buy him a new car. In the end, Jim’s bargaining skills ensured he received matchpayments that covered the cost of the car anyway. The deal was not completed until the eve of the season, in midApril. When it was done, a secondhand Ford Falcon was purchased and Anthony began his long treks south. Once a week he would make the four-hour round trip to training. For matches, his journeys were often at least that far, given Ganmain played against Wagga-based teams including his former club, Turvey Park. Anthony’s arrival was a boon for the battling Maroons. In 1979 they had been repeatedly thrashed and conceded more than 30 goals on numerous occasions. Fearing for the future of their club, the locals organised a recruiting campaign. Anthony’s arrival came after brilliant Aboriginal rover Joey Daby returned from Darwin. Daby booted three goals in the team’s opening-round fixture against Ardlethan but it was Anthony, playing at centre half-forward, who stole the show. Deep into the last quarter of a tough contest, Ganmain led by a point. A long

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kick sailed into attack and a pack formed. Anthony, looking dashing in the maroon jumper with a white V, leapt over the top, plucking a spectacular mark. From 50 metres out, he guided the ball through, ensuring Ganmain a first-up victory. A couple of weeks later, Anthony was in the news again thanks to a very successful weekend. On the Saturday, he led the Northern Riverina schoolboys team to victory in the Letona Cup, a day-long regional championship for players aged 17 and under. The following day he backed up by booting six goals for Ganmain, guiding the Maroons to a thrilling four-point win over Coolamon. In his ‘Carroll’s Corner’ column in The Daily Advertiser, Ganmain’s coach lauded his young star. ‘Daniher’s talent in the schoolboys ranks puts him a cut above the other players as he rucked and took telling marks all over the ground for Northern Riverina,’ Carroll wrote. ‘Daniher will develop into one of the top players in the South West this season. He is improving with every game.’ Another eye-catching performance, this time against local rivals Grong Grong–Matong, ensured Anthony would again enjoy his share of representative football. He made a solid contribution on the halfback flank in the South West team that was beaten by the Bendigo League in the opening round of the Winfield Championships. And a month later he embarked on a grand adventure to Perth for the Teal Cup. The nine team members from the Riverina travelled from Wagga to Sydney by train, then flew to Western Australia. ‘That was a daunting trip, especially for a young lad from the bush,’ Anthony says. Named the New South Wales vice-captain, he alternated between the forward line and the ruck, his height and long kicking ensuring he stood out in a team that enjoyed little success. ‘I only played good–average football from memory, I never set the world on fire.’ For the week-long carnival, the players were kept on a tight leash. They were billeted out with local families and Anthony spent a few enjoyable nights in the company of a used car salesman, his wife and children. When the Riverina boys returned to Wagga from their interstate campaign, a photographer from the local newspaper took their picture at the railway station. Anthony wore a big grin, hair that was short and very wavy, a tracksuit jacket and a flannelette shirt. Those warm shirts were among his favourite items of clothing.

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Following the excitement of the Teal Cup, Anthony returned to his duties on the farm and the Ganmain forward line. He continued to impress the crowds with booming goals as the Maroons tried in vain to qualify for the finals. Missing out was disappointing, yet Anthony and his fellow recruits had breathed new life into the club and its town. Far more cars had crowded around the dry and hard Ganmain oval than in the previous year. The local farmers, shearers and other rural workers certainly walked with renewed pride when the footy team was going well. Unfortunately the good times did not last. Two years later Ganmain could not field a team on its own. In 1982 it was forced to merge with its nearest rival, creating the superbly named Ganmain– Grong Grong–Matong Football Club. Anthony’s further improvement in 1980 resulted in another more concerted approach from South Melbourne. This time it was Quade leading the charge. Needing some financial clout to take into another round of negotiations with Jim, Quade went straight to the top. He convinced South chairman Jack Marks, a Jewish jeweller from Toorak, to accompany him on the trip to Ungarie. ‘I knew somewhere along the line money was going to come into this,’ Quade recalls. ‘I knew the club didn’t have any but I knew Jack had a fair quid.’ On New Year’s Day 1981, the pair travelled north in Marks’ blue Mercedes. When they arrived at Hillview, the place was well and truly alive. Jack and Beryl, along with Leo and Dorothy, were spending the day at Jim and Edna’s place. Between them, the three couples have 28 children. Quade remembers most of them being there that day. ‘Jack was from a pretty staid background and he wanted to watch a bit of the cricket. But the Daniher boys and girls had a game of cricket going that went from the lounge room out onto the verandah and into the back yard. When they got sick of that they started playing football. It was just one rolling maul all afternoon. It was like a banquet at a boarding school. It was the first time I’d seen Jack speechless.’ Edna served Quade and Marks a hearty lunch before the business dealings began. ‘We’d better go and have a yarn,’ Jim said in his typically laconic tone. He directed the men out to the garage. ‘Jim told us up front that he wasn’t happy with what happened with Terry and that the club still owned Terry some money, which I wasn’t

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aware of,’ Quade says. ‘I should’ve been because I hadn’t been fully paid for my last few years either.’ Marks assured Jim that Terry would receive his outstanding payment. Jim was initially unsure whether to believe him. Some assurance from Quade quelled those concerns. Finally a potential contract for Anthony was raised. ‘He didn’t want huge money, he just wanted to make sure Anthony would be looked after,’ says Quade. ‘He was basically saying to us, “Don’t treat Anthony like the old South Melbourne treated Terry.” ’ A guaranteed wage was promised and a handshake deal was done. Jim had given up on his dream of keeping the boys together, for the moment. Quade was a relieved man. ‘Without boasting about it, I think it was the connection between the Daniher and the Quade families that got the deal over the line,’ he says. Miller later drove to Ungarie to hand deliver the contract. Anthony’s eyes lit up when he read the details. As with all first-year players of the time he was entitled to an annual salary of around $25 000. The new car had cost him barely $5000. ‘I thought, “Gee, this is alright,” ’ he recalls. A third Daniher brother was on his way to the VFL. In late January a combined eighteenth birthday and send-off was held for Anthony at Ungarie’s Central Hotel. Shortly after, he loaded up the Falcon, drove down Daniher Lane, and began a new chapter in his life. Terry headed back to the city on the same day, so Anthony followed him all the way to Melbourne. But when they reached Flemington Road, Terry turned off and headed towards Essendon. Anthony needed to find his own way to Moorabbin, to the house of Vi Woods, where Terry had previously boarded. He had no idea where he was going and no-one had warned him about the road rules regarding trams. ‘I nearly cleaned up half a dozen people when the first tram stopped in front of me. I didn’t know you had to wait for the people to get off.’ Learning about hook turns was another matter altogether. Settling into city life proved easy enough for Anthony. South lined him up with a wool classing job in Laverton. Being surrounded by sheep’s wool and the smell of lanolin all day was a nice reminder of the farm. Training began straightaway at the Lake Oval. Although he was at a new club far from home, the Swans’ connection with the

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Riverina meant there were many familiar faces on the track. Among them was his first cousin Rod (a son of Leo), who was trying out for the Under-19s, and Brett Scott, a talented centreman from The Rock– Yerong Creek, a club near Wagga Wagga. Dennis Carroll, nephew of the Ganmain coach, was also in the squad. Rod returned home after a few weeks. Scott, on the other hand, later played 59 senior games over eight injury-plagued seasons. In 1993 he had another 15 minutes of fame when he coached the Sydney Swans for a week following the sacking of Gary Buckenara. Carroll achieved great success, playing 219 games and captaining the club between 1986 and ’92. Anthony enjoyed his new surroundings. Even South’s decaying facilities did not seem too bad. ‘Looking back they were absolutely terrible,’ he says. ‘But for a boy from Ungarie they were great.’ As the practice matches loomed he was hopeful a spot in the seniors was not out of reach. He trained hard. He wanted to prove his potential to Ian Stewart. Across at Essendon, his brothers were facing a similar challenge. Their new coach was demanding all they could give.

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the Daniher lads were happy to work hard, because the arrival of Kevin Sheedy was a rude shock to many at Essendon. A culture of hoping for success rather than expecting it was about to be turned on its head. When pre-season began in late October 1980 — just six weeks after the Bombers’ final game — changes were everywhere. Sheedy had ordered the players’ facilities at Windy Hill be painted and new carpet laid. Smoking in the rooms was banned. Many of the team’s brightest stars now had to light up on the footpath outside the social club. The training track was where Sheedy set the bar highest. In partnership with new fitness coach, Peter Power, who had also moved across from Richmond, the Bombers were mercilessly whipped into shape. Five nights a week they trained, the sessions including both running and, right from the start, skill work. Often they lasted more than three hours. Sheedy brought with him a fierce determination. He wanted only the toughest players to survive. It had been that way at Richmond under Tom Hafey and later Tony Jewell. On Friday mornings, compulsory running was done at a track near the presentday Melbourne Park. These would start between 5.30 and 6 am. If some of the boys were not putting in, Sheedy would make them do tackling drills in the murky dawn light. After the session finished, they would all trudge off to work. Other gruelling hit-outs took place at the

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Tan running track, around Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. Sheedy did not care if some boys broke down due to overwork. He knew he had a very talented list at his disposal. This was his idea for ending its recent history of underachievement. Tough men like Ronnie Andrews would arrive home from Windy Hill so tired they could not eat. Yet they could see the benefits. A regular in the seniors, Andrews could not kick on his left foot or handball with his left hand. Sheedy made him practise until he could do it. Many players despised the new regime. In contrast, the Daniher brothers just knuckled down and did their bit, although even they were shocked by the workload. Sheedy clearly remembers his first impressions of the boys from Ungarie. ‘They were pretty relaxed, pretty carefree,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘They said, “This is Bomber-land, don’t give us that serious stuff. We want to do alright but gee you’re training us hard.” ’ Terry actually enjoyed the increased intensity. He set the pace in most endurance running exercises. The focus on running did not so impress Neale. He was more keen on the ball work. But as usual, he did whatever he was told. Sheedy took an immediate liking to the Danihers and their strong work-ethic. ‘They were very dedicated, loved a beer, and I could see they would be the cornerstone of the side. They were serious about their footy. They were very serious.’ In January 1981, a pre-season trip to Surfers Paradise bonded the squad for a big year ahead. Among the group was Neville Fields. The man traded to South for the Danihers had now been handed back, at 29 years of age, and for nothing. Sheedy let them all have a bit of fun, most of it at various pubs and nightclubs. Yet when they returned to Melbourne the law was laid down. Anyone caught breaking team rules would be out of the team. An early practice match victory over St Kilda was followed by a 33-point defeat of Carlton at the dry and dusty Skinner Reserve in Sunshine. The Bombers then made a successful start in the night series, thumping Fitzroy by seven goals. Reporters noted the team was now playing a long-kicking, more direct style of football, in contrast to the handball-happy game plan favoured by Davis. Those early games gave Sheedy a solid idea about where the Daniher boys were at. ‘I thought Neale was better than Terry,’ he remembers.

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Neale was selected on the half-back flank and Terry at fullforward for Essendon’s first home-and-away match under its new coach against Geelong at Kardinia Park. A crowd of more than 37 000 watched a scrappy but close tussle. Scores were level at three-quarter time before the Cats edged away to win by 6 points. It was not the glorious start to the Sheedy reign that many Bombers fans had hoped for. Terry finished with two goals, and he and Neale both gained a mention among the best players. Pint-sized West Australian recruit Tony ‘Budgie’ Buhagiar was Essendon’s most impressive contributor, while Ron Andrews, who earlier in the pre-season was convicted and fined $300 for assaulting a bouncer at a Williamstown pub, held the backline together. Sheedy was already convinced Neale was the Daniher heading for stardom, and his opinion of the brothers’ talents was further strengthened a week later. Although Ron Barassi had moved on, North Melbourne was still regarded as a VFL power club. But in round 2, Neale tore the Kangaroos to shreds. The 20-year-old was best-on-ground as the Bombers proved a point with an upset victory. ‘Essendon has reached the promised land,’ wrote Lou Richards (with help from Greg Baum) in the Sun. ‘The long years in the wilderness are over — the promise has been fulfilled. At least, that’s the message Kevin Sheedy’s revitalised Bombers spelled out loud and clear with their two-goal win at Windy Hill on Saturday.’ In a match where Terry was quiet, Neale drew high praise from Richards for ‘doing many good things and no bad things’. In round 3 came the grudge match the football world had been anticipating all summer: Kevin Sheedy versus Richmond. ‘This will be one of the great games of the 80s,’ Sheedy said during the buildup. ‘Certainly it will be strange working flat-out against my old side, but we can win it.’ Almost 62 000 people headed to the MCG and the match lived up to the hype. With Neale again dominating in defence, Essendon led by 26 points at the last change. Then Tony Jewell’s reigning premiers, who had earlier unveiled their flag, burst into action. The Tigers, led by centre half-forward David Cloke, kicked seven goals to two in a gripping final quarter and hit the lead deep into time-on. With two minutes left, Phil Carman — back in the Bombers’ team after serving out his 20-week suspension — had a shot for goal from 35 metres out to steal back the game. ‘Talk about saw your leg

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off!’ Richards would harshly write in Monday’s Sun. ‘Essendon’s controversial Phil Carman had the chance of a lifetime to win the game against Richmond . . . and blew it.’ The Tigers won by four points. Rover Dale Weightman was best afield. Carman played only three more games in red and black before being shunted off to North Melbourne. Sheedy’s innovative tactic of switching his men between many positions during the game was another talking point in the following days. He had used four players, including Terry, at full-forward during different stages. Terry finished the day with two goals. He was making a steady, yet unspectacular, start to the year. Unfortunately his progress was slowed further when one of his team-mates accidentally ran a stop down the back of his leg at training, leaving a deep gash and his Achilles tendon visible. Terry needed 15 stitches to close the wound, was on crutches for a week and missed two matches. Despite giving up a big lead, the loss to Richmond was regarded as a positive performance from the young Bombers. Although Terry, Tim Watson and Paul Van Der Haar were all out injured, the subsequent narrow defeats at the hands of Hawthorn, Fitzroy and Footscray were not. After going down to the Hawks on Easter Monday, Essendon’s players were accused of being too cocky. Ron Andrews and Neale were among the few boys to escape Sheedy’s wrath. Terry’s injury meant he spent a frustrating afternoon sitting in the stands with Jim, Edna and half-a-dozen of his youngest siblings. The entire family had hoped to watch 18-year-old Anthony make his South Melbourne senior debut against Fitzroy two days prior, but he was again selected in the reserves. There were no such setbacks for Neale. His consistently good form earned him selection in the Victorian team to play Western Australia at Subiaco Oval. The trip was a nightmare for the Victorians. An air hostess strike forced the cancellation of commercial flights to Perth. As a result, the Vics travelled in two small twin-engine planes that took more than ten hours to complete the journey. So dire were the conditions on board, the players resorted to using a plastic hose and bottle as a urinal. A door on one aircraft looked set to blow open, until the pilot landed at Whyalla in South Australia and a local farmer

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bound it shut with chicken wire. ‘There was no food or drink on board and even Dale Weightman (the smallest man in the squad at 170 cm) could not stand up straight,’ complained coach Tony Jewell, when the team finally arrived in Perth at midnight. Just 12 hours later, the Sandgropers made the most of their opponents’ ordeal, running out 29-point winners. Neale showed all his usual poise and kicked a goal. Simon Beasley booted six for Western Australia. Back at Essendon it was crisis time. Six weeks into the season the Bombers had a 1–5 win–loss record. They were tenth on the ladder. Sheedy himself was under fire. For a time he even considered pulling the boots on for the first time since 1979. Writing in Inside Football, Doug Wade teed off. ‘It’s time for a cleanout at Essendon. Despite all the pre-season promises and predictions . . . the Bombers have crashed again.’ Wade singled out a host of big names for criticism. Terry was among them. ‘Time and time again these players have let the Bombers down in pressure situations. It seems that either they just don’t have the mental toughness required to succeed in VFL football, or they just want to take the easy way out.’ Sheedy eventually shelved thoughts of a comeback and his team responded by battling its way past St Kilda at Windy Hill in round 7. Both coach and Essendon supporters were delighted when Terry returned from the foot injury to play his finest game of the season to date against the Saints. He kicked two goals and collected numerous possessions, alternating between the goal square and centre half-forward. No-one predicted what would happen the following week. On a Sunday afternoon, 79 326 people turned out to see the Bombers take on Collingwood. The attendance surpassed the previous record crowd for a match at VFL Park, which was then just ten years old and regarded as a state-of-the-art venue. ‘That’s what Sunday football is all about — providing comfort in the way of seats for our magnificent football public,’ said VFL president Dr Allen Aylett. It was among the first signs that the tradition of standing in the outer at suburban grounds was coming to an end. Unpredictable things happened on the field that afternoon as well. Essendon thrashed the previously unbeaten Magpies by 57 points. With Terry playing up the ground, Simon Madden proved the

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match-winner, booting seven goals. Buhagiar continued his outstanding debut season by amassing 30 possessions. Neale was also named in the Bombers’ best, as he was again a week later when they beat Melbourne to make it three wins on the trot. Was Essendon now the real deal? The Bombers answered that question emphatically in round 10 when they kicked away from top team Carlton in the second half to score a 35-point victory. Such was the interest in the match, the Windy Hill gates had to be locked at 2 pm, with a capacity crowd of 30 574 jammed inside the ground. Then came the first case of divided loyalties in the Daniher family. Six weeks earlier, Anthony had debuted in the South Melbourne senior team against Footscray, only to be relegated to the reserves for another month. This did not mean he escaped Ian Stewart’s frequent meltdowns. Although Anthony was not in the team that lost to Carlton by 99 points (despite leading by three goals at quarter time) at Princes Park in round 9, he was forced to suffer the consequences with the rest of the squad. In a particularly vengeful bout of fury, Stewart abandoned Monday night training and instead demanded all the players travel to the Tan running track at the Botanic Gardens. Once there, he declared they all had to run two laps (7.6 kilometres) in less than 31 minutes. It was freezing cold, pitch black, and rain was pouring down. The boys were still sore after the weekend. The run was an ordeal. Seventeen players failed to achieve the time required. Among them was Anthony. He and the other 16 were given a five minute break then told to complete another lap (3.8 kilometres) in under 15 minutes. Off they went again. ‘I ran that in about 15-and-a-half,’ Anthony says. ‘I was totally stuffed.’ This time a dozen players missed the target time. Steward ordered them to return and try again at six o’clock the next morning. The same challenge was set out: one lap in less than 15 minutes. ‘Anthony ran like there was no tomorrow. He scraped in with a few seconds to spare. He can smile about it now. ‘I’d run four laps of the Tan in 12 hours,’ he says, laughing. ‘It was a disaster.’ At least there was some reward a couple of weeks later. He earned a recall for the round 11 meeting with Essendon — played on the Queen’s Birthday public holiday — and fronted up against his now-

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famous brothers. In the days before the game a picture was published in the Sun showing Anthony at work. Dressed as usual in a flannelette shirt, he was surrounded by fleeces at the wool store and grinning from ear to ear. ‘It will be the first time I’ve played against Terry and Neale since games on the front lawn at home,’ he told Lou Richards in the accompanying article. On game day, Jim and Edna listened for score updates on the radio up at Ungarie, while Neale, sensing a challenge from his younger sibling, rose to the challenge. He controlled the game, was unanimously voted best-on-ground, and helped the Bombers win a tough contest by 28 points. Anthony’s contribution in defence drew praise from Ian Stewart. ‘He’s the sort of player you have no worries with,’ said the South coach after the game. ‘He does the job you give him and there’s no nonsense about it.’ The Swans, however, were already out of the finals race. Five wins in a row had the press predicting a far different outcome for the transformed Bombers. ‘Essendon will make the finals and the 1981 VFL premiership is not beyond it,’ wrote Lou Richards. It was a big call. The Dons were not yet in the top five. A sixth consecutive win, this time over North Melbourne, came despite the Bombers’ extraordinarily wayward score of 18.29 (137). It moved them within striking distance of fifth-placed Richmond. And a week later, they faced the Tigers in a crucial clash at Windy Hill. Another lock-out crowd stood shoulder-to-shoulder as the teams slugged it out in the mud. In a reversal of their meeting earlier in the season, Essendon trailed by 26 points at the last change. This time it would be the Bombers storming home. Powered by Neale’s dashing runs through the centre and his pinpoint passes to the forwards, they drew within a straight kick with a couple of minutes left. Up stepped Terry. He won the ball on the half-forward line, threw it onto his left boot and watched as it sailed into the arms of Graeme Schultz. The shot at goal went through and Essendon triumphed by four points. Seven wins in a row. The Bombers were in the top five and the social club was heaving. Downstairs, most of the boys enjoyed a few beers among themselves while waiting for the crowd to thin out. ‘We’d grab a smoke off Woodsy at the door, grab a beer off Bettsy on the way through the

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cloak room and then go and sit in the spa,’ says Van Der Haar. At the time, opposition players, coaches and committeemen were always invited into the home side’s change rooms for a drink. The Danihers look back fondly on those memories. Mingling with the supporters was obviously much better after a win. ‘We used to wait for a lot of the riffraff to go home,’ says Terry. ‘A lot of them used to drink all afternoon in the social club. They’d be shockers. If you won, blokes would slip you $20 or $50 and say “Put that on the bar for your mates.” ’ Such generosity went a long way. Pots of Carlton Draught cost 30 cents. Sheedy’s irrepressible combination moved another rung higher on the ladder the following week. As an experiment to test Queenslanders’ appetite for Australian Rules, Essendon played Hawthorn at the Gabba on a Sunday afternoon. Such was the response, the gates were closed 45 minutes before the opening bounce. A crowd of more than 20 000 watched from behind the greyhound track as the Bombers made it eight in a row. Their high-scoring win — 22.19 to 20.13 — was made easier when Hawks centreman Terry Wallace was knocked out early in the first quarter. Numerous scuffles broke out during the afternoon with Ron Andrews reported for striking Robert Dipierdomenico during one exchange. Andrews was later suspended for four matches. Good times rolled for Neale, Terry and their team-mates. Victory over Fitzroy at the Junction Oval made it nine home-and-away season wins in a row. That was followed by a Tuesday night clash against Carlton in the Escort Cup grand final. Sheedy built the game up in the minds of the players. He wanted it treated like the last Saturday in September. Without a premiership of any kind since 1965, the majority of the 42 000-plus crowd that braved the wet and cold night at VFL Park were success-starved Essendon supporters. They were far from pleased at half-time, when Carlton led by 16 points. According to Geoff Slattery’s match report in The Age, Sheedy then ‘pulled the same desperate move that has led to many of Essendon’s revivals — tossing Neale Daniher into the ruck-roving position, allowing him to run where he wished’. Like he had at Ungarie, Assumption College and Newman College, Neale rose to the challenge. He kicked two goals, set up numerous others and led the Bombers to a breakthrough

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24-point win. In the wash-up, he was narrowly pipped by Watson for best-on-ground honours. Switching between the forward line and defence, Terry also played a big part in the win, as did Glenn Hawker and Roger Merrett. Essendon skipper Simon Madden grinned broadly through his thick beard as he and Sheedy proudly held the cup aloft. They expected there was more important silverware to come. Delighted with the result, Sheedy happily let the boys enjoy a few mid-week refreshments. ‘He had no alternative, we all liked a beer,’ jokes Terry. The odds of another red and black party in September only shortened when the Bombers backed up four days later and thumped Footscray by 93 points. Neale was everywhere. He dashed forward to boot three goals and was again named his team’s second most important player, this time behind Gary Foulds. A week later Terry played an inspirational game as the Bombers scraped past lowly St Kilda (coached by Alex Jesaulenko) at Moorabbin. That set up a huge fixture against top-of-the-ladder Collingwood. In a move that drew the ire of VFA bosses, whose competition had long held exclusive rights to the latter half of the weekend, the match was moved to the MCG and played on a Sunday. To appease the State Government and various other community groups, the sale of alcohol inside the ground was banned, however reporter Russell Robinson noted ‘many cans and stubbies were quaffed in the queues before the gates opened at midday’. Nevertheless, a family-friendly atmosphere prevailed among the ‘orderly and appreciative’ crowd of 64 149. It was noted by many journalists that there was none of the usual brawling seen in the outer. It was Essendon’s sternest test of the season to date. After a nervy opening, it came alive in the second quarter when Collingwood strong-man Rene Kink clashed with Bomber Alan Stoneham. A melee followed before the Magpies steadied to lead by 11 points at half-time. Red and black supporters knew it was time for their game-breaker to put his stamp on proceedings. In what was now becoming a weekly occurrence, Neale did exactly that. Lining up at centre half-back, he took several crucial marks, cutting off many Collingwood attacking raids, while continually sending the ball forward, with precision. Six goals to two after the long break handed Essendon a 19-point win and third spot on the ladder.

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Each newspaper gave Neale best-on-ground honours. He was elevated to equal leader, alongside Carlton’s Rod Ashman, in the Inside Football–Hutton’s 1981 Player of the Year. ‘Daniher is one of the league’s finest backmen,’ said the accompanying article. Pundits were now even tipping him to win the Brownlow Medal. Among them was Herald reporter Mike Sheahan, who wore the era’s trademark long back and sides haircut in his by-line photo. In his weekly profile piece, titled ‘The Mike Sheahan Interview’, the reporter sang Neale’s praises. Under the headline ‘The cool talent of the Dons’ Iceman’, he wrote: Neale Daniher, a warm, likeable young man . . . has made an amazing start to what looks certain to be a long and distinguished league career. While he plays his football like a veteran, he still has that youthful charm of a well-adjusted 20-year-old. Is he surprised by his success, his handsome reputation? He smiles shyly, looks down at his hot chocolate and says: ‘I never think about it that much.’ He pauses, those huge hands of his scooping the froth of his favourite weekday beverage, and chooses his words carefully. ‘It’s not all that hard to play well if you set your mind to it.’

Many players get over-confident and ultimately lose form after receiving so many pats on the back. Yet, as journalists had often noted, nothing distracted Neale from his focus on football. Already the game’s new darling, he further enhanced his reputation with another commanding performance seven days later in an easy win over Melbourne. He collected 30 possessions, took six marks and kicked a goal. Terry’s 23 touches at centre half-forward made it an all-Daniher affair atop the best players’ list. Neale became the outright leader of the Inside Football award and his eight Sunscore votes took him to top of that one also. His tally of 124 was one clear of Ashman and Fitzroy’s Bernie Quinlan. ‘Neale was a very smart, intelligent player,’ Sheedy recalls. ‘He was always placing the ball correctly coming off half-back. His reliability was excellent, similar to Bruce Doull. He had no sheer pace, just good striding, thinking and ball movement.’ Essendon’s extraordinary winning streak now stood at 13 matches. It was 16 if you counted the three night series victories. In round 20, the third-placed Bombers travelled to Princes Park, where

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they had not beaten Carlton since 1968. Adding to the challenge, the Blues sat atop the ladder. When the siren blew to signal three-quarter time, the gripping contest seemed to be slipping away from the visitors. Inaccurate kicking had left them 14 points down. While ruckman Max Crow had booted four goals during various stints up forward, Sheedy felt he needed to play a trump card. Who else but Neale could be the man for the job? Dons fans raised their hopes when they saw Neale jogging into attack as the final quarter began. Wearing a muddy, longsleeved number 6 guernsey and short shorts that made his bright white legs appear to extend about three metres from his hips, Neale received an early free kick after being tripped. The shot at goal snuck home. ‘Seven points the margin, the Bombers are a chance,’ said Peter Landy on Channel 7’s Big League coverage. ‘And the fight in the crowd in front of us has calmed down,’ added Lou Richards. But by the 20-minute mark it seemed Essendon’s winning run was coming to an end. Jimmy Buckley’s long bomb from the centre square had given Carlton a 26-point advantage. A strong pack mark to Roger Merrett enabled him to narrow the difference, then Van Der Haar hauled in a superb grab running with the flight, his goal giving the Bombers a faint chance. Now 13 points separated the two sides. Merv Neagle, his mullet trailing behind him, belted the ball forward, only for Blues captain Mike Fitzpatrick to bring down a steadying mark. The hand on the game clock above the standing room in the outer ticked into red section, signifying only time-on remained. Fitzpatrick, best-on-ground to that stage despite carrying a broken hand, hugged the ball to his chest and wandered slowly backwards. ‘He’s going to take plenty of time, why shouldn’t he?’ asked Landy. Fitzpatrick waved his arm around and shaped to take a kick. Suddenly umpire Ian Robinson rushed in, blew his whistle and paid a free kick for time-wasting. Landy quickly swapped allegiances. ‘What a gutsy umpiring decision,’ he bellowed. ‘Mike Fitzpatrick taking a week and a half and has to surrender the ball. Good umpiring.’ The ensuing scramble ended with Glenn Hawker snapping a point and Watson another. Eleven points the margin. Two minutes left. Neagle was giving his all in the middle. Again he won the ball and drove it deep into Essendon’s forward line. A pack formed.

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Two Carlton defenders set themselves. From the side charged Neale Daniher. He rose between the Blues and snatched a two-grab mark, holding the Sherrin above his head in delight. ‘Oh, golly,’ yelled Richards. Neale calmly strode in and put a drop-punt right through the middle. Five points the difference. A minute remaining. From the centre bounce the ball came to Hawker. He threw it onto his boot, the kick wobbling into attack. Seemingly from nowhere, Neale broke away from his opponent, marking on his chest and dislocating a finger in the process. Adrenaline masked any pain. The crowd was going wild, the noise deafening. Neale’s face wore his usual blank expression. The Iceman could be a hero. Richards was struggling to believe it. ‘This could be the dress rehearsal for the grand final of 1981.’ The shot at goal never looked like missing. Essendon supporters hugged on the terraces. Simon Madden leapt into the air, his arms flailing. Neale modestly pumped his fist. Neagle grabbed him on the chin, shaking his head. The final 30 seconds were a scramble. Ron Andrews won a free kick. Rather than run down the clock by kicking backwards or sideways, he simply booted a long torpedo. A snap over his shoulder from Watson dribbled out of bounds. Siren. Bomber fans rushed onto the ground as the players hugged. Neale was now a superstar. His team was un-beaten in 14 matches. They were the premiership favourites. Funnily enough, the television commentators noted Terry, playing mostly at full-back on Peter Bosustow, had been Essendon’s best player over the course of the afternoon. But again his younger brother had put him in the shade. While Terry and Neale celebrated in Melbourne, up at Ungarie their youngest sisters did the same. ‘Even though we were little, we loved to watch and listen on the radio,’ says Dorothy. ‘We thought, “Oh, they’re getting flogged, we’re not going to sit around here.” So we went down to the shearing shed and roller-skated around the cement floor. Then we came back and Dad said, “They won, they won.” I don’t know how many times we watched that video. We watched it all the time.’ There was soon more joy in the Daniher household when Chris won the best-and-fairest award for the Northern Riverina League’s Under-17 competition. He was 15.

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Nothing, it seemed, could stop Essendon or its dynamic Daniher boys. As they ran onto a boggy Windy Hill for their round 21 meeting with Anthony’s battling South Melbourne side, a fifteenth consecutive home-and-away victory appeared a formality. Sheedy had returned Neale to the backline and he began with his usual class, gathering five possessions in the first few minutes. Then, disaster. Neale was called into the centre square for a stint as ruck-rover. Having grabbed the ball after Justin Madden tapped it his way, he was pushed as he attempted a quick kick. He slipped and felt a nasty clunk in his right knee. Clambering back to his feet, he felt no pain and kept playing. Ten minutes later Neale approached a contest on the half-forward flank and tried to quickly change direction. The knee buckled under him. ‘I knew then I’d done it,’ he now admits. He walked from the field, not sure what to think. For the rest of the afternoon, he sat disconsolately on the interchange bench. The Bombers won by 111 points, yet the coach and medical staff now had a major concern. Using a trick he would later become renowned for, Sheedy told the reporters after the game that Neale had suffered a bruised knee. It was, he said, the result of an accidental kick. He was obviously foxing, although the true extent of the injury did take some time to emerge. By mid-week, Neale’s condition had become a big issue for the media. ‘Daniher’s knee injury is worse than the club’s original report of bruising,’ wrote Bruce Matthews. ‘The talented Brownlow Medal prospect has strained the lateral ligament on the outside of his right knee.’ Quoted in the article, Neale was upbeat. ‘It’s not all that bad,’ he said. ‘Once it cooled down it was a bit still on Sunday but I had a good run last night and it felt good. I’m confident I will play this week.’ Essendon general manager Barry Capuano was also very positive. ‘He has a strained ligament but fortunately there’s no serious damage, no internal damage,’ he told Matthews. Although the Bombers had won 15 games in a row, they were still not guaranteed a top-three finish and a double-chance in the finals. It all came down to their last regular season match against Bill Goggin’s Geelong at VFL Park. Neale had played 66 games in a row since his debut in round 1, 1979. Still unaware how bad his injury was, he was desperate to take on the Cats. On Thursday night he had the

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knee strapped and ran out for training. His leg felt sore from the outset. After a few minutes of hobbling around, he headed for the rooms. For the first time since he arrived at Windy Hill, he would have to sit out a match. The round 22 match was a huge occasion. Given no team had won a premiership under the final five system from outside the top three, it was essentially an early elimination final. Neale sat in the stands, among a crowd of 75 221. Without its key playmaker, Essendon struggled to stay with its pacy and skilful opposition, before coming to life early in the last quarter. When Terry put them in front, a sixteenth straight win was on the cards. Instead, a courageous diving mark and goal from little-known Geelong midfielder Stephen Lunn stole victory for the Cats in the dying minutes. Essendon’s winning run was over. Sheedy and his players were shattered. Despite all their hard work, despite 15 wins in a row, the Bombers had finished fourth. They would face Fitzroy in a cut-throat final. In one afternoon they had gone from premiership favourites to one loss away from being on the footy trip. Once again, Neale was adamant his knee was on the mend. He wanted a chance to play against the Lions. When Sheedy ordered that the Bombers’ final training run take place behind closed doors, Neale was there, knee strapped, willing himself back to fitness. The effort was in vain. After half an hour of trying to push through the pain, he walked from Windy Hill a dejected man. Neale’s injury deflated the Bombers. Tim Watson remembers ‘it really had an emotional effect on the group’. They were still flat two days later when the underdog Lions raced to a three-goal lead at quarter time. Some heroics from Andrews up forward and a tireless contribution from Crow were not enough. Terry also made it into the best players but that was little consolation as Fitzroy held on and won by 15 points. Essendon’s year of promise had unravelled in three weeks. Two games without Neale yielded two losses. Season over. Neale underwent reconstructive surgery during grand final week. He emerged from the anaesthetic with plaster from hip to ankle and a burning anger. A couple of days later, Watson collected him from the hospital. ‘He was filthy,’ Watson remembers. ‘He was angry and upset and disappointed and probably in pain as well. I thought, “You bastard”,

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because I went out of my way to go and pick him up, drive him home and prop him up on the couch. I just left him on his own and thought, “Gee, this is a bleak way to recover.” ’ As the reality of the injury sunk in, there were some distractions to take Neale’s mind off what he thought would be a minor setback in a long career. He had to don a suit for a series of functions and seemed to be constantly collecting trophies and cash. He pocketed $1000 (a lot of money given Melbourne’s median house price then was only $50 000 ) after winning Inside Football’s Player of the Year and was placed on the half-back flank, next to St Kilda’s Grant Thomas, in that newspaper’s Team of the Year. Neale also featured in teams of the year selected by reporters of The Sporting Globe and Truth. He won Essendon’s bestand-fairest, finishing ahead of Gary Foulds and Merv Neagle, who tied for second. The cheer squad even awarded Neale their Most Popular Player. Only the umpires were not convinced. He polled just seven votes as Quinlan and South Melbourne captain Barry Round tied for the Brownlow Medal with 22 each. That did not faze him. There was always next year.

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arly in 1982, Neale’s recovery was right on track. He was running

again and every day worked on strengthening his leg. This was a long process as the muscles had wasted during two months in plaster. Still, Neale was adamant he could return to league football less than seven months after the operation. The plan to be back in the senior team for the round 4 match against North Melbourne at Windy Hill was ambitious and it concerned Essendon’s new club doctors, Bruce Reid and Ian ‘Rubber’ Reynolds, whom Sheedy had coaxed across from Richmond. Both had plenty of football experience. Reid had played in two premierships with VFA club Preston, while Reynolds was a former player at Congupna and Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley, along with University Blacks in the city. During a few weeks home at Ungarie over Christmas and New Year, Neale and his brothers had set up a gym in an old house located on a property purchased by Terry with his footy money. They would jog down the road from Hillview and work out for a couple of hours. Chris, soon to turn 16, joined in as well. ‘We had carpet in it and she was all decked out,’ Terry remembers. ‘We had places where you could do sit-ups and chin-ups and dips. Anthony brought home a few weights. We had a good little set-up there. We were always keen to do that sort of stuff.’ Neale concentrated on pounding the speedball, while the others sweated it out in running sessions that were always organised by Terry.

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Regarded as an exceptional trainer at Essendon, Terry marked out a 400-metre track down by the sheep yards. He pushed Anthony and Chris to complete it in faster and faster times. Some days he set out an eight to ten kilometre circuit. Hot weather was no reason to have a day off. Anthony, preparing for his second season at South Melbourne, struggled to match his brothers when it came to the long-distance course. ‘We used to have to leave Antso behind a bit,’ Terry says. ‘Ants used to get very wheezy, as you did when you sat on the tractor for any period of time.’ It would be a tumultuous year for Anthony as South was in the process of relocating to Sydney. After only eight wins in 1981, it was split down the middle and $600 000 in debt. Ian Stewart was gone for a second time. He was first replaced by retired champion John Rantall, who had become aligned with the Keep South at South group. Many players were furious with the state of affairs. At one stage 18 went on strike during the pre-season, including superstars Graham Teasdale and Barry Round. Swiftly convened negotiations resulted in Round and most others returning to the fold. Teasdale did not. He was willing to stand out of football until released. South finally relented and cleared him to Collingwood. Anthony was a naive 19-year-old country kid, and his head was spinning as the club’s battle for survival got ugly. Moving north was not a concern for him, or many other younger Swans. ‘We all knew we had to go to Sydney for our survival,’ Anthony explains. ‘We went on a footy trip and Rantall came. It was just awful, really uncomfortable.’ Rantall stood down without coaching a game. Rick Quade, a supporter of the move, became senior coach. Ignoring many protests from diehard supporters, the Swans administration then agreed to play all their 1982 home games at the Sydney Cricket Ground. But for that year the players would train at the Lake Oval and live in Melbourne. Anthony just did what he was told to by the club and Quade. Train hard and get ready for an adventure were the key messages. For the other boys, the year ahead was set to be far more simple. The first to arrive back in Melbourne, Neale decided that two years living with Terry and Peter Bennett was enough, so he moved into

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his own place in Oak Park. When Terry returned from the farm some weeks later he secured a room at Robert Shaw’s place, although the dour defender, who later coached both Fitzroy and Adelaide, had been axed by the Bombers after 51 games in eight seasons. As the new footy season loomed, Terry feasted on lamb he had brought down from Ungarie and devoted himself to another arduous pre-season. Sheedy’s second summer in charge was just as tough as the first. Neale became a constant in the Windy Hill gym. His computer science course at RMIT, now into its final year, was the only distraction. In early March, he was again interviewed by Herald reporter Mike Sheahan and remained confident about his progress. ‘I’ve been told to take it fairly easy, but I’ve been going pretty hard,’ Neale told Sheahan. ‘I’m fairly conscientious, so Kevin (Sheedy) lets me work at my own pace but I haven’t tried anything like twisting and turning yet.’ According to Sheahan, Neale was taking a big risk. He wrote: ‘The doctors say a knee generally is 60 percent six months after surgery.’ Any doubt over Neale’s ability to recover was soon cast aside by the coach. In a major shock, on the eve of the Bombers’ opening homeand-away match against Footscray, Sheedy announced he had stripped Simon Madden of the captaincy and Neale was his replacement. Having just turned 21, he was the youngest Essendon captain in the club’s 110-year history. Ron Andrews and Tim Watson were named his deputies. ‘It was fairly primitive back then,’ Neale recalls. ‘No-one spoke to me about it. It was just announced. I think he was trying to make a statement. He was confident I could get the knee right. He wanted there to be a generational change. He wanted to go past the cowboys, blokes like Terry and Van Der. I had an intensity about me that was fair dinkum, which he liked, I think.’ That was Sheedy’s exact thought process. ‘A lot of people thought Ronnie Andrews might have got the opportunity but I didn’t think Ron had the dedication,’ he says. ‘The funniest part is that the two best drinkers in the club were Neale and Terry, along with Ron and Van Der Haar. We were trying to get the place in shape and that made it awkward. I didn’t even drink myself in those days. There were a bunch of cowboys there but Neale would probably be the marshal on the horse or the sheriff. The other boys were real scallywags, there was

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a bit of a rat-pack there. But they were great blokes, they were all great blokes.’ Sheedy had no doubts about appointing Neale captain then and has stood by the decision ever since. ‘He was the best player in the club, simple as that,’ Sheedy says. ‘He had a very good footy brain. Not one of the other players in my first year or two have ever gone on to coach AFL footy. Twenty years later Neale took Essendon on in a grand final. That’s how good a decision I believe that was.’ Wearing a brand new Essendon jumper with a Don Smallgoods logo on the left shoulder, Neale was presented to the media. He was the man expected to lead the Dons to a long-awaited flag. His picture appeared in a double-page spread in the Sunday Press, which profiled all 12 VFL captains. Neale was the youngest by four years. Smiling broadly, he looked a man full of confidence. Deep down, however, it was not the case. ‘I wasn’t ready to captain,’ he reflects. ‘I wasn’t ready emotionally. I didn’t understand the responsibility and didn’t know how to do it, to tell you the truth.’ Neale sat in the stands at Windy Hill as his Essendon team, featuring West Australian import Bill Duckworth for the first time, demolished Footscray by 109 points in round 1. The Bombers booted 29 goals in the process, although Terry was not among the scorers. Now a defender more often than not, he played on the Bulldogs’ high-priced recruit, Simon Beasley, and held him goalless. Essendon claimed a far bigger scalp seven days later, despatching reigning premiers Carlton at VFL Park. That set up a hugely-anticipated Easter Monday meeting with Richmond at the MCG. On a sunny and warm afternoon, a crowd of 90 564 turned out to see Sheedy take on his former team-mate Francis Bourke, the Tigers’ new coach. Relishing the atmosphere, Terry excelled, holding Richmond spearhead Michael Roach to only two goals. But elsewhere on the ground the Bombers were blown apart, losing by 62 points. Terry was consistently among the best players as Essendon recovered to win five of its first eight games. He still spent plenty of time celebrating each victory with the boys, although he now had another priority in his life. A striking young lady had caught his eye and it was not long before Gaynor Daniels was his girlfriend. Bubbly

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and outgoing, Gaynor was born in Sri Lanka. Her family had moved to Melbourne when she was three, but only after proving they had both English and Dutch blood, which was needed to comply with the White Australia Policy. Gaynor and her friends loved a party every bit as much as Terry. Essendon’s solid form meant Neale was under no pressure from the club to return before he was ready. His initial aim of being back by round 4 was let go, yet he remained desperate to lead the Bombers into battle. ‘I was quite keen to get back, being captain of the club, so we had an accelerated program,’ he says. By mid-May he felt ready to go. On the eve of Essendon’s round 7 game against Collingwood, he stepped up his training load to include contested marking. Under the patchy lights at Windy Hill, one team-mate kicked the ball in the air. Neale would push and shove with another, before strongly grabbing the red leather and booting it back. He felt good, his body strong. ‘One more,’ Neale yelled. As before, the ball sailed in his direction. He leant to the left, holding his fellow Bomber at bay. Then he shifted his weight towards the ball, onto his right knee. Clunk. The joint collapsed. Neale knew exactly what had happened. Numb with shock, he walked into the change rooms. His season was over. It had not even begun. Using the advantage of hindsight, the immediate consensus was Neale’s comeback had been rushed. Not that he recalls being angry with himself or the doctors. ‘What’s the use?’ he says. ‘It was done.’ A week later Dr John Bartlett performed Neale’s second knee reconstruction. This time the rehabilitation would take much longer. He could not expect to play again until midway through 1983. Following the operation he resigned as captain, having never led an Essendon team onto the field. ‘This is a devastating loss for the club,’ Kevin Egan told the press. ‘The match committee was ready for him to resume next week and it would have finished off the side.’ With that, Sheedy gave Andrews his chance as skipper. ‘He’d earned it through past years of helping the club through a tough upbringing, defending all the kids and trying to protect them,’ Sheedy says. As Neale contemplated the long road back, football moved on. A 21-year-old who had been among the best players in the league only nine months earlier sank from the public eye, weighed down by another hip-to-toe plaster cast.

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Sheedy encouraged his injured star to stay involved with the team. At some matches, Neale sat in the coach’s box. He rarely offered any comments, just constantly studied the game. As Neale watched on, Terry put together his best series of performances since 1979. With the coach insisting on creating a flexible line-up, he played in both key defensive positions, and spent time at centre half-forward and leading out of the goal square. Impressive efforts in big wins over Melbourne, St Kilda and Geelong helped restore the Daniher name to the headlines, this time for positive reasons. Half-way through the season, the Bombers were fourth on the ladder, having won six games in a row. It was then that Terry’s focus momentarily shifted from chasing the red leather. ‘Essendon’s tough coach Kevin Sheedy frowns on outside distractions during the deadly serious business of a VFL season,’ wrote Tom Prior in the Sun. ‘So what is Bomber back man Terry Daniher doing at St Mary’s church, Ascot Vale, at 5 pm tomorrow?’ As it turned out, he and Gaynor had decided to surprise their families by getting married. At 5 pm on Friday 11 June, the young couple tied the knot before a large gathering of family and friends. ‘I wanted to get married,’ Terry, soon to turn 25, told Prior. ‘It was the right time . . . the middle of a premiership season!’ Around 80 people made the trip down from Ungarie, including Chris and the boys’ seven sisters. Prior reported that Chris was already the subject of negotiations between the Swans and Essendon. Neale, his leg again in plaster, was best man. Anthony served as groomsman. The reception was a rollicking occasion. MC Bernie Sheehy, the Bombers’ reserves coach, regaled the crowd with many wild and wonderful tales as everyone enjoyed some good food and a few drinks. The bride and groom departed for a weekend honeymoon. Less than three days later, Terry and his team-mates had to front up at Windy Hill for a muchanticipated Queen’s Birthday Monday clash with Carlton. Andrews, the new captain, arrived at the ground after a marathon trip back to Melbourne from Hay in southern New South Wales, where he had spent Saturday and Sunday indulging in his favourite recreations: pig shooting and drinking. Sheedy was dismayed by Andrews’ attitude and considered leaving him out of the team. However, the unorthodox preparation

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mattered little on game-day. Essendon mauled an injury-hit Carlton before a lock-out 33 000-plus crowd. Andrews was best-on-ground and Justin Madden dominated in the ruck as the Bombers won by 60 points. It was their sixth victory in a row. Understandably, Terry was a little quiet. But after moving into a house shared by Gaynor and some of her friends, he returned to his best form. Combining spectacular overhead marks, courage, great foot skills and dash from defence, he led the way in wins over North Melbourne and Fitzroy. Even when the Dons suffered a shock 33-point loss to the Swans — now coached by Rick Quade — at Windy Hill, Terry was his team’s most effective player. As the finals loomed, Essendon’s top-three hopes hinged largely on the round 18 meeting with third-placed Hawthorn at Windy Hill. The Bombers led by 19 points at the last change before Leigh Matthews engineered a memorable comeback. He kicked two final-quarter goals and inspired his team by famously smashing into a point post so hard, it broke in half. The Hawks won by 18 points. Terry Wallace and Rodney Eade were named their two leading contributors. It would prove a very costly loss for Sheedy’s side. Terry was Essendon’s best that afternoon, and in the following weeks he became the coach’s trump card, much like Neale had been 12 months before. Against Geelong in round 21 he began in defence before moving to centre half-forward, where Paul Van Der Haar had been struggling. Terry booted two goals, one in a frantic last quarter, as the Bombers, still wearing their bright red shorts for home games, scraped in by 11 points. Terry’s best-on-ground performance was rewarded with seven Sunscore votes, taking his tally for the year to 127, four clear of fellow Bombers Tony Buhagiar and Glenn Hawker. A double chance was still not out of the question when Essendon travelled to Footscray for its final home-and-away game. The Bombers ran riot, booting a club-record score of 32.16 (208), including 13 goals in the third quarter. The final margin was 146 points. Remarkably, the Bulldogs had led at the first break. They ended the season with the wooden spoon. Unfortunately for the victors, Carlton thumped Fitzroy, meaning the Blues claimed third place on the ladder. Despite winning 16 games for the second year in a row, Essendon faced yet another elimination final, this time against North Melbourne at VFL Park.

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Prior to the game, reporter Matthew Ricketson profiled Terry in The Age. Under the headline ‘Essendon’s Mr Fixit: that’s Terry Daniher’, Ricketson wrote: ‘Mention the name Daniher and most people think of Neale, but with his absence this season because of a severe knee injury, people have recognised afresh the talents and value of his elder brother . . . who is enjoying his best season in senior football.’ The story of Terry’s journey from the bush to the Bombers was told, before Ricketson asked him about his recent marriage. ‘I don’t want to talk about all that la-di-da,’ was Terry’s reply. He wanted to focus on footy and that was all. Like they had been against Fitzroy a year before, the Bombers were hot favourites to win the elimination final. And once again they undid all their hard work in one terrible September afternoon. They managed just 3.10 in the first half and were eventually beaten by 13 points. Terry proved his credentials as a big game player by kicking four goals. But up the other end Malcolm Blight booted five and Phil Krakouer four for the triumphant Kangaroos. Essendon had lost three elimination finals in four years. As the beaten players sat slumped in the rooms after the game, the coach could not help glancing ruefully at a forgotten hero, quietly leaning on his crutches in the corner. Recalling those years, Sheedy has no doubt Neale Daniher’s knee injuries had a devastating effect on his team. ‘It cost us our chance to win either of the ’81 or ’82 premierships. There’s no doubt about that.’ In the aftermath of another failed campaign, Terry capped a season of dramatic improvement by winning Essendon’s best-andfairest. He polled 182 votes, to finish 44 clear of Van Der Haar. A cheque for $6000 came with the WR Creighton Trophy. The Daniher brothers had taken out the award in consecutive years. But their careers were on very different paths.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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nother summer. Another reunion of the boys on the farm.

Another long and slow rehabilitation for Neale. This time there was no hurry. He could not contemplate a return to football until at least half-way through the 1983 season. He belted the speedball and lifted weights while Terry, Anthony and Chris pounded the dusty roads. Yet more change was in store for Anthony. Following a multitude of court cases, death threats and petitions, South Melbourne was finally relocating to Sydney. The VFL was delighted. The first steps towards a national competition were being taken. In 1982 South had staged its home games in the harbour city, while the players and administrators continued to live in Melbourne. It proved a great year for Anthony as he cemented his spot in the senior team, playing 18 games, mainly in defence. Under the coaching of Rick Quade, the Swans boosted their frequent flyer points and for some time looked set to make the finals. They finished the season with 12 wins, a dramatic improvement on the year before. They also won the night series premiership, defeating North Melbourne. Led by Bernie Evans, David Rhys-Jones, Paul Morwood and Silvio Foschini, it was the Swans’ first flag of any kind since they had taken out the same competition in 1960. Amid all the crisis meetings, outlining of survival strategies and off-field political struggles, the pictures of captain Barry Round and Quade holding some silverware aloft seemed incongruous to say the least. ‘It really

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bonded the team together,’ says Anthony. ‘That was the beautiful thing about it. The guys just played for one another. Roundy was a great leader through that time. He was sensational, pulling us together and keeping us focused.’ However, Anthony and his team-mates had quickly tired of the travel. ‘A lot of the times you’d fly up on the day of the game,’ he recalls. ‘If we had a rough flight I’d get off feeling real crook. Then you had to bring yourself together and get ready for the match. Rarely did we do an overnighter. It was just up and back. They were big days. You’d finish the game, then have a few drinks in the after-match. Back out to the airport, fly home, and get into bed about midnight. At least I got over my fear of flying. You just had to get used to it.’ With the backing of most players, the whole club was now on the move. It would hence be known as the Sydney Swans. Anthony was keen on the change. ‘Going to Sydney was just a refreshing break to get away from the day-to-day hassles of trying to survive. You got such a good welcome in Sydney, we thought, “This is what we want more of.” It was so negative back in Melbourne. The Keep South at South group had a job to do but it really took its toll, especially on the senior players.’ In late January Anthony drove from Ungarie to Sydney and found a place to rent in Randwick with three fellow lads from the bush. He secured a none too glamorous day-job as a brickie’s labourer. Some of the players dived into the property market. Tony Morwood purchased a three-storey terrace for $190 000, selling it a few years later for a tidy profit. Almost three decades later, it is worth around $1.2 million. Anthony became close friends with Tony Morwood and his wife, Karen, during his years in Sydney. Their generous hospitality, and Karen’s great cooking, meant he spent quite a bit of time at their place. The visits became even more frequent when Anthony began seeing Karen’s sister Jo. Jo was based in Melbourne, so the pair began a long-distance relationship. Some others were not so keen on shifting states. Their family ties to Melbourne were too strong. Sensing this, Ian Stewart, now general manager at St Kilda, launched a raid on Foschini and Paul Morwood. Fearing a mass exodus, South refused to clear them. Foschini, a freakishly talented rover and small forward, decided to challenge the

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league’s player movement rules and took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court. The court ruled he could play for the Saints, despite the lack of a clearance. Showing even greater contempt for the VFL’s regulations, St Kilda then encouraged Morwood to line up in its senior team against Geelong without obtaining either a clearance, a match permit or a court injunction. The Swans, the other clubs and the league were predictably furious. None wanted players suddenly changing their stripes as they pleased. In the wash-up, Foschini and Morwood were permitted to stay at St Kilda, although the latter strangely returned to Sydney for a season in 1986. The Swans managed to keep the rest of their list together, while VFL bosses began a review that led to the introduction of the national draft. ‘We knew we were going to lose a couple but that was very disappointing,’ Anthony says. ‘As much as they wanted to be in Sydney, family just wasn’t going to allow it to happen.’ Despite the loss of those key players, the lead-up to Sydney’s first home game was filled with parties and promotional campaigns. One day Anthony would be standing in his brand new jumper and bright red shorts for a team photo on the steps of the Opera House; the next he and the boys might be called on to woo influential Sydneysiders towards the Aussie Rules invasion. The season launch featured dancing girls. Round and full-forward John Roberts were pictured hoisting a footy-gear-clad model onto their shoulders. Behind them was the Harbour Bridge. Wearing a light grey suit and square glasses, Quade addressed the crowd, his almost-afro especially frizzy for the occasion. Anthony could not believe his luck. ‘It was exciting for me because everything was new. We were one club in a big city. “How good’s this?” we kept thinking. All the glitz and glamour in our first year — it was great.’ On the other hand, the players were completely anonymous once they shed their Swans gear. ‘The senior players loved it,’ Anthony says. ‘Those boys got up to some serious trouble.’ Having turned 20 during the pre-season, Anthony had also filled out thanks to a big summer in the makeshift gym at Ungarie. He played at centre half-forward in the practice matches, and after a beston-ground performance against Geelong looked the answer to Sydney’s desperate search for a key forward. The Swans had previously tried to solve the problem by chasing Richmond big man David Cloke, but he

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chose Collingwood instead. Anthony was profiled in a local newspaper, the reporter noting ‘coach Ricky Quade and club officials are expecting the third-year players such as Daniher to be a real on-field driving force in 1983.’ Sydney chief executive Barry Roger added ‘he was killing them at the end of last year and this season he could develop into a very fine player’. Anthony was selected at centre half-forward for the Swans’ round 1 game at the SCG. The first home-and-away match played by a VFL club permanently based outside Melbourne was a groundbreaking occasion for the league. In a happy coincidence for the Danihers, the match pitted Sydney against Essendon. Terry was flown north for a series of promotional opportunities during the lead-up. He and Anthony were photographed shadowboxing on the SCG. A few verbal punches were thrown. ‘There will be no brotherly love out on the field — Anthony is just another Swans player,’ Terry jibed. There had been plenty happening in Terry’s life during the offseason. First, he and Gaynor welcomed a baby girl, named Nicole. Then he was named Essendon captain, replacing Ron Andrews. The appointment was announced at the Bombers’ jumper presentation function, which took place in the backyard of club president Greg Sewell. After a barbecue lunch, Kevin Sheedy told the assembled crowd of players, administrators and their partners that Terry was the new skipper. Wearing a flannelette shirt and stretch jeans, the 25-yearold accepted the honour to warm applause. ‘He couldn’t give it to Van Der Haar or Hawker,’ Terry says. ‘But Sheeds knew I was pretty matey with those guys and I knocked around with them. Roger (Merrett), Van Der, Hawks and Neagle were all pretty feisty sort of guys. They loved a drink and having a good time. Maybe because I was one of those blokes, he might have thought I’d pull the others into line.’ Six months prior Terry had been voted Essendon’s best clubman. He was the heart and soul of the place. ‘Consistency was his key and he was still the best trainer,’ says Sheedy. ‘He was honest and he never got stuck on detail. Sometimes detail can get in the road of a bloke like Terry. But when it got down to leadership there wasn’t anybody better than Terry.’ Despite having started footy life as a forward, Terry was now regarded as one of the VFL’s finest defenders. He had won Essendon’s

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’82 best-and-fairest playing mainly in the backline. Now he was leading a team expected to finally start delivering on its promise. Two successive elimination final defeats had stung. Further progress was desperately needed. Some quality recruits were expected to make a big difference. They included former Richmond captain Bryan Wood and 26-year-old South Australian centreman Paul Weston, whose clearance from Glenelg stung the Bombers a reported $200 000. In contrast, key forward Wayne Beddison, from Wimmera League club Dimboola, arrived for the bargain price of $2500. Local youngster Mark Thompson was also elevated to the senior list, as was Paul Salmon, a 205 centimetre 17-year-old from North Ringwood. Reporters speculated about the prospect of Terry and Anthony lining up on each other in the season opener at the SCG. Held on a Sunday afternoon and telecast live into Melbourne by Channel 7, the match drew a huge television audience. There was not quite the same level of enthusiasm among the Sydney public. Just 12 000 fans watched on as the Daniher brothers went head-to-head. It was time for sowing crops on the farm at Ungarie, so not even Jim or Edna were there. Jim’s sister Mary, a long-time resident of Sydney, provided the family support. ‘Aunty Mary became a mad Swans supporter and still is,’ says Anthony. ‘She came to all the games. It was great to have her up there.’ Anthony would often notice other familiar faces in the sparse crowds. ‘You’d walk into the ground and you’d just see all these people from the country that had come down from the Riverina. Although Melbourne’s closer, the Riverina people were happy to come to Sydney and watch the Swans. There’d be blokes from Ariah Park, Narrandera and fellas you knew from Wagga. It was fantastic. After the game they would find out where you were going. You’d get to the pub and there’d be bushies everywhere.’ In something of a surprise, Anthony upstaged his older sibling and the Swans held on in a frantic climax to win by one point. The small crowd roared like a packed house at Collingwood’s infamous Victoria Park. Anthony was named alongside David Ackerley, Craig Braddy and Daryl Vernon in the Swans’ best players. Essendon’s terrible kicking for goal — the final scores were 17.9 (111) to 15.20 (110) — had cost it the game.

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After their upset win it was back to the red carpet for Sydney’s players. They celebrated in grand style at a function held in the palatial gardens surrounding the mansion of Lady Mary Fairfax. ‘We were locked outside,’ says Anthony. ‘We weren’t allowed in the mansion but they had tents set up and the pool was floodlit and full of red and white balloons. The boys were on the drink, it was fantastic, and next thing one of the lads was in the pool. It was Greg Smith, he was fully clothed. He was a real larrikin Greg — Ardlethan boy, from the bush. Mayhem broke out. Security came running from everywhere. One of the boys had to jump in and get him out of the water. He’d had a few. That was bloody funny. After every game that was what went on. We were going to these high-society people’s properties. We were the guests but we were always kept out the back. We were never allowed inside.’ The parties continued throughout the year for Anthony and his mates. They had no shortage of high-profile support. Even newly elected Prime Minister Bob Hawke jumped on board as number one ticket holder. Yet the wins soon dried up. In their second home game the Swans were disgraced, losing to North Melbourne by 140 points. Andrew Demetriou was best-on-ground. Twenty-five years later he would become the most powerful man in Aussie Rules and begin the move to introduce a second Sydney-based team. The Swans ended the season with only seven wins and finished second-bottom on the ladder. Their most notable success was a 23-point victory over St Kilda in round 5. Both Morwood and Foschini lined up against their former team that afternoon and were mercilessly heckled by the SCG attendees. Even if most did not know the rules, they knew how to hate. But the rare periods of excitement made it hard to build a larger fan base. Home crowds had hovered around the 10 000 mark. A mountain of work lay ahead. Anthony’s future was at least a fraction more secure. With Quade’s support he had featured in all 22 regular season matches. Back in Melbourne, Terry had led from the front, although Essendon’s season had continued its spluttering start. A routine win over St Kilda in round 2 was followed by a 41-point drubbing from Fitzroy before a 22 000-strong crowd at the Junction Oval. Sheedy was disgusted with the performance. ‘That was probably one of our worst losses . . . since I’ve been coaching, other than the two finals games,’ he

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told the assembled media. Terry was one of few Bombers to impress. He was named his team’s best player after restricting Fitzroy fullforward Bernie Quinlan to two goals. In the coming weeks Terry was moved back to centre halfforward and helped ignite a charge up the ladder. He took a series of spectacular marks in a best-on-ground performance against Collingwood in round 4. The 24-point win over the Magpies had the pundits back in the Dons’ camp. ‘The Bombers look poised to sweep all before them — at least until the elimination final,’ wrote a cheeky Michael Davis in the Sun. Terry was outstanding again two weeks later when Essendon scored yet another thumping victory over Footscray. This time, despite the Bulldogs occupying a position in the top five, the margin was 132 points. Terry booted four goals against Footscray and another four the week after in a narrow victory over Richmond. Once more the footy reporters declared Terry was the Bombers’ best player. His statistics — 16 kicks, 10 marks and eight handpasses — told the story. Sheedy felt the leadership role had proven to be the making of him. When interviewed by Neil Roberts, the coach declared: ‘The best thing we’ve done out here is to give the captaincy to Terry Daniher. He epitomises what we are about at Essendon. His attitude, his friendliness, his humility and his no-fuss behaviour. That is Daniher and that’s what the name stands for. Fanatical about the success of the team as well as self. His character is superb.’ Terry’s elevation to the captaincy did not detract from his larrikin sense of humour. At training he would talk constantly, encouraging the players, especially the young boys. ‘C’mon son, pick ’er up, she’s not a hand grenade,’ he would say to a lad suffering a fit of the fumbles. ‘He’d be yelling and firing everyone up even if it was a cold, miserable night,’ says Paul Van Der Haar. ‘It was worthwhile going to training just to listen to Terry. He was the ideal bloke to have as a leader — always entertaining and a very good footballer as well.’ Tim Watson recalls that in round 8, both he and Terry were shifted into defence as Hawthorn ran the Bombers ragged in the second half at Princes Park. Jogging towards his opponent after Essendon had conceded yet another goal, Terry turned to Watson and said, ‘Geez, she gets busy down ’ere.’ More leadership honours soon came Terry’s way. He was

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appointed Victoria’s vice-captain for its state game against South Australia at Football Park. The contest was played on a Monday, just two days after a full round of VFL matches, and was a very disappointing day for the Vics. The Croweaters had devoted much energy to upstaging their more fancied rivals. They trained together for ten days and enjoyed a weekend off before the clash. This proved the difference, as South Australia kicked nine goals in the final quarter to win by 56 points. Victorian captain Robert Flower was named his team’s most effective contributor, while Terry, who kicked three goals, was second best. South Australian football chiefs subsequently expressed their desire to field a team in the VFL. It would be seven years before their wish would be granted. Later in the season Terry put on another impressive display against Western Australia at Subiaco. As a result he was selected at centre half-forward in the All-Australian team, which was at that time made up of the year’s best performers in state games. Upon returning to the fray at Windy Hill, Terry continued his brilliant season. He reminded old mate Rick Quade of his immense talent by tearing apart the Swans. Sydney had actually led six goals to one at quarter time, before Terry and Simon Madden sparked a charge that saw Essendon 73 points in front by the final siren. ‘The way Essendon slaughtered the Swans on Saturday, the RSPCA should be called in,’ warbled Lou Richards in the Monday Sun. Among the partisan crowd sat Neale. As Terry thrilled the spectators, he wondered if he would ever play the game again. During 1983, Neale began working full-time at Canon as a computer programmer. ‘That was probably healthy for me,’ he explains. ‘If I was a full-time footballer it would have been a lot harder psychologically. But for eight hours or ten hours of the day you were actually devoted to some other thought process. In a sense it was probably easier mentally back then than it is now.’ Outside work, Neale spent hours in the gym strengthening his right leg so it could support his twice-reconstructed knee. But he also built up his upper body, which, in hindsight, was not such a smart move. ‘I got bigger and it only put more stress on my body. It was the wrong sort of training. I got too heavy. There wasn’t a lot of science in it back then. Because

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you had it in plaster for eight weeks, a lot of the rehab was just getting your knee to move again. It was frustrating, pretty monotonous sort of stuff. But you had to keep your spirits up. There was no point dagging around.’ Neale’s spirits were lifted when he met Jan McCorkell at teammate Peter Light’s 21st birthday, held in his home town of Noradjuha, a little place near Horsham in Victoria’s west. They became friends, met socially, and after a few months were a couple. Early in the year it became clear that Neale’s injured knee was healing very slowly. The media caught wind of a setback. Rumours abounded. Was his career finished at the age of 22? Was it possible he could play 66 games in a row, then never get the chance to pull on the boots again? Essendon immediately denied the stories. ‘Neale expects to be ready to play in the second half of the season,’ general manager Barry Capuano told journalist John Rice. ‘I’d anticipate the last eight or nine games.’ This outlook seemed plausible until Neale stepped up his training and began running longer distances. The knee became sore and swollen. Plans for a comeback in ’83 were shelved. ‘Essendon will not consider its forgotten champion Neale Daniher for the rest of the season,’ reported Sun footy writer Peter Simunovich, who was told the bad news by football manager Kevin Egan. ‘He is just too valuable a piece of property to risk,’ Egan said. Neale’s coolness and poise would have come in very handy during a mid-season slump that cost the Dons any hope of a double chance in the finals. Second on the ladder heading into round 14, they lost four of their next five matches. Defeats at the hands of Fitzroy and North Melbourne, clubs also tussling for a top three finish, were especially costly. As he so often did, Terry dragged the team back into contention. His seven-goal haul against second-placed Hawthorn in round 19 snapped the losing streak and ensured Essendon would get some September action. Boosted by the acquisition of Rene ‘The Incredible Hulk’ Kink, who had been sacked by Collingwood, the Bombers also won their next three games. Terry played a key role in each victory. He dominated the Geelong defence in round 21, booting six goals, and added another four in a 51-point win over Carlton seven days later. Essendon ended the home-and-away season fourth on the

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ladder, behind North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Fitzroy. The Blues finished fifth. That meant the two teams had to do battle for a second consecutive weekend, this time in the elimination final. The words ‘elimination’ and ‘final’ were enough to send a shiver down the spine of both Essendon players and supporters. The Bombers had lost that fixture in three of the previous four seasons. Terry rarely suffered from pre-game nerves yet this was different. His team’s credibility was on the line. True to form it trailed at half-time and another early exit from premiership contention looked likely. Sheedy poured the pressure on his men during the break and they responded. Essendon was a different side when it ran back onto VFL Park. Watson, Neagle and Simon Madden dominated the third quarter, setting up a 16-point lead at the last change. Carlton barely fired a shot in the final half-hour. Among the highlights for the Bombers was the effort of half-forward Cameron Clayton to remove Bruce Doull’s sacred headband during a scuffle. The veteran Blues defender reacted with fury, which increased when Clayton passed the headband to Buhagiar and he threw it over the fence. His straggly hair flapping freely, Doull tried to flatten every opposition player in sight before a spectator returned the precious headwear. More importantly, Terry took some big marks at full-forward to finish with three goals, while Van Der Haar and Merrett — one of the last players to wear a lace-up jumper — ended with two each, as Essendon ran out 33-point winners. The hoodoo was broken. Sheedy and Terry were arm-in-arm as their triumphant team belted out ‘See the Bombers Fly up’. Next up was a first semi-final meeting with Fitzroy. The Lions were enjoying their most successful season since 1960, but had suffered a heartbreaking four-point loss to Hawthorn in the qualifying final. Quinlan had booted eight goals, taking his season tally to 114. Their coach, Robert Walls, was adamant they were still good enough to win the flag. A crowd of more than 81 000 turned out to see Essendon make its first September appearance at the MCG in almost two decades. The match was an advertisement for everything great about Australian Rules. In a tough and relentless battle, Fitzroy grabbed the ascendancy by half-time and led by seven points heading into the final quarter. Sheedy believed his team’s superior fitness would tell in the end and

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he was right. Seven goals to two in the last term handed the Bombers a 23-point win. They had key players at either end to thank. Weston was given the task of shutting down Quinlan after Ron Andrews had made an undisciplined start, conceding an early major thanks to a 15-metre penalty. The South Australian restricted Quinlan to only one more goal and earned best-on-ground honours. Up forward, however, Terry was the match-winner. Playing out of the goal square, alongside Kink, he revelled in the big-game atmosphere, kicking five goals and hauling in 11 marks. His smile could not have been wider as he walked from the field to the cheers of the success-starved Essendon fans. North Melbourne, which had finished on top of the ladder before losing the second semi-final to Hawthorn, stood between the Bombers and a place in the grand final against the Hawks. Sentiment was with the red and black – they were without a premiership since 1965. In his ‘Kiss of Death’ column, Lou Richards was one of few pundits to tip a Kangaroos victory. But he also added to the flood of praise being directed towards Terry. He wrote: ‘Daniher is so good and works so hard it would take a hand grenade and sets of hand-cuffs and leg-irons to stop him.’ It took just 30 minutes of football to confirm the Essendon fairytale would have another chapter. A blistering opening set up a 37-point quarter time lead, and although the Roos narrowed the gap at half-time, they were blown away thereafter. The end margin of 86 points was a preliminary final record. It was a surreal few moments for Terry as he mingled with the many back-slappers in the VFL Park change rooms. His three-goal effort had been overshadowed by outstanding performances from Watson and Merrett. Not that it mattered. He was going to lead the Bombers into the biggest game of the year. Grand Final week did not start as Terry had hoped. He copped a dose of the flu and was forced to miss the Brownlow Medal count, held at the Southern Cross Hotel. Watching at home, his mood improved when he polled an impressive 15 votes. North Melbourne’s Ross Glendinning won the award with 24, from Tiger Maurice Rioli and Simon Madden. The following days were a blur. Terry was interviewed by reporters from all the daily newspapers and football magazines. ‘Our thoughts are with Saturday and winning the most important match Essendon has been in for a long time,’ he told Inside Football. He was

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photographed atop the Olympic Stand at the MCG, standing shoulderto-shoulder with Leigh Matthews. Hawthorn’s captain, already a veteran of 15 VFL seasons, looked sternly at the camera, his many grey hairs catching the sunlight. The pair resembled a father and son. As a precaution, Terry did not train on the Tuesday night at Windy Hill, waiting until the Wednesday session at the MCG to stretch his legs. A day later, back at Essendon’s home ground, he was the star attraction as 5000 supporters watched the team complete its preparations. ‘Every second child in a Bomber guernsey seemed to be wearing Terry Daniher’s No. 5,’ penned Mike Coward in The Age. Terry was selected at full-forward in a team that contained a couple of surprises. Sheedy’s former Richmond team-mates Bryan Wood and Cameron Clayton (both of whom had won premierships with the Tigers) were named. Andrews, who had missed the preliminary final through suspension, was left out. He was shattered. A year earlier he had been the club captain. His team-mates loved the fearless way he played the game and thought he was the best match-up for Hawthorn champion Leigh Matthews. It is a decision Sheedy now admits was wrong. Terry ignored the debate about team selections, although there were many other distractions as the Daniher family had arrived in town. Jim, Edna, Chris and most of the girls made the trip. Seven-year-old Fiona was left at Ungarie as a result of her prior form at big games. ‘I actually started kicking the people in front of me and barracking for the opposition, so I wasn’t allowed to go,’ Fiona recollects with a laugh. ‘I think Dad got sick of me. I had to stay with my uncles. I wasn’t a big fan of football from the age of zero to 10. It was the bane of my existence. Dad used to tape over our Young Talent Time tapes with football. And we were still learning the moves. That used to kill us girls as kids. We used to get so frustrated. We’d put the tape in and find Essendon versus Melbourne in round 3, or whatever.’ In Melbourne, Chris could not believe the attention being lavished on his older brother. Now playing senior football in the Riverina (formerly South West) League with Terry’s former club, Ariah Park–Mirrool, the 17-year-old became more determined than ever to one day play in the VFL. Good luck messages poured in from Terry’s diverse friends

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and fans. Among those to send telegrams were Andrew and Margaret Peacock (he was the opposition leader and Essendon’s number one ticket holder), the Ariah Park–Mirrool Ladies’ Auxiliary, the Grand Hotel in Bega, the Northern Riverina Football League and St Joseph’s Primary School in Ungarie. Melbourne turned on a beautiful spring day for the 1983 grand final. In a positive omen, Essendon won the reserves premiership. Sunshine flooded the MCG as Terry led the seniors onto the ground. They were pumped, yet wary, especially after one of their trainers relayed that he had overhead Allan Jeans’ final words to the Hawks. ‘This is a grand final — there are no rules,’ Essendon’s players were told he had said, although Jeans himself denies it. This last Saturday in September was extra-emotional for many footy fans, as the league executive had signalled its intention to in future play the biggest game of the year at VFL Park. Sitting high up in the stands, among the 110 332 spectators, Jim and Edna watched on proudly, as did Terry’s ten siblings. Just a few years earlier they had fought with him in the backyard; now he was a famous footy superhero. Neale sat with the other Bombers players not lucky enough to be playing. His right knee bore the scars of two ruined seasons. Terry was confident. Sheeds was confident. They had won seven matches in a row. The fact that no side had ever won the premiership from an elimination final did not faze him. Terry had a couple of early kicks and flew for every long ball that sailed into the Essendon forward line. When Rene Kink — playing in his fifth grand final after losing four with Collingwood — marked and goaled ten minutes in, the Bombers’ nerves seemed soothed. But the afternoon quickly degenerated. Colin Robertson collected Tim Watson, forcing the Dons’ star onballer off the field. After trailing by 18 points at the first change, they managed just one goal in the following two quarters. By the final break they were an embarrassing 87 points down. It proved to be the most lopsided last Saturday in September on record. Matthews kicked six goals, in an eventual 83-point rout. Robertson, a speedy midfielder, won the Norm Smith Medal. Terry never gave up. He kicked two of Essendon’s paltry eight goals (taking his season tally to an impressive 65), collected 22 disposals and was his team’s best player.

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As Matthews and Allan Jeans held the cup aloft, buckets filled with ice and bottles of champagne lay untouched in the Bombers’ rooms. The four-match finals campaign had taken its toll. ‘I think we knocked up a bit,’ Terry says. ‘We just didn’t have the power to get over the line.’ Sheedy implored the players to feel hurt by their effort. Kink did not need to be told. He had just lost his fifth grand final. At the post-match function Sheedy delivered a scathing appraisal of his time at the club. He believed three years of hard work had been wasted by three poor efforts in the finals. ‘If I spot anyone bloody laughing, look out,’ Terry recalls Sheedy saying. ‘You’ll be telling me you don’t want to be here next year. You should be really seething with the way you played today.’ No-one was allowed to smile, not even the reserves. And they were celebrating a flag. The footy trip to the United States was later cancelled and replaced with a far less glamorous excursion to Mildura. Amid the disappointment, Terry’s list of accolades grew. He was Essendon’s leading goal kicker and the VFL Players’ Association voted him the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). ‘It’s a bloody honour to be selected . . . especially by players from other clubs,’ Terry said after collecting the award. But his biggest fan was certainly up at Ungarie. Edna had proudly assembled a scrapbook of Terry’s highs and lows in ’83. At the end she pasted the Sunday Press and Inside Football teams of the year. Terry was selected at centre half-forward in each side. He was also named captain of both teams. Finally, there was a message from his mum. ‘You didn’t win the premiership,’ Edna wrote, ‘but being captain of the team of the year well and truly makes up for it. Well done.’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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here were many questions to ponder as the Danihers celebrated

the arrival of 1984. How hard would it be for Essendon to climb off the canvas after the embarrassment of the ’83 grand final? Would Neale play again? And if he did, could he again be a star despite not playing a game since round 21, 1981? When Sunday Press reporter Jon Anderson visited Ungarie in early January, Neale was cautiously optimistic. ‘I tried to come back too early after my first injury but this time it’s different,’ he told Anderson in rather unusual circumstances. Big summer rains had flooded the Humbug Creek, meaning much of the Daniher property was cut off from the main road. Anderson shouted his questions across the swollen creek and Neale bellowed his answers in return. ‘I’ve done everything possible to ensure my right leg stands up to the pressure,’ he continued, while admitting there had been lasting repercussions from the two knee reconstructions. ‘First of all I have to learn to jump off my left leg because the spring has gone from the right. When I play in the senior side will depend on my pace and recovery rate, but I’m happy to play in the seconds for a while.’ Anderson noted that the flood meant Terry, Gaynor and young Nicole could not visit the rest of the family for several days, as they were living in houses on either side of the creek. Terry was pictured doing his bit to relieve the situation. Wearing tight stubbies and a pair of runners, the man who had led Essendon in the VFL grand final

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three months earlier was digging a ditch to redirect some of the water. This, he believed, was great preparation for the big year of footy ahead. ‘Three months of solid work at home and we’re refreshed and ready for another season in the big smoke,’ he said. Time at the farm was also great for keeping Terry and his brothers grounded, as Jim later told Matthew Ricketson from The Age. ‘You’ve got to keep a level head,’ Jim said. ‘We never praised them up too much. And when they come home I get stuck into them during the harvest. You have to remember that you are going to get beaten on some days and that’s a good thing. After all, there is more to life than a game of footy.’ While Terry’s consistently brilliant performances in 1982 and ’83 had cemented his reputation as one of the VFL’s finest players, all eyes were on his brother as Essendon prepared for a shot at the ’84 flag. Even after 18 months of recovery following his second knee operation, Neale took a conservative approach to pre-season. He did all the kicking and marking exercises, yet sat out the tackling drills until just before the practice matches began. After a few nervous sessions of manon-man work he was finally declared fit to play in the reserves against the Sydney Swans at the Lake Oval in early March. The interest was huge. ‘knees up, neale. Dynamite Daniher blasts back,’ screamed the headline in the Herald. Everyone at Essendon breathed a sigh of relief when Neale came through the contest unscathed. He played just a half and collected only a few kicks, but the injury-free effort was a tremendous psychological boost. ‘I was nervous as hell, but all I wanted to do was to be able to walk off the ground,’ he told the assembled media while rubbing ice on the scarred joint. Improving each week, Neale was selected in the reserves for Essendon’s home-and-away season opener against St Kilda at Moorabbin. Bombers fans arrived early to see their forgotten hero back in action. But after a couple of quarters, Neale knew his knee did not feel right and limped from the field. Another trip to his surgeon brought a diagnosis of cartilage damage. He went under the knife once more and was subsequently ruled out for three months. At least this time there was no need for a cast. Although downcast, Neale refused to contemplate that his career might have stalled forever. Again, the spotlight returned to Terry. He felt for Neale and was disappointed

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about the latest setback. But the brothers did not spend much time discussing the injuries and sharing their feelings. ‘Keep your chin up, Nealo,’ was about the extent of it. Terry was his usual consistent self as Essendon made a promising start to the season. The team had been bolstered by West Aussie recruit Leon Baker, a dashing midfielder. In the two previous years Baker had played in successive WAFL premierships with Swan Districts. A nailbiting loss to Hawthorn in the grand final rematch and another at the hands of one-time whipping boys Footscray (now coached by Mick Malthouse) were the Bombers’ only defeats in their opening eight games. A broken rib suffered in a clash with Melbourne meant Terry missed three games before he returned for his 150th VFL appearance against Carlton in round 9. For the occasion, he was pictured washing the windows of an office building. A year earlier he had begun working for Kirwan Cleaning Contractors, a business run by staunch Essendon supporter Ron Kirwan. Despite taking a few tumbles off the ladder, Terry enjoyed the job as it was mostly outdoors. Yet he still dreamed of permanently returning to the farm one day. ‘All I’ve got to do is win Gaynor over to the idea,’ he told Lou Richards. At that stage, his wife had more pressing issues on her mind. The couple’s second child was due to arrive any day. ‘Lovely Gaynor is confident she can hold off the birth one day longer so she can watch Terry play,’ Richards wrote. There was no suggestion that her husband should miss the game to be present when his child was born. With boom youngster Paul Salmon dominating up forward — he had 43 goals in eight games — Terry played at centre half-back against the Blues and was a solid contributor in his milestone match. Family matters were still on his mind a week later when Essendon edged out North Melbourne by two points at Arden Street. Still waiting, Gaynor was looked after by Roger Merrett’s wife, Sharon, while Terry went about defeating the Kangaroos. He made it home just in time to rush her to hospital, where they soon welcomed their first son, Steven. By this stage Essendon was on top of the ladder. A big loss to Hawthorn provided a reality check before the Bombers suffered another blow when Salmon seriously injured his knee during a clash with Collingwood at Victoria Park. After booting 63 goals in 13 matches,

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Salmon joined Neale in the rehabilitation group. Terry filled the breach against the Magpies, kicking five goals, and he inspired his side to string together eight successive victories. During the winning streak, Terry was elected Victorian vicecaptain again and played alongside Gary Ablett in a thrilling four-point loss to Western Australia at a sold-out Subiaco Oval. Ablett was in his first year with Geelong after spending 1983 running around with country club Myrtleford. Meanwhile, Essendon qualified for another night series (the Sterling Cup) grand final. Jim and Edna travelled to Melbourne for the game, as Terry’s Bombers were taking on a Sydney Swans combination featuring Anthony. Edna sat in the stands wearing a special half-and-half knitted jumper that demonstrated her affiliation with both teams. While Terry had been enjoying the spoils of playing in a top side, Anthony’s year had not been so easy. The highlight to that point had been his 21st birthday, held back in Ungarie. Since then, Anthony had cemented his place in the battling Sydney team, although he was now a defender more often than a forward. His time at centre halfforward the previous year had been a struggle, as the position was often made almost redundant by the short dimensions of the SCG. Centre half-back seemed more suited to his straight-ahead style. Reaching the Sterling Cup play-off was a near-miracle for Anthony and his fellow Swans, as the club was again engulfed in turmoil and internal fighting. A major falling-out between coach Rick Quade and captain Barry Round forced the star ruckman into early retirement after a round 13 loss to St Kilda. The following week Quade was admitted to hospital suffering from stress-related internal bleeding, and promptly resigned as coach. The saga created massive holes both on and off the field. Anthony and his team-mates tried not to worry, but they could see the club’s future in Sydney quickly unravelling. In a major surprise move, Quade was replaced by former South Australian state coach Bob Hammond, who had been running a grocery store in Adelaide. Hammond was hailed the Messiah by Swans fans when he led the team to a first-up win over Fitzroy. A few days later he made it two-from-two when Sydney defeated Carlton in the Sterling Cup semi-final.

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The Swans gained another chance to restore some pride. As was the norm, a big party was held in Sydney to celebrate the occasion. More than 700 people packed into the ballroom at the New Chevron Hotel to watch the live telecast of the grand final from Melbourne. But by three-quarter time they had turned their backs on the TVs and were polishing off what was meant to be celebratory champagne. Terry and his men had been far too good. The final margin was 51 points. Narrowly edged out of best-afield honours by pacy rover Alan Ezard, Terry proudly collected the Sterling Cup, while Edna felt her younger son’s pain as Anthony trudged from the field. For the Swans, the highlight of the competition had been collecting a cheque for $95 000 in prize money. Every dollar counted for the cash-strapped club.They would win just one more match for the year. Terry had no such worries. ‘Hopefully we will be able to repeat the dose in September,’ he told the happy although subdued crowd in the rooms. Salmon watched on, as did Neale. They desperately wanted to be in Terry’s shoes one day. It was only four days later when Neale launched yet another comeback bid. The cartilage problem was fixed and he had even announced his engagement to Jan, who was completing her first teaching placement at Trafalgar in Gippsland. After some solid training, Neale lined up in the reserves against Footscray at the Western Oval. On a grey day, on a muddy ground, his spirits soared when the final siren rang and his body still felt great. ‘Neale had a smile almost as big as Luna Park when he came off the field,’ Sheedy told the press. ‘I have never seen a man work so hard to play football again.’ In the following two weeks he increased his game-time and began having more impact. Could he make a late bid for a senior berth in the finals? Sheedy certainly hoped so. It appeared the coach’s dream was coming true when Neale was best-on-ground against St Kilda in his fourth reserves game, played before an adoring home crowd at Windy Hill. The golden boy was back. It was round 20, almost finals time. Sheedy was not prepared to risk his secret weapon just yet. For round 21, the Bombers’ senior side headed to Sydney, while Neale ran out at the Lake Oval in South Melbourne where the Swans’ reserves were still based. The ground was a bog and the ball heavy. Just a handful of spectators watched. Neale

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cruised through the first quarter then early in the second he attempted to spoil a Swans player’s marking attempt. Arriving at the contest, Neale began pushing his fist towards the muddy Sherrin when another opponent came from the side, forcing his arm upward. Suddenly Neale was in agony. His shoulder had dislocated. Club doctor Bruce Reid ran out and tried to pop it back in. It would not budge. Neale was taken to the Alfred Hospital where a local anaesthetic was required to wrench the joint back into the place. Season over. Again. Was Neale unlucky, or was his body just not designed for football? Reid, a man who has treated sports injuries for three decades, favours the latter. ‘I’ve always had a question mark over his tissues,’ he says. Neale contemplated yet more rehabilitation, this time on his upper body. He remembers the thought that kept crossing his mind: ‘How did I manage to play 66 games in a row at the start of my career?’ Up in Sydney, the senior team also had a dirty day. Anthony exacted some revenge on Terry for the Sterling Cup thrashing, as the Swans pulled off a shock 56-point win. Barry Round provided the inspiration after ending his club-imposed exile. A high-leaping forward also drew a few comments from the sparse gathering at the SCG. The youngster was Warwick Capper and he kicked four goals – a sign of things to come. Sheedy hoped it was the loss the Bombers needed before the finals. September arrived and brought with it huge expectations. A final round win over North Melbourne meant Essendon had finished on top of the ladder. Was the drought, dating back to 1965, about to break? Most footy fans thought it was. After all, the Bombers were led by the man now regarded as the most valuable player in the league. Terry Daniher had, according to newspaper debate, taken that title from ‘Lethal’ Leigh Matthews. Essendon rested up in week one of the finals, while Carlton and Hawthorn went toe-to-toe in the qualifying final at VFL Park. The Hawks prevailed, setting up a much-anticipated second semi clash between the defending premiers and the highly-rated challengers. The game lived up to all expectations. But when all was said and done, the Hawks had won by eight points and were through to another grand final. Matthews proved he was far from finished by kicking three vital goals. Wingman Robert Dipierdomenico led the way with four.

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Only Collingwood stood between the Bombers and a second successive grand final. The Magpies had surged into the preliminary final on the back of wins over Fitzroy and Carlton. Although they were meeting Essendon without captain Mark Williams, vice-captain David Cloke and centreman Geoff Raines, a fierce contest was expected, especially with Ron Andrews keen to prove a point against his former team. The match could not have been more different from those predictions. Terry put in one of his finest performances yet, collecting 19 possessions, 12 marks and three goals, as the Bombers ran riot. By half-time, they led 17 goals to 3. The margin at the final siren was a whopping 133 points, a record for a final. Essendon’s straight kicking made the score line even more embarrassing: 28.6 (174) to 5.11 (41). Collingwood coach John Cahill had few answers afterwards. Next door, Terry and his mates struggled to wipe the smiles off their faces. A few quiet beers were had. They had the Hawks in their sights. Their own embarrassment from 12 months earlier still burned. Brownlow night came and went (Melbourne ruckman Peter Moore won the medal). Spirits in the Bombers camp were high. The nerves of ’83 were hidden as the boys bantered through their session at the MCG. A Thursday evening hit-out at Windy Hill, before thousands of adoring fans, was the final tune-up. Finally, it was Saturday. Time for revenge. There was a big mob of Danihers in the stands as Terry ran out through the gigantic banner. Gaynor cradled their tiny son as two-year-old Nicole looked on, wondering what all the fuss was about. Some of Terry’s mates from Ungarie and a few more from Ariah Park–Mirrool were among the crowd of 92 685 (the lowest grand final attendance since 1957) as well. In Ungarie’s Central Hotel, the front bar was packed. Even the local barman who had hated Essendon forever suddenly had a soft spot for the red and black. Blokes Terry had played alongside ten years before were glued to the TV as their boy lined up for the national anthem. Millions more watched around the nation. As they reached for the barbecue Samboys, advertisements appeared for technological wonders like the box-shaped 1983 Wheels Car of the Year, ‘the extraordinary, fully-imported Mazda 626, complete with electronically controlled exterior mirrors’. Max Walker gave the thumbs up to Just

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Jeans’ latest range (what appeared to be 45 different versions of stretch jeans) because ‘there’s no such thing as an average guy’. With his bizarre accent, Bob Ansett told viewers how Budget Rent-a-Car could drive your weekend dollar further. And finally, as the opening bounce neared, a nubile young hostess extolled the virtues of Trans-Australia Airline’s new business class. ‘TAA — a better way.’ Out on the field the Essendon players formed a huddle. Terry soothed their nerves with a laid-back address. ‘Have a crack, boys,’ he began, before finishing with a grin. ‘Just get it and kick it to me.’ His team-mates say this was typical of Terry’s unique brand of leadership. The more important the match, the more humorous his pre-game speeches became. Umpire Rowan Sawyers slammed the ball into the turf. Surely it was Essendon’s time. However, just 30 minutes later, Terry headed to the huddle wondering where it was all going wrong. Like in ’83, the Hawks had jumped them. It was six goals to two. By half-time the margin had changed little. As Sheedy urged his charges to believe in themselves, Watson walked into the toilets for some nervous relief. He discovered Van Der Haar and rover Darren Williams sharing a cigarette with the club doctor. The middle two quarters were tough and rugged. The Bombers seemed to be on top around the ground in the third quarter but they were kicking themselves out of contention. At the last change they trailed by 23 points: 10.5 to 5.15. Usual defender Bill Duckworth was keeping Essendon in it, his two goals vindicating Sheedy’s surprise decision to have him line up in attack. Searching for further inspiration for the final quarter, Sheedy shifted his full-back Paul Weston to centre half-forward and moved Terry to centre half-back. ‘Hawthorn are no certainties to win,’ Lou Richards said on the Channel 7 coverage, perhaps sensing what was ahead. ‘There was never any thought that the game was gone or beyond our reach,’ Terry says. ‘It was actually a weird feeling. I don’t know about the other guys but I was reasonably confident that we were still in it. We had a lot of work in front of us but it was all very positive. Sheeds was very positive and he felt they were dropping off a bit. We were just starting to win our share of the footy late in the third quarter.

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They looked very tired, Hawthorn, and we thought we could outrun them.’ The concluding stanza was spectacular, providing your loyalties lay with Essendon. The Bombers were inspired. All the gruelling fitness work Sheedy had made them do proved invaluable. Simon Madden returned to the fray after resting for most of the third quarter. His centre-bounce work helped Leon Baker kick their first goal — his third — in the opening minute. Soon Peter Bradbury had another. Madden and Weston were in everything. ‘The Bombers have really got a chance to win this flag,’ said Richards. The noise was deafening as 20-year-old Mark Thompson made it five points the difference. When Baker gracefully pirouetted through a pack and goaled, they were in front. Baker punched the air with both fists. Weston dribbled one through, then Watson speared home two more. It was an onslaught. In all, Essendon piled on nine goals to two in one of the most memorable finishes to a grand final. Terry ended the match in defence — with 18 possessions and eight marks to his name — as did Duckworth, who was sent back when Kevin Walsh was cleaned up by Robert Dipierdomenico and taken from the field. Duckworth repelled the late Hawthorn challenges and was a popular winner of the Norm Smith Medal. Essendon’s 19-year drought was broken. In the previous 17 seasons, only Hawthorn, Carlton, Richmond and North Melbourne had won flags. A new era had dawned. Terry hugged his team-mates, and Bombers fans did the same in the stands. Six years after being dumped by South Melbourne, he was a VFL premiership captain. At the age of 36, Sheedy was a flag-winning coach. Chairman of selectors Brian Donohue passed around cigarettes as the players waited for the presentation ceremony. Madden, Van Der Haar, Neagle and Baker could all be seen puffing on gaspers as their momentous achievement sunk in. There were huge cheers for all the boys as they accepted their medals, but the loudest were for two bushies. First there was Duckworth, who had grown up in the tiny town of Dudinin, in the Western Australian wheat belt. Then the crowd erupted when Terry, the boy from Ungarie, made his way onto the dais. The Daniher clan watched with pride as Terry and Sheedy lifted the premiership cup. What a journey they had all been on.

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Beer and champagne flowed in the rooms. Jim and Edna were ushered in to congratulate their son. Still nursing a sore shoulder, Neale patted him on the back. Gaynor gave her husband a kiss. Terry was photographed as he showed baby son Steven the premiership cup. He hugged Essendon legend Dick Reynolds. His team was the toast of Melbourne. There were Danihers aplenty when the official celebrations commenced at the Southern Cross ballroom. Sheedy addressed the crowd, making special mention of Neale. At one stage during his victory speech he clasped his hands and said: ‘I hope and pray to see Neale Daniher back playing football for Essendon.’ Terry took time to accept congratulations from hundreds of people. He did not try to be the people’s champion, that’s just who he was. He did not forget the folk up in Ungarie either. At 7.30 pm he rang the Central Hotel and urged his friends in the bush to continue their party until he could share a schooner with them a few weeks later. The patrons were already watching a replay of the game. By the early hours of the morning, the supporters and family members were tucked up in bed. It was just the boys by themselves. They travelled to the Carlton Inn, a pub near Melbourne University owned by Weston and football manager Kevin Egan. Drinks were downed as the sun rose. When it was high in the sky they paused to greet 10 000 supporters at Windy Hill. President Greg Sewell presented them to the crowd while holding a pot of beer. They returned to the Carlton Inn and celebrated some more. ‘We had a couple of good drinks in there,’ Terry says. ‘She was on for about a week or so. That was great. Everyone got back there. You couldn’t bloody move in the joint. We slipped into a few that day alright. Got a bit messy in the end.’ In the process, the blokes formed a bond that only premiership team-mates can understand. The Bombers’ first premiership team since 1965 was feted over and over again. Late in the week the official duties finally came to an end when Terry was made Essendon mayor for a day. When the players were paraded through the streets, he waved to the crowds while wearing the mayoral robes. ‘It was good, real good,’ he says. Terry’s big year of footy did not end there. He and Simon Madden were selected in the Australian team to play in the first

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International Rules series against Ireland. Although the Essendon footy trip to the United States was being held at the same time, they both felt the chance to represent Australia, and travel with the legendary Ted Whitten, was too good to pass up. Aussie sides, usually known as the Galahs, had toured the Emerald Isle in the past, however, they had always played pure Gaelic football. This was the first time a contest using combined rules, which allowed tackling, had been staged. As would become the norm, the series was marred by on-field violence and threats from the Irish to scrap the competition. Terry ignored the controversy. He felt at home in Ireland, the land of his forebears. He was delighted to find a nation of people who enjoyed a drink and a chat as much as him. While he drank plenty, on the field he was as serious as ever. Terry was best-on-ground in the final match at Dublin’s Croke Park as the Aussies won the three-Test series 2–1. But the highlight of the trip for the players actually came just before that game, when both teams were invited to an official function at the Australian ambassador’s residence. Although Steve Malaxos was the skipper, his poor form on the tour resulted in the coach, John Todd, handing all the public speaking duties to Terry, who was vice-captain. After the meal was served, a couple of boring speeches followed, before Terry was called upon to thank the hosts. Terry tapped the microphone and looked out at the crowd, as a cheeky grin broke out. ‘G’day, Mr Ambassador,’ he began. ‘I’d like to thank you and the missus for the drinks and the sangas, they were great. Ta. And if you’re ever up in Ungarie look us up. We’ll give ya a feed and a place to stay.’ The room erupted with laughter. ‘It was the best thing for Irish–Australian relations I’ve ever seen,’ says Madden. ‘It was that moment of Terry being Terry. It was just great.’ Terry returned home having made a swag of new friends. He took Gaynor and the kids to Queensland for a much needed holiday, then made his annual pilgrimage to Ungarie for a three-week stint on the farm. When he visited the Central for a few beers, photos of him holding the premiership cup adorned the bar. But Terry wanted to leave the fame and fortune behind for a while. He just wanted to be an Ungarie lad again. The locals loved him for that.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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T

erry daniher could do no wrong. Yet, as 1985 began, his brothers

were enjoying mixed fortunes. Serious injuries were again haunting the family. This time Chris had been struck down in a freak accident. On Christmas Eve, he and a mate were drinking in a small park just off Ungarie’s main street. Chris was sitting on a swing when some boys from Tullibigeal began pushing it faster and faster. It all seemed funny until Chris lost his balance and his leg smashed into the steel pole that anchored the swing to the ground. The impact was immense. His knee was wrecked. Two months before his nineteenth birthday, Chris’s VFL dream was in tatters. He travelled to Melbourne for reconstructive surgery and arrived home in the sort of cast Neale had seen far too often. The youngest Daniher brother had already played two seasons of impressive football in the strong Riverina League. He’d been attracting plenty of interest from Essendon. But would they want him now? Chris pondered this and the long year of rehabilitation ahead. Neale desperately hoped his cruel run of luck was over. During his short time at the farm he ran almost every day, although never on the roads. He would jog through the paddocks, where the going was softer. Terry and Anthony strode up and down the driveway on their own. Anthony had not missed a game with the Swans since midway through the 1982 season. He was fit and confident about his place in the game. If only the club had been as settled. Sydney had just appointed its third

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coach since moving north, with Richmond premiership player John Northey taking over from Bob Hammond. Northey had tried to heal some old wounds by encouraging former skipper Barry Round back into the fold. For Terry, the future at Essendon looked very bright. Neale was not sure about where his career was heading. In fact, at times he felt really down about it. But one big event helped turn his mind away from the injuries and lost dreams. When he and Jan were married on Australia Day, Neale saw the world as a happy place again, even if the ceremony was not quite what they had hoped for. Jan was from a Uniting Church family and the Danihers were staunchly Catholic, so the young couple decided to tie the knot at a non-denominational place of worship. ‘We were trying to please both families and pleased no-one,’ Neale admits. Still, the reception at Elsternwick was a great success. ‘I was going through a stage of thinking “poor bugger me”. It gave me a bit of balance in my life. Within a year Jan was expecting and this gave me a much wider context of life.’ Soon after Neale’s wedding it was back to focusing on football. He and Terry headed to Yarrawonga for a pre-season camp. Rover Alan Ezard provided the entertainment by bringing along his speedboat and many of the boys did their fair share of showing off on skis. Neale stuck to the golf course where, by all reports, he finally discovered a sport he was no good at. Before the practice matches began, Terry was interviewed about Neale’s prospects of returning to senior football for the first time since 1981. ‘He’s done everything right, so we all have our fingers crossed for him. It would be fantastic for him to come back because he has put so much effort into making it again. His general fitness is good and the practice matches will give him a good idea of how he’ll go.’ Keen to rid the team of any post-flag complacency, Kevin Sheedy put the players through their most gruelling pre-season yet. ‘Sheeds really goes crook at us if anyone mentions the premiership because he wants us to keep our minds on the job ahead,’ Terry was reported as saying. ‘He doesn’t want us living in the past.’ Sheedy knew he would need some new talent fighting for places in the side if it was to stay at the top. He regarded Neale as a recruit and was still praying that he would return and help guide the Bombers to new success.

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Neale’s latest comeback was taken very slowly. He began in the reserves and spent the opening eight weeks of the season there, slowly building towards a senior return. While Neale was restoring confidence in both his body and his talent, Terry was straight back into stride. He was among the best players as Essendon opened its 1985 campaign with a grand final rematch against Hawthorn. Played at VFL Park, the clash was used to help celebrate Victoria’s 150th anniversary. The Bombers’ tough 14-point win was rewarded with another trophy and a congratulatory address from Victorian Premier John Cain. Having accepted the specially minted trophy, Terry skipped the accepted protocols and simply thanked ‘John’ for supporting the game. He then proceeded to crunch the Premier’s knuckles with a solid handshake and followed up by enthusiastically patting him on the back. The Hawks went on to win just two of their opening five games, leaving the Dons with a most unlikely challenger yapping at their heels. Mick Malthouse had moulded Footscray into a tough and talented outfit and it would prove the Bombers’ sternest test in the early weeks. Almost 34 000 people crammed into the Western Oval in round 5 and they saw a major boilover as the Bulldogs prevailed by 41 points and took top spot on the ladder. Former Essendon rover Tony Buhagiar, who was moved on by the club after being dropped for the grand final, put in an inspired performance for the Dogs. That loss, and another to North Melbourne two weeks later, snapped the Bombers from their brief premiership hangover. When Terry’s three goals led them to a tough win at Geelong in round 8, they were again peering down at the rest of the competition. Terry’s career reached a new peak in early May when he was appointed Victorian captain for the state match against South Australia. The Vics won by 57 points with Richmond rover Dale Weightman kicking six goals. But the occasion was marred by a dispute between the two coaches, Kevin Sheedy and Neil Balme, over how many interchange players should be allowed. As a result Victoria fielded a 22-man team, with four on the bench, while the South Australians went in with 21. Despite his side’s big loss, Balme labelled the Victorians cheats. The beaten Croweaters then protested to the National Football League, at that time the governing body for state matches. It was upheld and the Vics

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were stripped of their win, plunging relations between the states to a new low. Terry was not fussed about the off-field furore. He just loved playing footy. He and Sheedy soon turned their attention back to Essendon. Always a perfectionist, Sheedy was not entirely happy with his talent-laden team’s efforts. He felt some inspiration was needed. But he was not worried, for one of his favourite players was about to make an emotional return. On Thursday 23 May at Windy Hill, Sheedy announced the side for the round 9 meeting with Melbourne. Selected on the interchange bench was none other than Neale Daniher. After two knee reconstructions, a knee cartilage operation, a dislocated shoulder, and hundreds of monotonous hours in the gym, the 24-year-old had fought his way back into the best team in the competition. Sheedy declared Neale had picked himself — he had managed his own rehabilitation and knew when he was ready. ‘Kevin Sheedy’s always been right behind me,’ Neale would tell Lou Richards some days later. ‘That’s been great, because I guess I’m not the sort of bloke who can be approached easily. I’m a bit of my own man.’ Two days later he ran out at Windy Hill, to the delight of his coach and nearly 20 000 Essendon supporters. Three years and eight months after playing in his 66th game of VFL football, Neale lined up for number 67. He walked towards his Melbourne opponent wearing the same blank ‘Iceman’ look that was his trademark, yet deep down he was almost overcome by nerves. ‘My form in the seconds hadn’t been that good and playing on the home ground, I didn’t want to go out and make a fool of myself,’ Neale explained to Richards. ‘Because I was used to playing in the seconds, I woke up early on Saturday morning and just sat around. It was like waiting for the executioner.’ When the contest began, Neale quickly found the ball, delivering it with typical purpose and accuracy. The Demons offered little resistance. In his report for the Sporting Globe, John Rice wrote: ‘It became such a debacle that Bomber fans forgot the scoring to concentrate on Neale Daniher’s comeback, cheering every time he touched the ball — and he did plenty of that in the second half.’ Neale ended the game with 13 kicks, three marks and six handballs,

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Sun reporter Rohan Connolly noting the ‘display surpassed everyone’s expectations, except maybe his own’. In the rooms, as Essendon celebrated an 82-point win in which Terry had booted four goals, Sheedy made no effort to hide his admiration for Neale. ‘He was very close to his old self,’ Sheedy said. ‘Neale Daniher was the best player here when I came to Essendon, and one day he might reach those heights again.’ Neale was back and the Bombers were premiership favourites. A fairytale seemed in the making. In the ensuing days, the interest in Neale’s comeback only increased. Richards paid him a visit at Canon, where he was designing computer programs. ‘I pulled up well after the match — just a bit of knee soreness because I hadn’t played a senior game for so long,’ Neale told him. The prospect of making up for his disappointment by playing in a grand final was raised. ‘At least this year I’ll be a bit closer than the back row of Bay 8!’ Neale joked, before reflecting on his long and frustrating football journey. ‘I remember sitting in the casualty room at the hospital last year and thinking, “I’ve got a crook knee and now a shoulder, what the hell am I doing here?” I’ve been down in the dumps a couple of times when I’ve thought about retirement, but I’m only 24. To go on was easier than giving it away. Essendon’s been very loyal to me. Even though I was just a student at the time they looked after me. The club could easily have said “Look, he’s done his knee again — give it away.” But they didn’t.’ Neale was selected in the back pocket for the following week’s match against bottom of the ladder St Kilda at Moorabbin. Playing alongside established star Paul Weston and young gun Mark Thompson, he made the game look easy again, just like back in 1981. By the final siren he had gathered 20 possessions and taken three marks, and the Bombers had survived a late challenge to win by 26 points. Neale was named in the best players, alongside his brother, who was now considered peerless when it came to comparing the best key forwards in the competition. Sheedy could not believe his luck. Neale’s return was like signing a gun recruit mid-season. His form suggested he had been on the sidelines for only a couple of weeks, rather than almost four years. As he roamed the Saints’ typically boggy home ground, Neale appeared to be a man of supreme confidence. But in his mind, there

Jim’s rugby days: Jim is on the right, socks down.

Jim’s last game: Jim, aged 44, is third from the right, back row.

1976

1978

1979

While Terry and Neale were reaping the rewards of a big pre-season on the farm, Edna notes that Anthony was chosen in South West’s side in the NSW state championships. He was 16.

1980–81

1981

1981

1982

Three footballers go home for Christmas 1982 Back: Terry, Anthony, Estelle with Fiona, Dorothy, Neale Front: Angela, Julie, Nerolee, Colleen, Chris

1983–84

1984

1984

1985

‘Rival captains Terry Daniher of Essendon and Leigh Matthews meet at a tranquil MCG before today’s clash’ – taken before the ’83 grand final, the Bombers fortunes were reversed in ’84 and ’85.

1985

1986

Lou Richards wrote: ‘Seriously, if I didn’t have better things to do, I’d love to be working with the original “she’ll be right” trio.’

1987

1989

1989

1989

1990

1990

1990

Irish Test Series 1990

1991

‘It’s been 14 years since Terry Daniher played reserves football,’ wrote Glen Quartermain in 1991 as Terry was about to come back from his 11-week suspension.

1991

Edna wrote: ‘Congratulations Anth, what a wonderful achievement. Never in a hundred years did I think you would make the very top level of footy in Australia when you were nine years old and playing at Tully. I had to get into you for just standing there watching your little opponent get all the ball!!! You were happy for him! Very well done, Mum.’

1991

Edna wrote: ‘I think this little clipping deserves a page of its own. A great honour.’

1992

Edna wrote: ‘The end of one era Terr. Thank you so much for giving Dad and I so much joy and pleasure over all those years. Hoping you get lots of good memories from these scrapbooks I have done for you with so much love and care. All the best now for the next era of your footy life. Mum’

1993

Edna wrote: 'Well done Chris, Dad and I felt very proud of you. We’ll never get tired of watching your wonderful goal. All the best for 1994. Love Mum.’

1994

In the Sunday Herald Sun, under the headline, ‘Typically Daniher, no frills required’, Chris said: ‘I’m not the greatest footballer in the world but I love it.’

1997

1998

2000

The caption read: ‘Local hero Chris Daniher (centre, with water bottle) with Ungarie Magpies’

2000

2003

The Herald Sun of 2 January 2003 read: ‘You couldn’t go anywhere in the central NSW town of Ungarie this Christmas without bumping into a Daniher. About 150 of the famous footballing family made the annual trek to Jim and Edna’s farm for holiday celebrations.’

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were doubts. ‘The game had got quicker and quicker and I’d probably become a little bit slower,’ he explains. ‘When I came back I was off the pace I reckon.’ None of this showed in the next three fixtures. So smooth was Neale’s re-entry into the brilliant Essendon team, the spotlight quickly shifted away from him towards other comeback kids like Paul Salmon. At last Neale was being known for his deeds on the field rather than as one of footy’s most tragic tales. In round 11 he achieved another milestone by playing against Anthony for the first time when the Swans travelled to Windy Hill. Anthony was enjoying his best year yet in the VFL, thanks to Northey’s decision to play him on the wing. Although Sydney was winning few games, the 22-year-old was proving his athletic capabilities by outrunning and out-jumping his opponents. ‘I was the focus for the kick-outs,’ he recalls. ‘Roundy would go one way and I’d go the other.’ Like he had as a youngster, Anthony glided up and down the ground, often appearing to offer the minimum effort. But his talent was prodigious. He would frustrate the coaches, then thrill them by plucking a great grab. His stylish play, featuring elegant, long torpedo punts, belied his Farmer Jack appearance. He was a working-class boy who played like a millionaire. He was even touted as a future Swans captain. Such was his progress in 1985, Anthony won selection in the Victorian squad for the game against South Australia, although he did not make the final team. On this occasion at Essendon, he had a rare quiet game as the Bombers cantered to a 42-point win. The Daniher boys crossed paths a few times, however, it was Neale who stole the show with 19 disposals. In three matches since returning, he had been mentioned in the best players twice. Neale was winning the admiration of team-mates for refusing to give up on his dream. Sheedy’s undying faith in him was also being lavishly rewarded. In rounds 12 and 13, the Bombers ticked off another two wins over Richmond and Fitzroy, while Neale calmly and efficiently did his bit. During the meeting with the Lions, Sheedy moved him out to the half-back flank, allowing Neale some more freedom to roam the ground. He ran forward at one stage and kicked a point, his first score since ’81. Sheedy wanted Neale to keep building his match fitness, so two days later he travelled with the team to Adelaide for a night series (the

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Fosters Cup) game against SANFL premiers Norwood at Football Park. Neale took with him the same boots he had worn against Fitzroy — a pair that featured long screw-in stops, which had been ideal in the mud and slush at Windy Hill. On the firmer deck at Football Park, this would prove a huge mistake. A tiny crowd was scattered throughout the stands on the cold Tuesday night, as the Bombers prepared to take on the Neil Balme coached Redlegs. Neale hoped to get his hands on the ball early and three minutes in a kick flew his way. He jumped towards the red leather, feeling it in his hands. His left leg extended towards the ground, like the landing gear on a Qantas jet. He had learned to always push off and land on his left leg — his ‘good one’. ‘I went back into a pack with my opponent and three or four players jumped on us,’ Neale recalls. ‘It spun me around.’ Neale’s long stops gripped the turf. His left foot stopped moving but the rest of his body did not. He felt a clunk and collapsed to the turf, clutching his knee. Shock turned to pain. ‘Oh fuck, that’s the other leg,’ he lamented, as he lay on the ground. Neale limped from the field. A million thoughts were rushing through his brain and by half-time the enormity of the situation began to sink in. When his team-mates ran back out for the third quarter, he sat slumped on the floor. ‘Sitting in the change rooms while the game was going on was a real reflective time and a real lonely time,’ Neale admits. ‘I knew it was gone.’ After the game he put on a brave face for the media. ‘Nah, it’ll be alright, it’s the good knee this time,’ he said to reporters, as he munched on a party pie and leant on a pair of metal crutches. ‘Just another bit of the saga.’ But he had torn the lateral ligament and ruptured the anterior cruciate in his left knee. His comeback was over. Writing in the Sun, Greg Baum summed up the devastating blow: As a teenager at Assumption College, Kilmore, Neale Daniher would have been taught not to ask why God permits tragedy. He would have been soundly imbued with the Catholic doctrine that good comes out of even the more dire evil. Yesterday, seven years later, Daniher would surely have been absolved for feeling a little disenchanted with tragedy. He would have been forgiven for a polite inquiry to the Almighty:

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‘Why me?’ His perseverance and that of coach Kevin Sheedy was rewarded on 25 May this year when Daniher finally played his 67th match for Essendon. At last there was champagne instead of tears. Now, just more than a month later, the party is over. The story of Neale Daniher is not a tragedy in the sense the Bhopal, the Bangladesh tidal wave or the Air India crash were tragedies. Nonetheless, to all those who follow football, whatever their loyal persuasion, it is a tragedy.

Later that week, Neale had this third knee reconstruction. He was shattered, refusing to be interviewed or have his photograph taken. It was doubtful he would ever pull on the boots again. He had played just 71 VFL games. Sheedy was devastated. ‘I can’t understand the misfortune that the young man has had,’ he said at the time. ‘I just don’t know why. He is a magnificent person and one of nature’s gentlemen. He is a very fine person.’ Neale began his rehabilitation but his passion for playing football was gone. At the end of the season he retired. He was 25. ‘I knew then I just didn’t have the body to play the game,’ he says. Edna strongly felt Neale’s pain. ‘We sat up and watched the night he did it for the third time,’ she says. ‘I was watching and they showed him sitting in the dressing rooms all by himself, while the game was going on. That was devastating.’ In a scrapbook she was filling with memorabilia from the highs and lows of Neale’s career, Edna wrote a message to her son. ‘Thank you Neale for giving Dad and I such happiness and pleasure out of watching you play. We will never tire of watching the Carlton v Essendon match that you won for Essendon. All the very best with your continuing career. Love, Mum and Dad.’ Neale used his strong faith to keep his spirits up. ‘As Catholics we were always taught that there was someone worse off than you,’ he told Caroline Wilson in an article published in The Age in 2000. ‘At school we had a thing called “Project Compassion” where you saved up your cents to send to kids worse off than you; those starving in India or somewhere. Feeling sorry for yourself is not the philosophy of the Danihers. That’s not the way you think growing up on a farm where animals die and then you have floods ripping through the place.’ Life after football began with a change of jobs. Neale’s new role was with Bongiorno Group, a financial services company that already

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employed his manager, Damian Smith. (Jim no longer looked after the affairs of his eldest three boys. Rather, Smith handled all contract negotiations for Terry, Neale and Anthony.) Working in the IT department (his official title was electronic data processor), Neale was quickly distracted from the reality of his failed footy dream. ‘That was great,’ he recalls. ‘It was the days of the high-flying financial ’80s. We had Sherbet one year do the Christmas party. That’s how well business was going. We had a good time.’ The injury curse now moved to Terry. Just four days after his brother’s career was prematurely ended, Terry went down in the round 14 clash with premiership rivals Hawthorn at VFL Park. He was taken to hospital and rumours swept around the stadium that he had also suffered a serious knee injury. It turned out to be a badly sprained ankle and there were sighs of relief at Essendon when the X-rays showed no broken bones. His foot battered and bruised, Terry was forced to sit in the stands alongside Neale for the next five matches. He also missed the season’s second State of Origin clash with Western Australia. When Terry returned the Bombers were warming up for the finals and were now being compared with the VFL’s greatest teams. An upset loss to Carlton at Princes Park in round 17 had been their only blemish in the second half of the season. Such was their dominance, few matches were close. A week after being defeated by the Blues, they produced their most spectacular performance, thrashing North Melbourne by 104 points. The Kangaroos were in fifth place on the ladder at the time. Sheedy’s emphasis on flexibility and Paul Salmon’s steady recovery from his knee injury meant Essendon achieved its success through a spread of goal kickers rather than relying on one focal point. In Terry’s absence, Roger Merrett, Paul Van Der Haar, Rene Kink and baby-faced 20-year-old sensation Mark Harvey led the way. Desperate to win a grand final after five losses, Kink was very unlucky to have to make way for Salmon when the giant forward returned at last for the final homeand-away game against Sydney at the SCG. In an amazing comeback game, which all but ended Kink’s hopes, Salmon booted seven goals as the Dons won by 87 points. Terry chipped in with four. The brilliant Essendon team had ended the regular season on top of the ladder, with a mightily impressive 19–3 win–loss record.

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They were three victories clear of second-placed Footscray and enjoyed a week off while the Bulldogs and third-placed Hawthorn met in the qualifying final. Few pundits thought either of those outfits could match the Bombers, although they were forced to reconsider somewhat after the Hawks ran riot at the MCG, defeating the Dogs by 93 points in an embarrassing afternoon for Mick Malthouse’s men. Hawthorn’s momentum carried through into the first half of the second semi-final at VFL Park. Against the odds, the Hawks led by a goal at the long break. But some positional changes and a spray from Sheedy fired the Bombers into action. They booted seven goals to one in the third quarter and eased home in the last, winning by 40 points. Tim Watson was best-on-ground as maligned key position player Kevin Walsh also proved a point by taking control at centre half-forward in the second half. Another grand final beckoned for Terry. For Neale, the team’s success simply reminded him of what might have been. Earlier in the year he had spoken about his belief that unlike in ’84 he would this time be part of the action. Yet when the big day arrived, he was a spectator again. For the third year in a row, Essendon played Hawthorn in the grand final. The Hawks only narrowly made it, after surviving an entertaining preliminary final battle with Footscray, whose small forward Brad Hardie later won the Brownlow Medal. As in ’83 and ’84, Terry and Leigh Matthews were pictured in all the newspapers holding the premiership cup. Lethal had dyed the grey hairs in both his hair and moustache, making him look far younger than in the years prior. The veteran had needed an image boost after a torrid year. During the season he had suffered the ignominy of being charged by police with assault and then deregistered by the VFL following a violent confrontation with Geelong’s Neville Bruns. His career was in its final throes. The entire Daniher clan watched from the stands. Edna was stressing. Jim was focused, his radio tuned, headphones on. ‘Never sit next to Mum at the footy, that was the rule,’ says Nerolee. ‘And if you sat next to Dad your leg would be blue by the end because he’d slap it every time Essendon got a goal.’ The grand final began in a haze of fury, with a massive brawl breaking out just minutes into the game. When the tempers cooled, it was those in red and black who enjoyed a day out.

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Some miraculous play from Dermott Brereton helped Hawthorn stay in the game until the third quarter, but from there Essendon ran riot. Salmon capped his comeback from a knee reconstruction by kicking six goals, while Simon Madden won the Norm Smith Medal for his brilliant game in the ruck. The margin was a whopping 78 points. Of those who missed out a year before, Steve Carey and Tony Elshaug celebrated their first flag, while former Tiger Bryan Wood delighted in his fourth. Leon Baker made it four premierships in four years. He had previously won two in a row with Swan Districts in the WAFL. A young bloke with a gypsy-type philosophy of life, Baker shared a quick beer with his team-mates before departing with his girlfriend on a trip to India. Brereton was the Hawks’ only winner, ending the match with eight of their 14 goals. Matthews drew the curtain on his legendary career by announcing his retirement when the final siren sounded. His team-mates responded by carrying their tearful leader from the field. After eight best-and-fairest awards, 332 games and four premierships, his playing days were over. In the next day’s Herald he paid tribute to his club’s arch-rival. ‘Essendon is the greatest team of all time,’ Matthews said. ‘They just haven’t got any weaknesses. They are capable . . . of winning three flags in a row.’ Selected on a half-forward flank, Terry had just an average afternoon and was given the task of trying to shut down Brereton late in the piece. He made up for his low-key contribution during the celebrations. As he proudly hoisted the silverware for a second successive year, he could not have been happier. His team was almost unbeatable. ‘We had a very good belief in one another that we could do our bit and play our part,’ Terry says. ‘We had so many good players, it was just a matter of time. Then we just clicked and away we went.’ Once again, the Southern Cross ballroom played host to Essendon’s official celebrations. Terry talked to just about everyone and his speech brought the house down. Climbing up on the stage he said to the crowd: ‘Geez, she’s been a pretty bloody good day. Let’s get stuck into a few drinks and a have a good time.’ There were proud Danihers everywhere. Jim and Edna sported huge smiles, as did their daughters.

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Neale, Anthony and Chris revelled in Terry’s achievements. As the party warmed up, Sheedy made a special point of greeting the Danihers. When he walked over and shook their hands, Edna noticed her four sons standing nearby. Earlier in the year at an aftermatch function in the Peacock Room at Windy Hill she had first been inspired to pose a question. ‘Do you think my boys might ever play together?’ she’d asked Sheedy. Now, shortly after the ’85 grand final, she gave him the hurry-up. ‘Stop mucking around, Kevin,’ Edna said. ‘When are you going to get Anthony down?’ The Danihers all running out for Essendon seemed a ridiculous proposition. Neale had decided to give the game away after three knee reconstructions. Anthony had just finished second in the Sydney Swans’ best-and-fairest. Chris had not played at all that year following his own injury dramas. But a seed was planted in the coach’s mind. He did not forget it. ‘Here’s my chance,’ Sheedy remembers pondering. ‘Edna was the one. She started the idea. I said, “Well you live with the guy who’s going to make that decision and that’s Jim.” ’ Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris thought little about their mum’s request. Edna quietly began hoping. ‘I’m a pragmatic thinker and I thought there was no way us four boys would get out there together,’ says Neale. ‘But we had two thinkers who didn’t want to think about why it couldn’t be done. They wanted to think about why it could be done. Mum and Kevin were happy to dream. That was one of Kevin’s great strengths.’ With no International Rules commitments, Terry spent plenty of the ensuing weeks with his team-mates. During their celebrations they were asked to appear in a commercial for Carlton 2.1, CUB’s new light beer. Shot on a bridge in Port Melbourne, the ad starred Terry bustling through a crowd of his fellow Bombers before pointing a can towards the camera and gulping down a portion of its contents. ‘We’re going to mix this scene with your highlights from the grand final,’ the director told him. ‘The only thing I did all day was chase around bloody Dermott Brereton,’ Terry retorted, to much laughter. It took many takes before the film crew was happy. ‘The boys kept elbowing me and whacking me on the way through,’ Terry recalls. ‘I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it’. In the coming week, the party headed all the way to the beer

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halls of Munich. It was a memorable footy trip and the bond between the boys grew stronger. Even a couple of decades on, despite many eventually leaving for other clubs and fatter pay packets, lots of the players involved in Essendon’s 1984 and ’85 premierships enjoy a close friendship. Terry remains captain of the group — its spiritual leader. And when he or any of the other men call Sheedy, they always address him as ‘Coach’. From places as diverse as Ungarie, the Western Australian wheat belt and the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, footy brought them together. Success provided the glue.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LOYALT Y

T

he mid-1980s were all about cash. Alan Bond and Christopher

Skase were at the peak of their financial powers. It was only a matter of time before hedonism began to influence football. And if ever there was a prime candidate to be seduced by razzle and dazzle, it was the Sydney Swans. During 1985, the VFL board decided a private takeover might finally enable its first non-Victorian club to capture the hearts and minds of those in the Harbour City. Chequebooks were produced, and after some furious negotiations Dr Geoffrey Edelsten beat textile magnate Basil Sellers to the prize. Edelsten, with blonde wife Leanne by his side, handed over $6.3 million and was announced as the Swans’ new owner. Famous for his pink Lamborghini, the man dubbed ‘the Hugh Hefner of medicine’ subsequently sent rival clubs into a spin. Edelsten decided to spend up big for 1986. He launched a recruiting campaign that netted Geelong trio Greg Williams, David Bolton and Bernard Toohey. He pinched Gerard Healy from Melbourne and soon went after a couple of the biggest names in the business. First, Edelsten contacted Terry Daniher, but he wanted nothing more than a third straight premiership with the Bombers. Given how strong the Dons had been in 1985, a hat-trick of flags was considered far more likely than not. Soon the Swans sacked their coach, John Northey, and went after Kevin Sheedy, offering a five-year contract of more than a

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million dollars. Sheedy took his time before committing to Essendon for at least another season. Former Richmond, Collingwood and Geelong boss Tom Hafey was then appointed Sydney coach. Despite Sheedy and his captain electing to stay, not everyone connected with Windy Hill shunned the Edelsten hospitality. Gun centreman Merv Neagle, who had missed the ’85 premiership due to injury, was offered a massive contract to head north. Reported to be in excess of $100 000 a year, the wage was never going to be matched by the Bombers. So Neagle packed his bags and moved on. ‘It was time for a change and a new challenge,’ Neagle told reporters in Sydney. ‘Loyalty? That went out years ago. It’s my work, I go where the money is.’ It was the first crack in Sheedy’s superteam. Another opened when Paul Weston packed his bags and returned to Adelaide, taking up the position as coach of West Torrens. The amount of money being splashed around by Edelsten did cause some consternation up north. Having polled eight votes in the Brownlow Medal in ’85 and finishing runner-up in Sydney’s best-andfairest behind rover Stevie Wright, Anthony Daniher was now a star in his own right. Yet he was a little bemused by the lack of respect being shown to the club’s current players. ‘We’d done all the hard work shifting the club up there and no-one was talking to us,’ he explains. ‘I said, “Bugger this, I’ll head back to Melbourne and make a stand.” ’ Anthony hung around with Terry and Neale for a couple of weeks while his manager, Damian Smith, tried to work out a new contract with the Swans. In the meantime, Terry informed the Bombers of the situation. Sheedy quickly arranged a meeting and set about trying to convince Anthony he should join Essendon. ‘It’s a great boost for your confidence to have the premiership coach wanting you,’ Anthony told newspaper reporters at the time. ‘It is an experience in itself just talking to Sheedy.’ As it transpired, the Bombers were never really in the hunt. Believing a deal with Sydney was near, Smith called Anthony into his office, where they communicated with Sydney by fax. Soon a new contract was printed out before them. Anthony took a look at the figures. ‘Christ, they’re fair dinkum,’ he exclaimed. His wage had gone from $35 000 per year to an annual salary of more than $80 000. It was not much different to what Terry was earning, and he was a dual

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premiership captain, state skipper and genuine superstar. Anthony was boggled. ‘I think we’d better sign that and fax it back straight away,’ he said, smiling like a man who had won the lottery. ‘It was quite amazing,’ he reminisces. ‘When you look back at the history of the game, this gave it a huge leap forward. The whole game has never looked back from this.’ A few days later Anthony was back training at Centennial Park, where the Swans did much of their pre-season work. The sessions were far more enjoyable than in previous summers as the entire squad was now based in Sydney. In the three years prior, the reserves had still hosted matches at the Lake Oval in South Melbourne. Given this, many of the fringe players continued to live down south. The club was a disjointed organisation. Hafey refused to let this continue so everyone on Sydney’s list was required to live in New South Wales. The reserves would now play their home matches at the SCG. Two regular senior players, Billy Picken and Bernie Evans, refused to make the move and cut ties with the Swans. Picken returned to Collingwood, while Evans joined Carlton and helped the Blues reach a grand final. Once the player movements had settled down, Hafey made it clear that Anthony would play a key role in his efforts to drag Sydney up the ladder. ‘It was very important for us to retain Anthony,’ Hafey stated. ‘It is very good for the morale — and for future recruiting — for us to be seen holding on to players when a club of the stature of Essendon also is interested in his services. Anthony is a key position player and despite our recruiting, we could not afford to lose him.’ At the age of 22, Anthony was now earning enough money to be a professional footballer. Many of his team-mates took that approach, but a farmer’s son from Ungarie did not believe footy training was a substitute for genuine toil. Having previously worked as a brickie’s labourer and for a company that installed kitchens, Anthony returned to the job he had begun a couple of years prior. He was employed by a supporter of the Swans who had a contract to clean the seaweed off a number of inner-city beaches. To fit in with footy, Anthony would begin each morning at 7 am and finish by midday. ‘It was a great job,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘The boss had an unroadworthy truck and an unroadworthy tractor and here we are driving around the heartland

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of Sydney. You reckon some farm trucks are dodgy, this one was twofold worse. It’d be loaded with seaweed and you’d be going down this hill and he’d say, “Look, the brakes aren’t working that well at the moment so just be careful.” It was unreal.’ On top of all that, Anthony was being paid cash. He was living the good life. His sisters, Colleen and Angela, who were involved in the Australian Institute of Sport’s netball program in Canberra, would drive to Sydney most weekends in Colleen’s white Holden Torana and head out on the town with their high-rolling brother. ‘They’d bring a few of their mates who were pretty good partiers,’ Anthony says. ‘We really had some fun. It wasn’t a real healthy lifestyle for a football career, but that’s the way it was back then. Real good fun. Didn’t buy any properties, wasn’t smart enough to do that. Just had a good time.’ Anthony did invest a small slice of his income in the farm at Ungarie, just in case he went back there fulltime one day. Down in Melbourne, Terry’s life was a little more steady. He worked hard cleaning windows and spent plenty of time with Gaynor and their two young children. He spent a couple of weeks up at the farm, although this yearly pilgrimage was getting shorter by the year. He was becoming tied to the city. While he was back home, Terry made sure to encourage Chris, whose knee injury was healing very slowly. A year on from his accident on the swing, he was struggling to regain fitness. Terry made sure he set the example on the training track when pre-season began. He knew three premierships in a row would not come easily — no team had done it since Melbourne in the 1950s. But he and Sheedy were adamant they were not going to let their remarkable team waste its talents. They knew that anything less than a third successive flag in ’86 would be perceived as a failure. As Terry devoted himself to another big year with the Bombers, Neale headed down an entirely different path. He made a clean break from football. In the ensuing months he took a passing interest in the on-field fortunes of his brothers, but he needed to get away from the game he dearly loved. While work at Bongiorno’s took up much of his time, Neale also began thinking deeply about himself. He wondered about his spiritual side. What exactly did he believe in and why was it so? In response to these feelings he enrolled to study

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theology part-time at Melbourne University. His new classmates were certainly a far different bunch to the wild men of the Essendon dressing room. ‘It wasn’t all about Christianity,’ Neale says. ‘It was a part of understanding my background and my faith and my beliefs. It wasn’t about becoming a priest or anything like that. It was a philosophical thing. We were a big Irish-Catholic family and I was wondering about this faith I had inherited. When you’re a kid you get dragged off to Mass every Sunday and you don’t really get a chance to think about it.’ Neale’s life became too hectic to complete the second year of the course, but he gained much knowledge from the initial 12 months of learning and discussion. Whether Neale liked it or not, footy was moving on. Former Richmond and Collingwood centreman Geoff Raines had arrived at Essendon and taken his number 6 jumper. Neale had not even managed to have his name inscribed on a locker at Windy Hill. You had to play at least 100 games to be granted that honour. It was left to Terry and Anthony to carry the Daniher name into battle each weekend. Remarkably, it was the privately funded Sydney team that shaded the previously unbeatable Bombers during the homeand-away matches. Despite winning their opening four games by an average of 58 points, Essendon was dragged back into the chasing pack by injury. Tim Watson went down with a year-ending knee injury, while Van Der Haar broke his leg and managed just three appearances. Rover Darren ‘Daisy’ Williams also missed a large chunk of the season after breaking his leg. The flag favourites won only 12 of their 22 matches, barely scraping into the finals, finishing just a few percentage points ahead of sixth-placed Collingwood. Inconsistency dogged those Bombers who were fit. Paul Salmon kicked seven goals in an opening round demolition of Collingwood, but struggled to recapture his form thereafter. Still regarded as one of the competition’s best players, Terry tried valiantly to inspire his team. He started the year at full-back and spent time in almost every position on the ground. In many weeks he was among Essendon’s best and even led the Sunscore after round 4, from Carlton’s gun recruit Craig Bradley. A recurring ankle problem robbed him of the chance to lead Victoria again, but he returned to

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play his 200th game, although the fragile joint required a great deal of tape to ensure it would see out the contest. The Bombers lifted for the occasion, belting Richmond by 79 points, with Salmon booting 11 goals. In the rooms afterwards, Terry was asked about the possibility of extending his career to 300 matches. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘I’ll just take it year by year. I’m still loving playing the game. It would be hard to live without it.’ Like in the years before, Terry was also quizzed about what his long-term future held. Where once he had been adamant about a return to the farm, he was now hedging his bets. ‘I’m not one to predict what might happen . . . I think it’s risky to say what you might or mightn’t do,’ he said. Essendon’s dramas were in stark contrast to the happy days being enjoyed by Anthony and the Swans. With their recruits dominating and Warwick Capper booting bags of goals and snatching spectacular marks, Sydney won its first six games, shooting to the top of the ladder with a 22-point win over Carlton. Edelsten’s focus on entertainment was paying off. Nearly 38 000 people packed into the SCG for the Swans’ meeting with the Blues. The Swanettes, a troupe of scantily clad dancing girls, thrilled the crowd by gyrating to a frightfully annoying song every time the home side scored a goal. Thanks to the games being beamed live into Victoria every second Sunday by Channel 7, the Swans became household names. In playgrounds across the state children began jumping on each other’s backs while shouting ‘Capper!’ For Anthony, the season was a grand adventure. The team began developing such a profile that a seat at a Sydney game was the hottest ticket in town. Average attendances topped 25 000. Celebrities, highsociety members and politicians were sure to be seen in the stands, The players were suddenly appearing in advertisements, including one for Kentucky Fried Chicken, filmed at the SCG. Anthony recalls, ‘It took us 48 bloody takes, but they just fed you Kentucky Fried all day. It started off as great fun. At the end of it you were full, you were tired, you were pissed off. There were buckets of chicken all over the place. It was crazy stuff.’ When the effects of the chicken overdose wore off, Anthony was a solid performer, although rarely outstanding. Playing mainly at centre half-forward, he struggled to find his best form and late in the season

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was dropped to the reserves. But his attitude could not be questioned. He kicked seven goals in his first reserves game since 1981, and as a result his dream of tasting some September action was revived. He won a recall for the final regular season game. Despite a narrow loss in that match against Fitzroy at Victoria Park, the Swans finished second on the ladder with a 16–6 win–loss record. They were behind Hawthorn, yet three places above the once-mighty Bombers. They were a chance to win the flag. The ’86 finals began with confirmation that the old order had been usurped. Terry’s once-mighty Essendon team was knocked out of the premiership race when it lost to Fitzroy by a single point in the elimination final at VFL Park. In a low-scoring affair played in driving rain, Mick Conlan was the Lions’ hero. He booted the winning goal with only a couple of minutes remaining. It was only his fifth kick for the match. Terry spent the afternoon at full-back where, according to one match report, he ‘coped with the full-forward with his usual confidence and was steady throughout’. While the Lions celebrated, Terry pondered the end to the Bombers’ era of supremacy. The following day, Anthony enjoyed the greatest moment of his career to date when he ran onto the MCG for the qualifying final against Carlton. It was the Swans’ first final since moving to Sydney. It was also the club’s first post-season clash since 1977, when Terry was part of the South Melbourne team that lost to Richmond. Anthony began at centre half-back as the Swans bolted out to an early four-goal lead. In the second half he was moved to full-forward, after Capper failed to have an impact. He kicked a goal and took some fine marks but could not stop Carlton winning by 16 points. Stephen Kernahan, Ken Hunter and Paul Meldrum did the damage at the other end. A week later the Blues won their way straight through to the grand final with a tough win over Hawthorn. Sydney had another chance to keep its premiership dream alive when it tackled Fitzroy in the first semi-final at the MCG. Anthony’s effort against Carlton made the news. It was reported that he was set to begin at full-forward against the Lions, with Capper relegated to the pocket. ‘We’ll have a look at the balance of our team,’ said Swans general manager and selector Ron Thomas. ‘And Daniher has given us

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something to consider.’ Anthony was asked his opinion on the matter. ‘I like playing anywhere but I do admit I love playing up front,’ he declared. In the end, Anthony was selected at centre half-forward. With 65 763 people watching on, he put on an impressive display, booting two goals as Sydney held a 12-point lead at the last change. However, in a nail-biting final quarter the Swans were overrun, going down by the devastating margin of five points. The club remained without a finals victory since 1945. When the disappointment of the loss subsided, Anthony felt confident there were exciting times ahead. He and his team-mates headed off to Hawaii where they celebrated their surge up the ladder. Yet upon his return, Anthony was in for a shock, his optimism tempered when Hafey asked for a chat in his office. The club needed to prune its wages so it could remain within the $1.2 million salary cap. One of the higher paid players had to go. ‘I think they had to shave $250 000 off their wages, or something like that,’ he says. ‘Tommy called me in and just said, “You’ve got to move on.” That was it.’ Sheedy pounced within days. This was an opportunity to boost his squad and increase the chances of Edna’s dream coming true. ‘Sheeds said, “I’ll fly up and meet you at the Sydney airport,” ’ Anthony recalls. ‘He booked a little room at the airport and when he arrived he pulled a whiteboard out of his briefcase and started playing with names. “Oh you don’t look bad here on the wing,” he was saying. “Oh you look alright at full-back. What about centre half-forward?” It was just amazing.’ After a few minutes of Sheedy shuffling magnets around, he turned to Anthony and asked, “So, are you coming to the Bombers?” The reply was immediate. “Absolutely.” Anthony’s change of clubs meant another move for Jo, who had recently relocated from Melbourne. Her disappointment at having to return south again was eased when Anthony proposed. She accepted and they began preparing for their wedding, to be held after the following footy season. As his brother pondered a new life in red and black, Terry received some consolation for Essendon’s below-par season when he was made Australian skipper for the home International Rules series against Ireland. The three Tests were again marred by wild

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brawls, with Brownlow Medallist Robert Dipierdomenico among the chief instigators. When the game flowed, Terry was an outstanding contributor, although his efforts were not enough to hold off a fired-up Irish combination. Australia won the first match at the WACA, but lost the final two, played at VFL Park and Adelaide’s Football Park. In late October, Terry finally wound down after a long season. He had surgery to fix his ankle and vowed to return fitter and hungrier for success in 1987. The prospect of playing alongside at least one of his brothers was further motivation to keep giving his all after 11 seasons in the VFL.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

FOLLOWING IN YOUR BROTHER S’ FOOTSTEPS

K

evin sheedy had a goal. He wanted all four Daniher boys at

Essendon. Once he had secured Anthony, his next target was 20-year-old Chris. Although zoning regulations meant he was tied to Sydney, Chris had been on the Bombers’ radar since he began playing junior footy at Ungarie. The recruiting staff at Windy Hill knew he was talented. The Daniher name pretty much guaranteed that. But they were not aware of the diverse challenges he had faced to keep his VFL dream alive. When Chris was in primary school, the departure of his brothers and many cousins resulted in Rugby League taking over as the code of choice among Ungarie’s youth. None of the boys wanted to kick a Sherrin around – they all wanted to be front rowers or five-eighths. Chris refused to take part in the lunchtime league matches. Instead, he booted drop punts on his own or played netball with the girls. The tirade of abuse he copped from the other lads hardened his resolve to prove them wrong and make it to the big time. Being the youngest of Jim and Edna’s sons also presented a few issues out at the farm. By the time Chris was 12 all his brothers had left home. Who was he going to practise his skills with? Eventually he made a deal with his younger sisters. If he spent time playing with their dolls, they would kick the footy with him in return.

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There was nothing feminine about Chris when he ran onto a football field. He played in the Ungarie senior team for the first time at Four Corners at the tender age of 13 and managed to get a few kicks. When he took out the Northern Riverina League’s Under-17 best-andfairest award in 1981, which led to a place in the New South Wales schoolboys’ team, Essendon football manager Kevin Egan sent him a letter of congratulations. ‘It is certainly a great achievement and you are no doubt following in your three brothers’ footsteps,’ wrote Egan. ‘Kevin Sheedy was extremely interested in seeing you win the award and hopes one day you could be playing with Essendon.’ That year, Chris ran out in both the juniors and seniors most weekends. The youngest Daniher’s progress was furthered monitored as he made the NSW Teal Cup team in 1983. In the same season, he followed in Terry’s footsteps by joining Ariah Park–Mirrool. Chris handled the step up to major league standard with relative ease. Like Terry, he had a fanatical work ethic and was always among the fittest players at the club. Wiry yet strong as an ox, he spent many hours building himself up in the homemade gym on the farm so his body could cope with playing against grown men. At Ariah Park–Mirrool, he was mostly a ruck-rover and won widespread acclaim for his fearless attack on the ball. In 1984, at the age of 18, he was part of the Ariah Park–Mirrool team that made the Riverina League grand final. Despite standing just 183 centimetres, Chris was selected at centre half-forward. His reputation only increased when he collected 20 possessions and kicked a goal; however, that was not enough to secure victory for Ariah Park– Mirrool at the Narrandera Sports Ground. After leading for most of the afternoon, the Bombers went down by six points when Mick Walsh kicked the winning goal for Ganmain–Grong Grong–Matong with 15 seconds left. Chris was shattered with the result but confident he was on the path to bigger things. Essendon soon began a campaign to have him released from his ties to Sydney. Having previously given up Terry and Neale, and with Anthony now wearing red and white, the Swans refused. This was not a great surprise, especially as Terry had been reported as saying ‘the best one of us is still at home’. Shortly after, Chris’s ambitions suffered a major setback when

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his knee was wrecked during that fateful drinking session with mates in Ungarie late in ’84. The image of being on the playground swing when his leg smashed into the steel pole is burned into his memory. ‘It was just a snap,’ Chris recalls. ‘All the boys went dead quiet. Everyone knew it was bad. I tried to stand up and my knee just collapsed. All my ligaments were gone.’ Chris staggered home. The next morning he woke with a hangover and the crushing reality that his VFL dream might be over. He hobbled out of his bedroom to open his Christmas present. It was a new tennis racquet. Another 12 months would pass before he could use it. Chris was taken to Melbourne and operated on by Dr John Bartlett, the same surgeon who had done Neale’s three knee reconstructions. Six weeks in plaster followed. All up, it was more than 18 months before Chris played his next competitive game of football. In June 1986, he made his long-awaited comeback with Ungarie. The slower pace of the Northern Riverina League helped restore his battered confidence. Now 20, Chris made two appearances with the Magpies and was quickly rushed into the NRFL representative side for its yearly clash with the Coreen League. He kicked three goals and looked a class above most others on the field. Chris then felt ready to step back up to the Riverina League. After some hurried negotiations, he decided against returning to Ariah Park–Mirrool, instead joining Coolamon. It took a few games for Chris to find his feet, but he soon proved his injury dramas were behind him. While Coolamon was a struggling team, Chris won over its many supporters with a brilliant performance in an upset win over Griffith. ‘He killed them,’ the Grasshoppers’ coach told the local paper. ‘He sidestepped, took some big, strong marks, and ran confidently. He has the most potential of any player in the league.’ Chris was back in business and Essendon was soon on the phone. He would make it to the VFL after all. Anthony’s decision to sign with the Bombers, along with the Swans’ salary cap problems, strengthened Essendon’s bargaining position when it came to recruiting Chris. A deal was soon agreed by the two clubs, much to the delight of Sheedy. Some people connected with Sydney must have reacted to the news with caution — the Swans had now given up all four Danihers. But at least that chapter in the club’s

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history, which had begun with the decision to trade Terry in 1978, was closed. There were no more sons of Jim Daniher to relinquish. Following the deal between the clubs, Sheedy, Egan, recruiting manager Noel Judkins and committeeman Neville Gay flew in a light plane to Ungarie to meet Chris. They hoped to convince Jim to let him sign a contract. Strong winds made the flight a nightmare, especially for Sheedy, who hated flying even in a 747. When they finally landed, Jim collected the men from the airstrip at the property owned by John Erwin, his brother-in-law, and drove them across to Hillview, where Edna served a hearty lunch. Judkins gazed around the dinner table, noting the boys and girls ‘all bloody looked the same. It was unbelievable.’ Once they had eaten, Jim took the Essendon contingent out to the garage to negotiate some terms and conditions for Chris. Jim was delighted the Bombers had already looked after Anthony, yet he made sure Chris was getting a decent deal before agreeing to shake hands on it. Chris then signed the piece of paper put in front of him without a care in the world. He was heading to the big time. At around 4 pm it was time for Sheedy and his men to return to Melbourne. Jim drove them back to the dusty runway. The stiff breeze meant getting the light plane into the air and over the row of pine tress at the end of the paddock would be no mean feat. ‘Oh well, we’ll have a go at it and see what happens,’ said the pilot, Lionel Taylor, who Judkins remembers was ‘a bit of a cowboy’. With his passengers fearing for their lives, Taylor made it safely into the air but there was soon another drama. ‘We were coming over Narrandera,’ Judkins says, ‘when all of a sudden the door behind Sheeds just flew open.’ With Sheedy’s face getting paler by the second, a spare luggage strap was found in the back of the plane. Judkins carefully wrapped it around the door handle, then the Essendon coach, the strongest man on the aircraft, wrenched the door shut. Judkins held it closed for the rest of the flight. ‘That was horrific,’ he says. ‘And I remember sometime later we were going up to get David Grenvold at Bordertown in South Australia. We had the same pilot and Sheedy wouldn’t come. Barry Capuano [the general manager] had to come with us. Sheeds just wouldn’t do it.’ When he finally stepped onto the tarmac at Essendon Airport, Judkins thought: ‘I bloody hope Chris is worth the trouble.’

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Jim was very happy that the Bombers had pledged to give his son every chance of succeeding in the VFL. And he had driven a hard bargain not only with them. Both the Ungarie and Ariah Park– Mirrool football clubs were entitled to a slice of the transfer fee paid by Essendon, along with additional payments upon him reaching certain career milestones. But as when Terry, Neale and Anthony had joined the VFL ranks, Jim made sure the money went where he wanted it to go. ‘I had an agreement with Ariah Park that any transfer fees had to come to Ungarie – they couldn’t put their bloody claim on it,’ Jim says. ‘So Ungarie did tremendously well out of the boys going away to play footy.’ Jim’s haggling did not end there. He insisted that half the proceeds received by the Magpies be handed on to his sons. It was fair reward, Jim told the Ungarie committee, for the Daniher family’s commitment to keeping Australian Rules alive in the town. ‘I scrounged the bloody footballs, recruited the kids, marked the ground, picked the teams, umpired it and they sat back and did nothin’. I was never going to let them get the bloody lot.’ Terry, Anthony and Chris worked hard together over harvest, then headed to Melbourne to start 1987 pre-season training with the Bombers. Edna rejoiced at the thought of the three boys being given the chance to play at the same club. Sheedy had not forgotten about her other son either. He invited Neale back into the fold by offering him the position as skills coach. Neale’s year away from the game had cleared his mind. He was ready to return. In the space of a few weeks, Essendon had gone from having one Daniher on its books to now employing all four. Edna and Jim were delighted. Chris spent his first 12 months in Melbourne living with Anthony and Jo in East Keilor. When he arrived at Windy Hill, the players, coaches and administrators felt as though they had met him before. Although nine years younger, he was almost a clone of Terry — a genuine chip off the old block. ‘Chris and Terry had the same mannerisms and same looks,’ Edna explains. ‘Chris just idolised Terry. He wanted to be just like him.’ Sunday Press journalist Jon Anderson drew immediate attention to the brothers’ likeness. Under the headline, ‘oh no! another daniher’, he wrote: ‘The freckles are just as plentiful, the ears just as prominent and the smile is just as

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friendly. In fact, Chris and Terry Daniher are so alike that Terry’s wife Gaynor admits she sometimes confuses the pair.’ Terry’s success meant the Daniher name now carried big expectations. The comment about Chris being the best of the brothers only heightened pressure on the youngster. If that statement was to prove correct, Chris would need to become the Essendon captain, play in at least two premierships, skipper Victoria and win a spot in the AllAustralian team. But Chris’s down-to-earth approach allowed him to ignore all such predictions. When Age reporter Len Johnson asked him about the likelihood of outdoing his older siblings, he simply replied: ‘That sort of thing is written by people who have not seen you play. I realise I’ve got a long way to go.’ His ambition was simply to make the senior team. In contrast, Anthony began the new chapter in his career confident his best football lay ahead. Having already played 115 games, Anthony knew he could cut it at the highest level. He harboured no bitterness towards the Swans, just a desire to prove them wrong. His laid-back personality meant he was rarely bitter about anyone or anything. ‘It was very disappointing,’ he told The Australian’s Glenn Mitchell. ‘I guess it was a management decision that had to be taken. Footy’s like that these days.’ Anthony and Chris soon settled in at the Bombers. During the pre-season they marvelled at the way Terry led his troops on and off the field. In his fifth year as Essendon captain, Terry set the standard at training, consistently beating his younger siblings in the many runs around the Tan. ‘It was pretty amazing, especially to be there with Terry,’ remembers Anthony. ‘He was the superstar, he was the captain and he was our big brother. He ran the show. Chris and I just felt part of the furniture instantly because of TD. Essendon people all thought, “Great, here’s another couple of Danihers, they should be just like Terry and Neale.” For Chris and me it was the easiest change. It was like walking into the kitchen at home, that’s how good it was. It was an amazing start for us.’ Compared with a couple of decades later, these were relatively simple times for elite footballers. There were no early morning trips to the beach on Sundays after matches. Instead, recovery sessions

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involved a run around the streets, some bacon and eggs and a barrel of Carlton Draught at the Windy Hill social club. The players could also enjoy themselves out on the town without the fear of becoming the lead item on Channel 7 news. Their relationship with the media was not based on a culture of ‘us versus them’. Unlike rookie recruits in future decades, Chris was not immediately trained to give journalists meaningless sound bites littered with ‘at the end of the day’ and ‘going forward’. He was allowed to be himself. Interaction between the players and the media was largely unregulated and none of the clubs had media managers. Journalists were free to attend training and speak to anyone willing to have a chat. The VFL had appointed its first spin doctor only the year before, with Mike Sheahan leaving his job at the Herald to take on the new role. In late February, there were freckles aplenty as Terry, Anthony and Chris achieved a milestone for the Daniher family when they lined up in the same team for the first time in their lives. The match was Essendon’s night series opener (at this time known as the National Panasonic Cup) against St Kilda at VFL Park. Even in the Footy Record the boys were side by side, as they had been given consecutive numbers. Terry again wore his now-famous number 5, while Anthony sported Neale’s old number 6, recently vacated by Geoff Raines who had defected to the newly formed Brisbane Bears. Chris jogged into position wearing number 7. When the contest began, Terry eased himself into the season with a quiet display at full-back, while Anthony played on the wing and showed all his skills in the second half. But it was Chris who stole the show. He started on a half-back flank before moving into the centre, and he finished with a haul of 16 possessions, which included a goal. Just nine months earlier Chris had tiptoed back to football by running out for Ungarie. Now he was being labelled a VFL star in the making. Maybe he would be the best Daniher after all. Off the field, the boys stuck together as well. When Anthony and Chris moved to Melbourne, Terry decided to quit his window washing job with Ron Kirwan so they could start their own business. Daniher Cleaning Services was born. As their own bosses, the three brothers easily ensured their hours never clashed with footy training. Soon they were spotted balancing on window ledges, buckets in hand, all over the

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city. One morning Lou Richards paid them a visit for a feature article in the Sun. ‘Terry is the captain on the field and on the ladder — he is the head chamois swisher,’ Richards wrote. ‘Anthony is the soapsudder and young Chris is the bucket boy. Seriously, if I didn’t have better things to do I’d love to be working with the original “she’ll be right, mate” trio. When I asked Chris how I would fit in, he said: “No worries, mate. Sometimes we have quiet days and once we knocked off at 11.30 am for a cuppa and forgot to come back.” ’ In reality, the brothers’ appetite for work meant the business was always going to be a success. Later, steam cleaning of carpets and dusting of light fittings were added to their repertoire, although this created a few hair-raising moments. One of their most memorable misadventures came when they were cleaning a chandelier at the mansion of prominent businessman Richard Pratt. As Chris finished cleaning one part of the $30 000 fitting, he was turning it to reveal the next dirty section, rather than shifting his ladder. Little did he realise that the chandelier was gradually unscrewing itself from the roof. Eventually it fell, only for Anthony to take ‘the mark of the season’. While his brothers were cleaning windows, Neale continued to work full-time crunching numbers on a computer at Bongiorno’s. He was a busy man. The birth of his first child, Lauren, was imminent. He was also spending 25 to 30 hours a week at Essendon, fulfilling his new role as skills coach. Neale had already impressed Sheedy by introducing the idea of videotaping every game and using the footage to help players review their performances. Neale encouraged the club to buy its own video cameras as the television rights holder — the ABC in 1987 — only filmed two or three games each weekend. Taking to the field again was the furthest thing from Neale’s mind. Quoted at the time he said, ‘I’ve never considered playing again. My legs aren’t up to it. The desire to play again isn’t very strong either. I’ve been retired for a year now. It’s final. It’d be terrible to be thinking to myself “I’ll come back, I’ll come back.” That’s a mental agony in itself. It’s a relief to say, “That’s it. Shut the door. Get onto something new.” ’ Sheedy had asked Neale to also be a member of the match committee but he felt having three brothers in the squad would compromise his decision making at the selection table, so he refused the invitation.

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Neale was upbeat about the Bombers’ prospects. Their easy win over St Kilda resulted in many pundits predicting a surge back up the ladder. ‘Jubilant Essendon fans stormed out of VFL Park last night, confident their team had regained its premiership form of 1984–85,’ wrote Anderson in the Sunday Press. The year could not have turned out more differently. Although they won their first two home-and-away matches, Essendon failed to even make the finals in the first year of the expanded competition, which included the Bears and another new team in Perth. Gun recruit Tony Antrobus, a feisty rover from Adelaide, played only one match, Van Der Haar managed just eight, while Tim Watson again struggled with injuries after battling back from a knee reconstruction. In addition, the loss of Raines, Frank Dunnell, Brenton Phillips and Peter Banfield to Brisbane robbed the Bombers of their once-formidable depth. They won only nine games and finished ninth on the ladder. In two years they had gone from being almost unbeatable to also-rans. In a disastrous campaign, Terry was one of the few Essendon players who kept their reputations intact. He played all 22 home-andaway matches and despite spending much time in defence managed to boot 30 goals. A best haul of six in round 11 against St Kilda was overshadowed by the nine that 21-year-old Tony Lockett put through at the other end. Terry was among the Bombers’ best in their disappointing loss to a resurgent John Northey–coached Melbourne in the National Panasonic Cup grand final and was runner-up in the best-and-fairest, three votes behind the winner, Mark Thompson. Amid the gloom of Essendon’s on-field deterioration, newspaper reporters continued to debate whether Terry was Australia’s best player. When quizzed about this by The Australian, he was typically modest. ‘The moment you start thinking you’re a world beater, that’s when you fall in a hole,’ he said. ‘You’ve just got to get out there and perform, otherwise it’s back to the bush.’ Personally, his only disappointment was losing the Victorian captaincy to North Melbourne veteran Wayne Schimmelbusch. As it turned out, a bruised shoulder ruled him out of the second State of Origin clash with Western Australia anyway, and his low-key display against South Australia meant he missed a berth in the International Rules team that travelled to Ireland.

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The other Daniher boys enjoyed mixed fortunes. Super-fit after a big pre-season, Anthony dazzled Bomber fans in the round 1 win over Footscray. Playing in defence, he collected 23 touches, 11 marks and and even snuck forward to boot a goal. But a week after Sheedy had celebrated another piece of canny recruiting, Anthony was diagnosed with foot stress fractures following Essendon’s first official match against the West Coast Eagles. He did not return to the team until round 20. His first year in red and black was a write-off. Despite his brilliant pre-season form, Chris’s momentum was halted when he suffered a broken cheekbone in the reserves. Before that, the highlight of the year had been his 21st birthday, held in the Ungarie Hall. A host of Essendon players had made the trip north, many of whom left a lasting impression on the locals. It was, Chris says, ‘a bloody great party’. At one stage, in the early hours of the morning, he heard a diesel engine rumble to life not far from the hall. He wandered over to see what was going on. Paul Van Der Haar and Ed Considine had hot-wired the local hay-carter’s truck and were about to take a joyride through Ungarie’s deserted streets. They were convinced to shut down the motor before the owner discovered what had happened. After those shenanigans, Chris turned his focus back to football. His toughness, skill and desire to succeed finally earned him a berth in the seniors when Essendon travelled to the SCG to meet the thirdplaced Swans in round 17. Chris could not have picked a worse game to make his debut. The Bombers still had a slim chance of making the finals, so a win was imperative. Yet they lost by an embarrassing 163 points. Sydney piled on 13 goals in the final quarter to finish with a total of 36.20 (236). At that stage in the game’s history, it was the second-highest score ever recorded. Chris wondered if he would ever play again. Memories of that ill-fated weekend actually cause Terry to chuckle as he recounts what went on the day before the game. ‘We’d flown up there on the Saturday and I decided to go for a bit of walk somewhere with Roger [Merrett],’ Terry explains. ‘We went past a pub and I said, “Let’s call in here and have a quick couple.” Unfortunately a busload of supporters had just arrived in Sydney and they all piled into the pub. They were saying, “Geez, you blokes are confident.”

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We were only drinking lights but I thought “Shit, we’d better get out of here.”’ The pair sheepishly returned to the team hotel. Luckily for them, none of the Bomber fans in question told the club of their chance encounter. Terry and Chris retained their places in the team as Essendon sought redemption against Carlton a week later. The Dons went down by a single point to the eventual premiers, capping off a hellish period for the club. The youngest Daniher was sent back to the reserves for the final four games. His VFL initiation had been a tough one, although not without humorous moments. He recalls an incident that took place at Moorabbin before a reserves match against St Kilda. That morning he was walking into the ground alongside team-mate Paul Hamilton when Hamilton was bitten by a dog. ‘This dog just latched onto his leg,’ Chris laughs. ‘He jumped on the rubdown table and there was blood pouring out of his leg. It was so different back then at those local grounds. You never knew what was going to happen.’ After such a tough season, there was finally some fun in store for the Bombers when they were invited to play in Aussie Bowl ’87, a 15-a-side exhibition match against Hawthorn in the Japanese city of Yokohama. For three blokes from Ungarie, it was an amazing cultural experience, especially for Chris who had never been overseas before. The game took place on a baseball field that featured artificial turf, the players wearing protective knee and elbow guards, which made them look like skateboarders. Essendon fielded a youthful team, with ten of its squad aged under 22. Terry, now 30, was one of the few veterans to play. Never one to take a contest lightly, he was among his team’s most effective contributors, behind fellow old boy Simon Madden. Although Hawthorn won easily, Madden was voted best-afield and rewarded with a new jet ski. At the presentation, players from both sides lined up as Madden was paraded before the 13 000-strong crowd, while sitting behind a bikini-clad local girl on the back of his new Yamaha Marine Jet. The after-match celebrations were long and enjoyable (the trip lasted a week in all) and the Daniher boys, lovers of steak, chips and beer, were introduced to the delights of sushi, sashimi and sake. When the festivities finally wound up, Terry headed home to his young family. With the arrival of Brittney, he and Gaynor now had three children

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aged under five. Anthony returned to Australia for his wedding, to be held at Ungarie. His three brothers were supposed to be in the bridal party, but Chris was keen to join his fellow Bombers on his first footy trip, which headed from Yokohama to Vancouver and Hawaii. ‘Oh mate, it’s going to be a great trip, what would you do?’ Chris asked Anthony. ‘Go and have a good time,’ his brother replied. Chris did not need to hear that response twice. He headed off to Canada. After five days in Vancouver they travelled to Hawaii where Chris and his mates dared each other to take on the big waves at Pipeline. ‘I hadn’t been in a lot of water before but at least I worked out you had to go under them,’ Chris says with a laugh. ‘I’ll never forget Dean Wallis kept trying to go over them. These things were high as a house and he just kept getting cleaned up. You’d see his legs spinning around. Then he’d sit on the beach for five minutes and try again. The lifeguard came around and said, “You blokes get out of here or someone’s going to die.”’ Back at Ungarie, Terry and Neale served as groomsmen on Anthony’s big day. He and Jo held their ceremony in St Joseph’s Catholic church in Ungarie, while the reception was in a motel at West Wyalong. The wedding summed up Anthony and Jo’s downto-earth personalities and it ensured Essendon’s ordinary season and Anthony’s injury problems were briefly forgotten. Surely better times lay ahead for the Bombers.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

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he daniher boys enjoyed a rousing start to the 1988 season.

Terry, Anthony and Chris were selected to play for New South Wales in the Bicentennial Carnival. Held in Adelaide during March, the competition included powerful sides from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Promoted to Division 1, New South Wales, coached by Tom Hafey, was given little chance of being competitive, let alone winning a game. Nevertheless, Jim was very happy his sons were representing their native state for the first time since their Teal Cup days. His pride was boosted further when Terry was appointed captain of the New South Wales team, which included junior star John Longmire, young Geelong forward Bill Brownless, Sydney captain Dennis Carroll and fellow Swan Tony Morwood, who actually hailed from Noble Park in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Jim, now a selector for the New South Wales Under-15 and Under-17 squads, was still working tirelessly to help Aussie Rules gain a greater profile north of the Murray River. However, his plan to attend the matches in Adelaide had to be scrapped when 50 millimetres of rain fell at Ungarie. Preparing the fallow for cropping had to take precedence. While he had played for Victoria on many occasions, Terry felt strongly about his New South Wales heritage. He went into the opening match against South Australia keen to make a stand. ‘It’s pretty important that we do well over here,’ he said. ‘If we can get in there

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and have a real red hot go and do well, it will give the whole state a boost.’ Terry and his men were inspired in their first-up encounter with the Croweaters. They held a narrow lead until early in the last quarter when the South Australians finally broke away to win by 20 points. Never happy with a loss, even one that was expected, Terry urged the New South Wales players to go one better in their second and final game against Western Australia. Hafey delivered a similar rev-up and it did the trick. In an extraordinary upset, New South Wales won by two points. Terry produced an inspirational performance, as did Morwood and injury-prone Swans centreman Brett Scott. Western Australia coach John Todd was shattered, declaring it was the worst loss in his 33-year involvement with elite football. The New South Wales boys cracked a few beers in the change rooms then headed out for an all-night party. A couple of days later, South Australia thrashed Victoria by ten goals and was crowned the number one footy state in the nation. An AllAustralian team was named after the final, with Terry winning a place on the half-forward flank, alongside South Australia captain Stephen Kernahan. In a situation that illustrates the unexplainable criteria used to select state teams in that era, Terry played for Victoria later in the year, in an apparent ‘State of Origin’ match against Western Australia. Terry hoped the great times he had experienced with New South Wales would be repeated when he and his brothers returned to Essendon. Such had been their dominance back in 1985 that most footy followers still thought of the Bombers as a great side. Their disappointing seasons in ’86 and ’87 were considered aberrations. But Terry knew problems lurked at the club. He knew there was little depth in the ranks now that Roger Merrett had departed for Brisbane after the Bombers elected not to match his pay offer from the Bears. Terry feared Kevin Sheedy’s message was getting a bit stale. ‘We were always talking about the opposition and not working hard enough on our own problems,’ he remembers. Often the pre-training meetings rambled on for an eternity. Sometimes Terry would decide the boys had listened enough. ‘C’mon Sheeds, how ’bout we go out and get a kick.’ Other players felt they were getting the same printed handouts every week. Terry was not sure about that one. In all his time playing under Sheedy, he never read any notes handed to him by the coach.

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Many of the Bombers’ veterans were concerned. ‘I believe Sheedy started to get too cocky,’ explained Paul Van Der Haar in Tim Watson’s book Kevin Sheedy — The Jigsaw Man. All this added up to another ordinary season. For the second year in a row, Essendon missed the finals. The team at least performed better than in ’87, winning 12 games and finishing just four points behind fifth-placed Melbourne. Injuries and poor form robbed the Bombers of many stars. Leon Baker made only two appearances, while Van Der Haar, who was not seen until round 21, blamed Sheedy for overtraining the older players. One of few positives was the return to fitness of Tim Watson. Another was the form of the elder Danihers. Terry’s consistently brilliant performances, most at centre half-forward, were summed up in a match report by Sun reporter Michael Davis after Essendon thrashed North Melbourne. He wrote: ‘Daniher was, well, just Daniher . . . hard, tough and talented.’ At 31 years of age, and with almost 250 games to his name, Terry was showing few signs of slowing down. There were only two dark moments in Terry’s season. The first came when he suffered his first ever hamstring injury. It happened at training in the week following his appearance for Victoria, when Terry refused to ease up despite the need for rest. The second came in round 20, when he became one of the first players to be reported on trial-by-video. Terry had been involved in a clash with Collingwood’s Peter Daicos during the Bombers’ one-point loss at VFL Park. Neither umpire laid a report but action was later taken by the league after television footage appeared to show Terry striking his opponent with an elbow to the head. Proving Terry’s standing in the game — he had never been suspended in his almost 13-year VFL career — the tribunal hearing turned into an hour-long testimonial for one of footy’s favourite sons. Executive commissioner Alan Schwab presented the VFL’s case. It stated that Terry was guilty of ‘conduct which is unbecoming or prejudicial to the interests of the league’. But Schwab concluded his statement as to why Terry should be suspended by stating: ‘I guess if there are tough things you’ve got to do off the field in football, this is one of the toughest. He’s a top bloke’. The praise continued when Graeme Richmond, Ted Whitten and Essendon president Ron Evans were called to give character evidence. ‘He is the epitome of what we

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admire in VFL football,’ stated Richmond. Whitten backed that up by declaring: ‘He’s a great ambassador for Australia, Victoria, his club and to the sport in general.’ In the wash-up, Terry was handed a twogame suspended sentence. Such was the media interest in the case, his concerned-looking face appeared on both the front and back pages of the Sun. The revelation of the Dons’ substandard year proved to be Anthony Daniher. In one of Sheedy’s few winning moves in ’88, he moved the one-time wingman to full-back. Anthony’s unflappable nature was perfectly suited to the pressure of being on the last line of defence, where he played alongside Gary O’Donnell, Paul Hamilton and Kevin Walsh. ‘It was almost like putting your hand in a glove for me, it was fantastic’ he explains. Using his height and spring he blanketed many of the VFL’s best full-forwards, among them Geelong’s Gary Ablett, Hawthorn sharp-shooter Jason Dunstall, St Kilda youngster Tony Lockett and Collingwood’s burly spearhead Brian Taylor. ‘We had a sensational backline. I used to love the ball coming down. I had good strength and could handle body contact, so the one-on-one contests didn’t worry me. I loved it. It was a lot of fun. Sheeds didn’t give me too many instructions, he just said “Go for it.” ’ Anthony began to thrill the Essendon supporters by booting the long torpedo punts that would become his trademark. Time and again these monster kicks landed inside the centre square. This ability to bomb the ball great distances was extra useful in 1988 as a new rule had been instituted which banned players from handballing after being awarded a free kick. Anthony played in all 22 of Essendon’s matches but Chris was not so lucky. He missed a series of games after copping another broken cheekbone and was selected in the seniors for only the final two homeand-away games. His apprenticeship was proving to be a long one. The Bombers’ failure to make the finals resulted in many potential changes being mooted. Sheedy’s job was on the line. A number of Essendon board members were moving against him. He was also targeted by Sydney once more and again considered a move north. During this period of instability, reports began mentioning Neale Daniher as a possible replacement. He was only 27. Described in one article as a ‘frightfully deep thinker’, Neale had cast aside his earlier

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concerns and joined the match committee in 1988. As every month passed, he was assuming greater responsibility within the coaching staff. Even the man under pressure was pushing Neale’s barrow. ‘To me, he is senior coaching material,’ Sheedy said. ‘He is the sort of bloke players want to play under and believe in. I don’t know when he will coach. It could be two, three or five years.’ Despite his relative youth, Neale attracted interest from Geelong at the end of the season when the Cats parted ways with John Devine. He was interviewed by general manager Ken Gannon, despite not feeling ready to take on such a high-profile position. In the end Malcolm Blight won the job as senior coach at Kardinia Park, a decision that brought many wins in the next five years but no long-awaited premiership. Neale, now a father of two after the arrival of Luke, was happy to continue learning under Sheedy. When the dust settled at Essendon, the Bombers appointed a new chief executive, Roger Hampson, to replace Barry Capuano. Sheedy had survived some tumultuous board meetings. And he soon had a shock in store for one of his favourite people in footy. During the latter part of the ’88 season, Sheedy had encouraged Neale to join in some of the training drills. In the previous 18 months since rejoining the club, Neale rarely made it out onto the ground. He was committed to developing his video review program and this took up most of his time at Windy Hill. Editing the tapes and showing them to the players was a time consuming process. However, he happily accepted Sheedy’s invitation to have a kick with the boys. Little did Neale realise, but it was all part of the reappointed coach’s grand plan. Sheedy was driven in his desire to give the four Daniher brothers a chance to play together. He wanted Edna’s dream to come true. ‘I told him on the training track one night, “I think you’re moving that well I think you’re ready to play again,” ’ Sheedy recalls. ‘He looked at me as if I was stupid, which he often does!’ Neale was shocked. He had much to ponder. After more than three years out of the game, was he capable of getting a kick in a local match, let alone the VFL? It was seven years since he had last played regular football. Since then he had been through three knee reconstructions, a serious shoulder injury and countless weeks of rehabilitation. He had played only five games since 1981. Was it really

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worth risking another breakdown? ‘I never thought about making a comeback,’ Neale says. ‘Sheeds just put the seed in my mind.’ The Bombers were required to submit their initial list for 1989 in late November. That was Neale’s deadline to make a decision. ‘I didn’t know if I’d be up to it. I thought, “Oh well, let’s have a crack anyway.” ’ The media was quick to catch wind of this heart-warming story. Essendon’s forgotten hero was thrust back into the limelight. ‘When might Bomber fans see you back in action?’ Neale was asked by countless reporters. ‘I’ll do pre-season like I’ve done in other years and if I feel good, and that’s a big if . . . then I might consider it,’ he told them.

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hen the practice matches began in mid-February, the

comeback kid was featured in the Sun. ‘Neale’s final bid,’ read the bold headline. Below was printed a photograph of the four frecklefaced brothers grinning at the camera, each drinking a cup of tea. The picture portrayed them as great mates. It was spot on. ‘I’d rather play with ’em than against ’em,’ quipped Chris. Having recently turned 28, Neale revealed to reporter Peter Simonovich that he was aiming high. ‘My aim is to play in the finals,’ Neale said. ‘I’ve played in one elimination final and I’ve played in night finals but that isn’t the same.’ After three months of solid training, his knees were pain free. The signs were overwhelmingly positive. ‘It’s going to take a while to get my touch and pace back,’ he continued. ‘I feel alright so far but how will I go? I really don’t know until I play.’ With Windy Hill being used by the Essendon Cricket Club, the footballers played two intra-club trial games at Cross Keys Reserve in Strathmore. The windswept oval would be made infamous more than a decade later as the scene where Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro were shot dead during Melbourne’s gangland war. In 1989, however, it was the venue for a good news story when Neale took to the field in both matches and emerged unscathed. ‘He’s going along quite well,’

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a gleeful Sheedy remarked to the interested onlookers. Neale was ready to take on some real opposition. A week later he headed south to Ulverstone, where a big crowd turned out to see the Bombers take on a representative team from the Northern Tasmanian Football League. On the following Monday night’s Channel 10 news, Eddie McGuire reported on the latest step in Neale’s comeback. ‘Devonport Airport, Tasmania,’ McGuire’s piece began, with pictures showing the Bombers exiting an Ansett Australia plane. ‘And for most of the young Essendon side, the match . . . is their chance to show club officials they might just have that something that makes a VFL player. But one man has already achieved that. His battle today is to prove to himself that his tortured knees will once again allow him to display his extraordinary skill.’ Neale was filmed pulling on a new Essendon jumper. As Anthony now had his old number 6, Neale chose the number he had made famous at Assumption College. ‘I wore 36 as a junior and had a trouble-free run with it,’ he joked. ‘So we’ll see what happens this time around.’ Out on the ground, he looked slim and fit, although the camera soon zoomed in on the large scars clearly visible on both knees. When the game started, Neale appreciated the space he was afforded by the Bombers’ grassroots opposition. He played on the half-back flank and was tentative at first but calmed his nerves and picked up a few possessions. His kicking was pin-point as ever. After three quarters, he was called to the bench by Sheedy. Both men were relieved. Another successful step had been taken. Later in the day, Neale sat on the floor in the rooms, a towel full of ice wrapped around his right knee and another covering much of his left leg. When he spoke on camera his voice was soft, yet his intensity about the year ahead was clear. ‘Motivating force was my age,’ he said. ‘I’m only 27. I’ll be a long time retired. I’ll be sitting around watching footy for another 60 years. I’ve got a chance now to play. I may not be as good as what I used to be. I may not make it back. But at least I’m going to give it a shot and see what happens.’ Anthony was the only other Daniher in the Essendon line-up that afternoon. ‘It’s been an inspiration for the rest of the team, especially going through pre-season with him,’ he told McGuire. ‘It’s been a big lift around the club and I think the supporters will enjoy

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seeing him out on the ground in ’89.’ McGuire finished his report by stating: ‘For the second time in his career, Neale Daniher might prove to be the recruit of the year.’ The prospect of the four Daniher brothers playing in the same team rose. The interest in Neale’s bid to resurrect his career allowed Terry to avoid the public eye during much of the pre-season. That all changed when Sheedy asked him to stand down as captain. After six years in the position, Terry was replaced by long-time deputy Tim Watson. It was hoped the change in leadership would help breathe new life into Essendon and arrest its slide down the ladder. In his typical selfeffacing style, Terry, although disappointed, took the decision on the chin. ‘I’m interested in what’s best for the club, I’ve always left it up to them’ he said. ‘It doesn’t matter who leads the side out. You’re all pitching in and having a go.’ Terry was also out of contract. Despite his great form in 1988, his age was an issue. Lines were appearing on his always smiling face. Some greys were visible in his hair. He was only a few months shy of his 32nd birthday so the Bombers saw fit to offer him just a one-year deal for ’89. Even this did not faze the consummate clubman. ‘It’s no good hanging around if you don’t think you can make it,’ Terry told scribe Ken Piesse. ‘I prefer it this way. I can take each year as it comes and any decision to play on depends purely on the year I’ve had.’ Later asked what drove him to keep playing, Terry responded: ‘I love it, mate.’ When the home-and-away season began, there were no signs that Terry’s career was nearly finished. He inspired the Bombers in their round 1 win over the Eagles in Perth and helped power their surge back into the top five. In the process, he won Victorian selection for the seventh year in a row. A mention in the best players following the Vics’ big win over Western Australia at the WACA earned him a berth in the team to play South Australia, in state footy’s long-awaited return to the MCG. Such was the interest in the game, a crowd of almost 92 000 turned out to see many of the nation’s best players do battle in a sea of mud. However, a frantic morning meant Terry almost failed to make it to the ground by the first bounce. ‘I woke up Saturday morning and everything was rosy,’ he explains. ‘I felt good, ready to go.’ Suddenly the phone rang. It was John Coward, manager of the Essendon Cricket

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Club. ‘Where’s my bloody cleaners?’ he asked Terry. ‘The place is a pig sty.’ The Danihers had the contract to bring the club’s little room back to life after the legendary Thursday night training and drinking sessions. Terry had a major problem on his hands. His usual offsiders were away for the weekend. Chris had returned to Ungarie, while Anthony had escaped the city for a couple of days with Jo. Now the casual worker arranged to complete the job had failed to turn up. A couple of hours before he was due at the MCG, Terry had no option but to tackle the task himself, although he did engage some assistance. Jim and Edna were down to watch the game and were staying at his place. Terry bundled them into the car and they raced down to Windy Hill. ‘I did most of the work, pulling up the bar mats, dragging them out and giving them a wash down,’ he recalls. ‘I had to mop out all the bar.’ Edna emptied the ash trays and wiped down the tables, while Jim took the rubbish out. ‘I can’t remember if I got Dad on the vacuum cleaner or not, I don’t think he would’ve been real keen on that,’ Terry jokes. When the job was finished, almost two hours had passed. ‘All of a sudden I had to get to the pre-game meeting at VFL House in Jolimont. Oh mate, instead of things going nice and smoothly, I had to rush home and shower and get my gear on. The run down the freeway was chock-a-block. I felt like I’d played half a game before I even got there.’ Most of the other players had been seated for 15 minutes when Terry finally walked into the meeting room. Ted Whitten, the chairman of selectors, gave him an angry look. Terry apologised but was saved from further embarrassment when Dermott Brereton strolled in behind him. ‘After the meeting I had a couple of strong coffees and we headed down to the ’G. It wasn’t one of my better preparations.’ Not that it mattered. Terry’s mind cleared when he crossed the white line. He flew in for the ball every time it came near him, breathing in the pulsating atmosphere at every opportunity. As the crowd roared, he was having fun. He was carving up the cocky Croweaters. When it was all said and done, Terry was named among the best-on-ground, having kicked two goals and won 25 possessions in a forward line that included both the game’s megastar forwards, Tony Lockett and Jason Dunstall (actually a Queenslander, but that was conveniently

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forgotten by the Victorian selectors when needed). A week later in the Football Record he was voted the Jack Daniel’s Man of the Week. Representative football would see few more occasions like that one, as the introduction of the Adelaide Crows 18 months later completed the national competition, giving fans a dose of interstate rivalry every week. Back at Essendon, Terry produced a series of inspirational performances that culminated with a grand effort in his 250th game. Only youngster Michael Long shaded the former skipper in that thumping win over St Kilda. Anthony and Chris also made valuable contributions. Terry was carried from Windy Hill to a standing ovation from the Dons’ faithful. They loved him and he loved them. Sitting in the Windy Hill stands, Jim and Edna were filled with pride. Terry celebrated in typical fashion by chatting to countless supporters while downing a few beers in the social club. Sheedy had contemplated selecting all four Danihers in Terry’s milestone match. It would have made the day a complete fairytale. But Neale was struggling to have an impact, even in the reserves. The pace of the game had risen dramatically during his time in retirement. Doubt crept into his mind. ‘I probably thought deep down that it had been too long and it was,’ he recalls. ‘It was too quick for me. My brain was quick enough but my body wasn’t.’ Nevertheless, after 11 games in the twos, Sheedy believed it was time. Chris was also spending most of his time in the reserves, regaining his confidence after suffering a broken thumb. A horde of television crews and newspaper reporters made their way to Essendon training on the Thursday night before the Bombers’ round 12 game against Sydney. They saw Neale complete the session without a hitch. Afterwards, Sheedy named him in the back pocket, alongside Anthony. Neale would play his 72nd game of VFL football, four years after appearing in his 71st. It was a story that made footy fans smile. The fact that Neale was returning to the seniors in a clash with the Swans — the club that had given him away — was not lost on the history buffs. But again, despite much speculation, this was not the day the four boys would run out together. Sheedy left Chris languishing in the reserves. Even with the publicity, a paltry 13 398 people were at Windy

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Hill when Neale capped his against-the-odds return to elite football. Rain had fallen all week and the Swans were struggling. With Warwick Capper now at the Brisbane Bears, they had lost their main drawcard. Remarkably, that did not stop them ruining Neale’s big day. Former Bomber Merv Neagle was brilliant as Sydney won by five points. The gluepot conditions had made it a physical affair and the constant body contact did little to quell Neale’s nerves. He found it hard to charge at a contest without thinking about the likelihood of his knees giving way and even admitted to Age writer Garry Linnell ‘there were some positions I wouldn’t run into’. Yet he battled through and trudged off after the final siren with 11 touches to his name. His legs felt tired but strong. It seemed that if Chris began excelling in the reserves, Edna’s dream might finally be realised. But the stars refused to align during ’89. Neale played only three more senior games before hamstring and shoulder injuries curtailed his progress. He contemplated giving the game away for a second time. Chris suffered similar frustrations. A combination of poor form and a few niggling injuries restricted him to three appearances, meaning he had played seven senior matches in three seasons. His career highlight to that point had been the day he finally beat Terry in a pre-season run around the Tan. As the finals approached, it was left to Terry and Anthony to fly the flag. Both had welcome distractions from on-field matters with Terry becoming a father for the fourth time when Todd was born. Meanwhile, Anthony and Jo were preparing for the arrival of their first child. Amid their busy family lives, the brothers were vitally important players as Essendon won nine of its last ten home-and-away games, finished second on the ladder behind Hawthorn, and returned to the finals. Anthony was nearly always at full-back and doing so well that he received much media attention when he played his 150th game against Collingwood in round 9. A week later Sheedy gave him a rare opportunity up forward and he dominated the undermanned Fitzroy defence, booting four goals. The Bombers were a happy group again. By giving a number of younger players a chance — dashing South Australian mullet-wearing wingman Greg Anderson, Gary O’Donnell, Dean Wallis, Kieran Sporn and Darren Bewick among them — Sheedy

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had successfully rejuvenated the team and reinvented himself. The Dons fronted up against Malcolm Blight’s high-scoring Geelong outfit in the qualifying final at the MCG. The Cats were part of the September action for the first time since 1981. Their free-flowing game style had made them the glamour team of the competition. They had Ablett in career-best form. A classic contest was expected, but instead Essendon jumped them early and never lost the lead. By the final siren, Van Der Haar had five goals and the Bombers had waltzed to a 76-point victory. Terry was his usual tireless self, bagging three majors, while Anthony held Geelong fullforward Gavin Exell to one. Memories of the mid-80s flooded back when Essendon took on Hawthorn in the second semi-final. This time, the Dons were out of their depth. Dermott Brereton flattened Van Der Haar and rover Darren Williams as the Hawks won their way into a seventh consecutive grand final. Anthony had a very tough afternoon. Pitted against Dunstall, he had him under control for most of the opening half, yet ended up conceding six goals. Disappointed with the result, he soon had other things on his mind. On the Thursday before the return clash with Geelong, Anthony was nowhere to be seen as the team went through its final training session. Instead, he was at the hospital, where he and Jo celebrated the healthy arrival of a son. While cradling little Darcy, Anthony knew he had to quickly regain his focus on footy. A spot in the big one was at stake. Anthony ran out for the 1989 preliminary final at VFL Park and Terry was by his side, although lucky to be there. He had suffered a corked thigh in the loss to Hawthorn and the injury had bled badly. Regular visits to the physio and cold water therapy at the beach had given him every chance of playing until, on Thursday afternoon, he had absent-mindedly bumped his leg against a metal bar at the back of his cleaning van. The pain and bleeding returned. He was named in the team and spent most of Friday at the St Kilda sea baths. By Saturday, the injury was far from healed. A little over an hour before the game Terry did some run-throughs and attempted to prove his fitness. ‘Sheeds said, “Well, make your bloody mind up will ya. Are ya playing or not?” I said, “Nah, bugger it, I’m playing.” ’

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For Essendon’s sake, it was just as well Terry played. If not the Bombers might have suffered even greater embarrassment. In an almost exact reversal of the qualifying final score line, Geelong produced a near-perfect performance, winning by a whopping 96 points and securing its first grand final berth since 1967. Ablett started on the wing and finished with eight goals in a sublime display. Given the final score — 24.20 (164) to 10.10 (70) — Anthony had his hands full. He spent most of the match on Bill Brownless, who had replaced Exell at full-forward. Brownless kicked four goals, while Anthony watched countless others sail over his head and through the big sticks. Terry was Essendon’s one winner. He played like a man who desperately wanted another contract. On a miserable afternoon for the red and black, Terry was his team’s leading possession getter with 27, took 10 marks, and tried everything to ignite a revival. In its player rating the following day, the Sunday Sun awarded him 8.5 out of 10. Only two other Bombers — Mark Thompson and Greg Anderson — registered scores of more than five. ‘I was a bit lucky, I had to play a bit smart,’ Terry admits. ‘I had to keep out of the traffic a bit. If I’d got a cork I would’ve been ratshit. It would’ve been the worst feeling to get a cork early and let the boys down.’ As Terry and Anthony sat disconsolately in the rooms after the game, Van Der Haar drew on a cigarette before announcing his retirement. In their press conferences, the two coaches summed up the shock outcome. ‘It was just one of the great games of all time . . . complete and utter dominance,’ said Blight. ‘Dismal effort,’ was Sheedy’s summation. Some weeks later, as the Hawks’ premiership celebrations died down following their six-point defeat of the Cats in the best grand final since ’84, Terry finished third – behind Watson and O’Donnell — in the club best-and-fairest. He then headed off on Essendon’s end-ofseason tour, in which the team played exhibition matches in Miami and London. It was a torrid trip. The games were the easy part — the going got tough during sessions with Van Der Haar at various American bars and English pubs. ‘We got on the tequilas, with the salt and pepper and everything going,’ Van Der Haar says. ‘After a session of those we wiped him right out. We had to carry him home. That was very rare to see. I’d hardly ever seen Terry pissed. Usually he showed few signs of

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having a drink. I reckon there was only two or three times when I saw Terry really start to tumble over. That was one occasion.’ Upon his return, Terry signed another one-year deal. Losing the captaincy had allowed him to concentrate solely on his own game and his form had been nothing short of exceptional. His aim was to bow out with a third premiership. Anthony’s hope for the coming year was to cap his progression with a flag. He was in the prime of his career and regarded among the best full-backs in the business. Meanwhile, Chris wondered if he would ever crack a regular berth in the seniors. One year into his comeback, Neale had come to terms with the fact that he would never be the player of his youth. He just wanted the chance to line up alongside his three brothers. Sheedy remained committed to making it happen. However, there were a few administrative matters to sort out before all four Danihers could even be given a place in Essendon’s squad for 1990. First, Neale was de-listed at the end of ’89. ‘That was just list management issues, it was fair enough,’ he reflects. ‘Sheeds wanted to protect a few players on the list. He knew he could drop me off and no-one would pick me up.’ True to his word, Sheedy gave Neale one last chance by selecting him with pick 46 in the 1990 pre-season draft. ‘My magic moment of the 1990s will be when the four of us play together,’ Neale subsequently told Inside Football. ‘We’re going to do it. No worries.’

Jim and Chris

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eale’s conviction that he and his brothers would soon run out

in the same team seemed misguided as the 1990s began. Anthony was the only Daniher to feature in the Bombers’ night series grand final victory over North Melbourne (featuring an 18-year-old Wayne Carey) at Waverley Park. Now known as the Fosters Cup, the knock-out competition had become a pre-season event. Essendon’s win, the first premiership of the newly named Australian Football League, signalled the club’s intention to avenge its dismal exit from the ’89 finals. With Van Der Haar back in the fold after a very brief retirement, the Dons were considered, along with Geelong, the greatest challengers to the almighty Hawthorn side. When the home-and-away season began, Anthony remained the only lad from Ungarie in the Bombers’ senior side. Terry was struggling with injury, forcing him to miss the opening two rounds, while Neale and Chris suited up in the reserves. Chris was working tirelessly to make the grade, but it was hard to win a place in a defence that included similarly tough men like Gary O’Donnell and ‘Bomber’ Thompson. But the youngest Daniher brother was never going to give up on his dream. He used Terry’s commitment to fitness as his benchmark, always matching the efforts of his brother on the training track. And

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away from footy, Chris and Terry, despite their nine-year age gap, were great mates. ‘I used to live at Terry’s place on the weekends. He had a young family and I loved the kids,’ says Chris. ‘Gaynor looked after me. She’d cook cakes and all sorts of food. We always used to hang out a bit together. We had a lot in common. We loved being outside doing things.’ Terry also introduced his youngest brother to the tradition of a big run after a big night out. ‘We’d always jog eight or nine kilometres. We had our track marked out. We’d do this run, get all the grog out, and be right for training on Monday.’ Climbing up and down ladders all week to wash windows also helped the boys stay in peak condition. ‘He loved the work, Terry,’ recalls Chris. ‘He really drove us and that helped me a lot with my footy career and being as fit as I was.’ An on-field Daniher reunion moved closer in round 3 when Terry and Neale returned to the senior team for a meeting with Melbourne at the MCG. Although the Bombers suffered a shock loss, Terry’s solid form and fitness meant he did not miss another game during the remainder of the season. Neale was not so lucky. While he played in three of the next four fixtures, kicking two goals in a 78-point rout of Richmond and two more in a tough victory over Collingwood before a big crowd at the MCG, Neale was soon back in the reserves. His predicament drew the attention of Age journalist Garry Linnell, who wrote: ‘He returned to the playing field last year in perhaps the most remarkable comeback in football. But it was not the same Daniher, not in body or mind. You can still see parts of the old Daniher taking over from time to time; the way he avoids trouble, the way he reads the play. But the Daniher who plays league football these days bears little resemblance to the intense young man who was made captain of Essendon in 1982.’ In the article, Neale revealed that even his once-renowned ability to concentrate for every minute of a match had disappeared. The 29-year-old said he now found himself gazing at the crowd, rather than focusing on the contest at hand. ‘I can savour it at the moment because I’m not going to have too many more highs at this level,’ Neale pondered. ‘I try and go out there and have as much fun as I can.’ Anthony’s career was heading on a far different trajectory. He was often among the best players as the Bombers won five of their

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first eight games. His standout performance came against fierce rivals Hawthorn in round 2. Hawks star Jason Dunstall had booted 12 goals in his team’s round 1 massacre of Geelong in the grand final rematch. But Anthony held him to just one as Essendon ran out 62-point victors. ‘You’ve got to play your opponent man-on-man and hope that your players up field help you, and that’s what happened today,’ Anthony modestly remarked afterwards. He was a vital cog in a very good team. Despite the differing fortunes of the Daniher brothers at club level, they soon had an unexpected moment in the spotlight. Due to a breakdown in relations between the AFL and the South Australian National Football League, the traditional Victoria versus SA state game was abandoned. A match pitting the Vics against New South Wales at the SCG was its replacement. To make the New South Wales team competitive, anyone who had previously played Aussie Rules in Sydney was deemed eligible. This meant Gerard Healy, Barry Mitchell, Steven Wright, Neil Cordy, David Rhys Jones, David Bolton and Russell Morris — all of whom were considered Victorians — were chosen in the 30-man New South Wales squad. The cream of the traditional rugby state’s talent was there as well, including Swans captain Dennis Carroll, Wayne Carey, Bill Brownless, John Longmire and the four Daniher brothers. Terry was appointed captain. Initially, it seemed unlikely that Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris would all win a place in the final team. But when Carroll, Healy and Rhys-Jones were among a host of withdrawals, Neale and Chris, who had both played in the Essendon reserves the week before, were named on the interchange bench. Terry was selected on the halfforward flank next to Carey, while Anthony was in the back pocket, alongside Collingwood scragger Mick Gayfer. The Daniher boys were delighted with how things had turned out. ‘I remember being rapt for Neale at being able to play,’ Terry says. ‘Chris was always going to have a go. For Chris and Neale it was a real highlight.’ Up at the farm, Jim and Edna could not believe their luck. Edna proudly purchased her copy of Wagga Wagga’s Daily Advertiser. Turning to page 13, she read the headline: ‘Danihers make football history’. Her sons were the first quartet of brothers to ever play in a state game. Below was a typically optimistic quote from Terry. ‘I think we have a good show if we give it

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a red hot go from the beginning.’ To Jim, this meant more than seeing his sons play together for Essendon. He desperately wanted to see them make a statement on the field, on behalf of everyone who had worked to keep footy alive in New South Wales. A day before the game, the four boys arrived in Sydney and pulled on their light blue jumpers for a training run at the SCG. For Anthony, it was like being back home. Terry and coach Col Kinnear immediately tried to inject an atmosphere of fun into the squad. No-one gave their team a chance of getting within ten goals of Victoria, which boasted stars like Dermott Brereton, Chris Langford, Gary Ayres, Paul Couch, Gavin Brown, Garry Lyon and captain Dale Weightman. ‘Col’s mannerisms were great I reckon,’ Terry says. ‘He had a simple approach and everything went smoothly all the way through. He did a great job pulling the team together.’ In the early evening of Tuesday 22 May, the Danihers and their team-mates arrived at the SCG. Rain was pouring down. Was this a good or bad thing? At least, they thought, it might make the game closer. Terry tried to pump the boys up. ‘We’ll be right, we’ll get out and have a crack and stick it up ’em,’ he told them, borrowing Ted Whitten’s favourite saying. ‘I was actually thinking, “I don’t know how we’re going to go against these blokes.” But we had to make a game of it.’ Water lay in puddles all over the playing surface as Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris achieved a long-held ambition by running out in a competitive match together. Only 13 424 people were in the stands, although plenty of them were Danihers. Jim, Edna and Fiona (then aged 13) had driven across from Ungarie. Along the way they had collected Nerolee (17) from boarding school and Dorothy (25) from work in Wagga Wagga. Nerolee recalls that ‘Mum and Dad had to write a big note, explaining why I was getting pulled out of school to go and watch a football game!’ Estelle (30) and Angela (21) had flown up from Melbourne. Only Colleen (23) and Julie (19) were not there, as they were unable to take time off work. The contest began as expected, with Victoria leading by 13 points at the first change. Then came a remarkable burst from Longmire. In the second quarter, the 19-year-old dented Langford’s imperious reputation by slamming through five goals, handing the underdogs a

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three-point half-time lead. By the final break the margin was six points and a monumental upset loomed. Terry urged his men on. Anthony was dominating in defence, his booming kick-outs sliding ever further in the wet conditions. In the middle, unheralded rover Tim Powell was matching it with Weightman, while giant ruckman John Ironmonger was handling a three-pronged attack from Paul Salmon, Barry Stoneham and Jim Stynes. Could the rank outsiders really pinch victory? All four Danihers flew into the action as the Light Blues surged away in a remarkable last quarter. Longmire, a born-and-bred New South Welshman, kicked his eighth goal, then interchange player Mark Roberts, later in the decade a premiership player at North Melbourne, roosted a long bomb inside the 50-metre arc. It skidded on and on before finally trickling over the line. For the remainder of the game, the underdogs tackled and harassed their opponents. They kept putting their heads over the ball and locking it into big packs at every opportunity. Victoria fought back to within two straight kicks but could not bridge the gap. The final siren brought a roar from the crowd that suggested an attendance of more like 40 000. People in the outer began chanting ‘New South Wales, New South Wales’. ‘The noise was just unbelievable,’ Chris says. New South Wales had won by 10 points. Terry and Anthony embraced. Neale and Chris joined them. They were all covered in mud. ‘The conditions suited us,’ Terry says. ‘We had blokes that just kept boring in. We had a real good crack and we just enjoyed it. It was bloody great.’ Up in the stands, Edna wore a huge smile, while her daughters leapt out of their seats. Jim felt an overwhelming sense of pride as he watched his boys run their lap of honour. The New South Wales players acknowledged all parts of the passionate crowd. Powell punched the air as blood streamed from a cut near his left eye. Chris sported a nasty gash on his chin, not that he cared in the slightest. Ted Whitten wore an icy stare as he stood by the boundary. ‘Dad clapped him off,’ Fiona says. The scenes in the respective dressing rooms could not have been more different. Victoria’s beaten players sat slumped in silence. Coach Bill Goggin and selectors Whitten, Ron Barassi and Graeme Richmond were ashen faced. All refused the approaches of reporters

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before Whitten finally admitted, ‘It’s an embarrassing moment.’ Next door, the winners were beginning an almighty party. Television cameras captured the scene, in which the players began the celebrations by chanting ‘We want Teddy’. Jim Daniher arrived wearing a grin as wide as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He sat between Terry and Anthony, an arm wrapped around either son, caring little about the mud rubbing off onto his brown suit. Then he hugged Chris, who had blood over much of his face. Neale beamed with pride as he stood nearby. Jim regards that night as the proudest moment of his life. ‘That was the number one, because the Victorians rubbished it from the start,’ he says. ‘They said it was a nothing game. They forgot that Victoria used to pick all the interstate players against South Australia and Western Australia and belt hell out of ’em and crow about how good they were. Then New South Wales had a few blokes in and beat ’em. That was a big occasion.’ Family and friends joined the players at an after-match function. ‘I remember walking down the street and Neale was showing us how he’d stepped around someone,’ says Nerolee. ‘It was fantastic.’ When their well-wishers had departed, the New South Wales boys headed out on the town. Their first port of call was the Bourbon and Beefsteak bar at Kings Cross, where they conveniently ran into the Vics. Having previously captained Victoria, Terry was good mates with Whitten, so he ran up and gave him a hug. ‘I said to him, “Come on, we were too good for you today old son, time to shout us a beer.” To his credit he lined the bloody beers up and shouted us all a drink.’ Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris partied until the early hours of the morning. Not long after they went to bed, they were up again and flying back to Melbourne. Their sore heads were soothed when they saw the newspapers upon disembarking at Tullamarine. ‘State of embarrassment,’ said the headline in The Age. Reporter Rohan Connolly’s match report compared the result with Australia’s famous loss to Zimbabwe at the 1983 cricket World Cup. ‘SHAME, VICS,’ screamed the Sun. The following day, Terry received a fax. It read: ‘Congratulations on State of Origin win. Great game led by a great captain. We all look forward to seeing the four brothers playing for Essendon for the grand final, to make more history. As usual you all

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did the old home town proud. Have watched the replay at the Central five times. The Ungarie Football Club.’ Soon after Terry also received a watch from John Cloney, the managing director of QBE Insurance (major sponsors of the team). By all featuring in the NSW team, and winning, the Daniher brothers had cemented their place in footy folklore. Yet back at Essendon it was quickly back to reality. Neale and Chris returned to the reserves. Terry and Anthony settled into their key positions at either end of the senior side. In rounds 11 and 12, Chris’s elevation to the seniors saw three Danihers in the line-up. But this arrangement was broken when Chris suffered a horrific finger injury in a game against North Melbourne at a muddy Windy Hill. Talking about what he saw that afternoon still makes club doctor Bruce Reid squirm. ‘We thought he’d dislocated his finger and he was running around with his hand down, so we ran out to him,’ Reid says. ‘When we got there it wasn’t a dislocated finger. It was a compound fracture, with bone sticking out. It was pointing in the wrong direction with the bone right out into the air, covered in mud. And he’d run to the next few contests. He had surgery and the finger got infected. It is, in medical terms, rooted. To stay on the ground, for a smart bloke, was very, very, very dumb. He absolutely buggered it.’ To this day, the digit in question remains a mangled mess. Two weeks later Anthony suffered a broken jaw when he was punched by Fitzroy forward Richard Osborne at Princes Park. ‘I threw one punch in my whole career and it was when Osborne did that,’ Anthony admits. ‘Mine was a token punch in frustration while my jaw was flopping around. He [Osborne] had been struggling to make an impression in the senior team as he was coming back from a knee reconstruction. He was really angry, crazy. I had his measure and in the second quarter I just felt my jaw go bang. It was stuffed.’ It seemed the state game would be the brothers’ only appearance together, but the boys rarely contemplated that situation. Instead, they lapped up the buoyant atmosphere at Windy Hill. The Bombers were on top of the ladder, midway through an eight-game unbeaten run. They all but wrapped up the minor premiership with a thrilling sixpoint win over second-placed Collingwood in round 19. Played at

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Waverley Park, the game was sold out and subsequently televised live into Melbourne. After the win, Sheedy described his team as better than the all-conquering combination of 1985. At that stage Terry was the only Daniher in the senior side. Chris’s finger had healed but he was battling to rediscover his touch in the reserves. Neale had made six appearances for the year but holding onto a spot was very difficult. He already knew this would be his last season at Essendon and he was content with that. His ever-busier life away from football — in midAugust his third child, Rebecca, was born — meant he had little time for worrying about footy anyway. Anthony’s jaw mended by round 21, and after having the two metal plates removed he joined Terry in the main game against Footscray at the Western Oval. A tough four-goal win sewed up top spot for the Bombers and allowed Kevin Sheedy to begin planning for the finals. After the game he told reporters he was considering resting some older players from the last home-and-away game against St Kilda at Moorabbin. Suddenly, the door keeping Neale and Chris out of the team swung slightly ajar. Sheedy even hinted he was considering fulfilling Edna’s wish. ‘I wouldn’t play them if they honestly didn’t deserve it,’ he stated. Asked about the prospect his brothers would be recalled, Terry was noncommittal. ‘You’ve got to give everyone a fair go,’ he said. ‘You just can’t be putting players in to try and break some sort of record, you’ve got to earn your spot.’ Sun scribe Tony De Bolfo rang Jim at Ungarie to get his take. Still secretary of the Northern Riverina League, which was preparing for its second semi-final, he was even more unperturbed than Terry. ‘I don’t want to commit myself,’ Jim told De Bolfo. ‘We’ve a lot on our plate at the moment. We’ve got crop spraying on, shearing towards the end of the week and a couple of other little odd jobs. And I’m getting a bit old for all this travelling. If I did come down I’d really have to psyche myself up.’ On the Thursday night it all came down to Sheedy and his selectors. In reality, everything had already fallen into place. Injuries had been overcome and Essendon found itself playing in a round 22 game which could not change its ladder position. The goal Sheedy had set himself in September 1985 was completed. By shifting a couple of magnets on his board, the wily coach brought Neale and Chris into his

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senior team. Paul Salmon and Mark Harvey were among five players rested or dropped. When the selected side was released, the four Danihers were there, and all were named down the spine. Anthony was at full-back, Chris in the centre, Terry at centre half-forward and Neale at full-forward. Of course, upon hearing the news, Jim committed to making the trip down to Melbourne. Making the journey all the more comfortable, Kendall Airlines gave him and Edna return airfares from Wagga Wagga. There was only one catch. The flight departed at 6.45 am. As Ungarie is 200 kilometres from Wagga, the Daniher elders were up and on the road before 4 am. Saturday 1 September was a big day in football — across at the MCG, Michael Tuck played his 400th game. Down at Moorabbin, the boys said little to each other before the match. ‘We don’t need to talk too much,’ Chris would later reveal. ‘Just the stares amongst us were enough to say, “Look, you’ve got to have a go.”’ The entire Daniher clan watched on as the quartet ran through a giant banner, which read ‘History in the Making’. Never before had four brothers played in the same VFL or AFL team. Chris recalls he had ‘a knot in the gut when we were going through the banner, just the four of us together’. When the ball was bounced, Chris quickly overcame his nerves, winning a number of centre clearances. He finished with 24 possessions in his best performance yet for the Bombers. Instead of taking his expected position in the forward line, Terry played at full-back and limited St Kilda youngster Jody Arnol to one goal. Anthony was given some freedom on the wing and he lapped up the opportunity to run, amassing 27 touches and 12 marks. Finally, up forward, Neale led with purpose but was let down by his kicking. He ended the afternoon with three goals and four behinds. If it had been 6.1, his next month may have panned out very differently. St Kilda fought hard to make a game of it for three quarters, yet when the final siren sounded, Essendon had run out 35-point winners. The boys walked from the field together, smiling and patting each other on the back. They had made history. Their team-mates were delighted. ‘I thought it was great,’ says Simon Madden. ‘Some people might argue about whether it was the right thing for the club or the team or whatever. I thought it was great for the club, great for the Danihers and great for the players. It won’t

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happen again.’ In the joyous change rooms, Sheedy handed Jim the match ball and hailed the ‘Ungarie Sports Academy’. It was, he said, on a par with the better known institute in Canberra. ‘It was great to have them all contributing,’ Jim responded. ‘No-one could say any of them were picked just because of their name.’ Celebrations continued at the Sandringham Hotel, where the brothers reflected on their achievement. In the coming years, they would all fondly remember the effort Sheedy put in to making it happen. ‘He’s looked after our family,’ Neale says. There was no reason to put us four Danihers together in that game. But he did. Mind you, we put a lot of blood and sweat and toil into Essendon.’ A week after the great day of goodwill, Essendon’s premiership hopes received an unexpected setback. Having finished on top of the ladder, the Bombers enjoyed some welcome rest in the first week of the finals. The players were able to sit back and study their next opponent, when Collingwood did battle with West Coast in the qualifying final. It was a close contest all afternoon, before Peter Sumich had the chance to win it for the Eagles with a relatively easy shot at goal. He missed and the game ended in a draw. It would be played again seven days later. The result was a disaster for the Dons. It meant a three-week gap between the win over the Saints and their appearance in the second semi-final. Their momentum was lost. Collingwood easily won the replay, setting up a hugely anticipated clash between the Magpies and Bombers in the second semi-final. Sheedy knew his team was in trouble. Since defeating St Kilda, it had played just a low-key practice match against the Fitzroy reserves. On the other hand, the Pies were battle-hardened and bursting with confidence. At the selection table two days prior to the game, Sheedy contemplated keeping all the Daniher brothers in the team. He knew Neale wanted to play in another final. His last had been 11 years ago in 1979. However, when the magnets were moved for the last time, Terry and Anthony were in, and Chris and Neale were out. ‘Neale was very unlucky,’ Sheedy says. ‘We didn’t have a fast enough team to actually include him. If anybody was going to do it, it would’ve been me. But I had a problem that the other selectors felt that we were all under the pump because we had an older side in. The mode of the

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club at that time was sort of consensus, not Kevin dictator. Otherwise I would’ve said, “Stuff it, I’m playing him. You can all get lost.”’ When the second semi-final finally arrived, the long break between matches did indeed prove to be Essendon’s undoing. Collingwood, led by Mick McGuane, Gavin Brown and Tony Francis, was inspired. The Magpies led by only 12 points at half-time but kicked ten goals to two after the long break to run out 63-point winners. As he so often was in losing sides, Terry was among the Bombers’ best. He began in the forward line and ended the game at full-back where he took over from Anthony, who had conceded five goals to Brown in the first half. Terry held Brown goalless in the latter part of the game. Sheedy had to resurrect his team for a meeting with West Coast at Waverley. Again Neale and Chris were mentioned at the selection meeting. Again Neale was passed over. But this time Chris received a call-up. It was a huge moment for the 24-year-old. The preliminary final would be just his eleventh game of senior footy since his arrival at Essendon in 1987. Chris seized his opportunity. He attacked the ball and the man, collecting nine possessions in the first quarter as the Bombers found their spark, kicking four goals to one. By the end of the match the Dons had won by 63 points and were in the grand final, and Chris had proved himself an elite footballer. He was named in the best players, behind Terry, who played at centre half-back and thrashed Eagles’ key forward Stevan Jackson. On the last line of defence, Anthony held Sumich to two goals. Three Daniher brothers were now certain to line up in the season decider against Collingwood on the first Saturday in October. Terry’s dream of winning another flag near the end of his career was very much alive. Refusing to be forgotten, Neale continued to train hard and press his case. Like in previous weeks, his name was raised at the selection meeting. Sheedy seriously considered handing him a shock call-up, before eventually deciding against it. ‘It was a really awkward period because it was the last grand final that Terry and Madden and all these older blokes played in,’ Sheedy says. ‘I thought Neale might have been blamed if we had been beaten. I’ve never told him that but I felt that could’ve happened.’ Although his goal of coming back from three knee reconstructions to play in finals had not been realised,

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Neale accepted the decision. He had given his all. Sadly, his playing career at Essendon was finished. Terry, Anthony and Chris smiled their way through Friday’s grand final parade. The entire Daniher family converged on Melbourne, all hoping to see the three boys play in a premiership. When the big day arrived, there was barely a cloud in the sky. Spring warmth filled the air. It was a perfect day for footy. As Anthony was walking from his car to the MCG change rooms, he ran into former Swans team-mates Rod Carter and Dennis Carroll. ‘You lucky bastard,’ they said. ‘Good luck.’ Tim Watson led the Bombers out. They stood shoulder to shoulder for the national anthem. Amid a sea of mullet haircuts, the Daniher brothers all sported sensible short back and sides. When the players jogged to their positions, Terry headed to full-back, where he lined up on Gavin Brown. His effort in quelling the Collingwood fullforward two weeks earlier convinced Sheedy he was a better match-up than Anthony, who began in a back pocket on Damian Monkhorst. Chris started on a half-back flank, opposed to Scott Russell. The Magpies controlled the opening stages. First Anthony then Terry held strong marks on the last line of defence, helping to prevent Essendon from conceding an early lead. Players continually fumbled. The pressure was immense. Anthony almost cost his side dearly when he let the ball run between his legs but Monkhorst’s snap faded wide. Against the run of play, Paul Salmon marked and kicked the first goal of the game. A few minutes later Chris delivered a pin-point pass to the big forward and he booted another one. The Bombers were up by 12 points. When Collingwood did go into attack, Terry recalls he gave Brown plenty of grief. ‘You could get away with scragging and holding blokes down a bit then,’ he says. ‘I was using every trick in the book because I wasn’t going to let him get an early goal. That would’ve lifted them. I was trying to stop him no matter how. He was becoming increasingly frustrated. He just wanted to get his hands on it.’ Before long the Magpies found their inspiration. Darren Millane began dominating Greg Anderson on the wing, while Tony Shaw and Mick McGuane drove their team forward. Peter Daicos slotted one of his typically miraculous goals from the boundary. At home, viewers

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glued to their televisions heard commentator Ian Robertson regale them with sayings like ‘Van Der Haar’s in the van’ and wondered what he meant. Finally, late in the first term, Brown escaped Terry’s clutches, crumbed a ball off a pack, and booted his team into the lead. The quarter-time siren sounded shortly after. Just as members of both sides began moving to their respective huddles, a scuffle broke out in the Essendon forward line. Derek Kickett, Michael Long and Alan Ezard flew the flag for the Bombers. Collingwood defenders Craig Kelly and Shane Kerrosin charged in, as did Shaw, the Magpies captain. Van Der Haar arrived, blond locks flapping at the back of his neck, and fists began flying. ‘They’re not mucking around, these guys,’ remarked Don Scott on the Channel 7 coverage. Anthony jogged towards the action, hoping it would die down. Chris was quickly in there. As more players became involved, Brown began running towards the melee. ‘He was pretty upset about getting tagged and grabbed and scragged,’ Terry says. ‘He was threatening to do this and that. Then the blue started up the ground. We had to run 150 metres. I thought it’d fizzle out by the time we got there.’ Instead, the fight was soon being waged on three or four fronts. On the wing in front of the interchange benches, club officials became involved. Collingwood football manager Gubby Allen punched Essendon runner Peter Power, before Sheedy entered the fray, landing a blow on Allan. Trainers from both teams grappled. Brown reached one writhing pack of anger just as Bombers wingman Kieran Sporn was backing out of it. Sporn was felled with a round-arm in full view of Terry. Brown was reported by both central umpires. ‘It stunned him more than anything,’ Terry admits. ‘It was just enough to knock him over. He just wasn’t ready for it.’ But the incident caused frayed tempers to boil over. Terry bolted towards Collingwood’s number 26. ‘I thought, “I can’t have my mates going down.” ’ Brown turned around and shaped up. For Terry ‘it was a matter of “Are you going to hit me or am I going to hit you?” I got in first. That’s when I clocked him.’ As the players finally dispersed, Brown lay prostrate on the turf. Trainers crowded around him. As they tried to help him to his feet, the extent of his concussion was clear. He was in a bad way. A boundary umpire scribbled a report in his notebook. It alleged

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that Terry had struck Brown with a fist to the head. ‘I think Terry and Chris were very much like Dad,’ Anthony says. ‘If someone needed to cop one, they gave it. Neale and I were more like Mum. We’d try and reason. The other two got the white-line fever.’ In the Essendon huddle, Sheedy, fresh from his altercation with Allan, called for calm. The Bombers were only three points down. Jim Daniher sat in the stands, listening to the radio commentators discuss whether his son had been responsible for Brown going down. Jim had a fair idea what had taken place. Edna and his daughters were unaware but it didn’t take them long to find out. Every time Terry went near the ball in the second quarter he was roundly booed by the Collingwood fans. Making matters worse, the Magpies shrugged off the absence of Brown and kicked six goals to one, grabbing a 34-point lead at the long break. ‘After quarter time we didn’t go on with it,’ Terry says. ‘That was the most disappointing thing. We didn’t settle down and get back into playing good footy. That’s when they got away.’ As the teams made their way up the race at half-time, they were separated by nothing more than a wire fence. Exploiting the situation, Leigh Matthews decided to make Terry feel guilty for hitting Brown. Walking alongside his injured star, Matthews yelled out ‘He’ll come back to haunt you, Danners.’ Terry reacted angrily, directing a tirade of verbal abuse and finger pointing back at the Collingwood coach. For Terry and his brothers, the whole afternoon was becoming a nightmare. During the long break, they hoped a second half revival was possible. By the final change Essendon’s premiership hopes were gone and Terry was in more trouble. Midway through the third quarter he had crudely felled Craig Starcevich in an attempt to spoil a mark. ‘The ball came over the top and he marked it pretty close to his chin,’ Terry says. ‘I connected with him. Got a bit of footy and got a bit of his chin with it. That slowed him down a little bit but didn’t help the team much.’ Starcevich left the field and did not return for the rest of the match. Terry was later cited on video evidence. The incident cost the Bombers a goal when Mick McGuane slotted the free kick for his injured team-mate, extending Collingwood’s lead to a game-high 40 points. A few minutes later the Magpie fans were cheering again when Brown returned to the field and immediately headed for Terry,

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pushing him and giving him a mouthful. The crowd roared wildly 15 minutes later when Brown broke free of Terry’s close checking and booted a goal. ‘It was a very frustrating second half,’ Terry laments. ‘We did what we could but she wasn’t our day in the end. Nothing would have made any difference. Collingwood were up and running and we weren’t.’ Even when victory became impossible, the Danihers kept giving their all. Chris continued to put his body on the line, while Anthony finished up on the wing, trying to quell the influence of Millane. His 18 possessions earned a rating of seven out of ten from Sunday Herald Sun analyst Neil Roberts. Despite his tumultuous day, all the newspapers listed Terry among the Dons’ best players. None of this compensated for the gut-wrenching feeling as the Magpies began celebrating their 48-point win. Embarrassingly, Essendon had not registered a goal in the final quarter and had kicked only five for the game. Terry was standing next to Brown when the siren sounded. He held out his right hand (he had knocked out Brown with his other one) and the Collingwood favourite showed his class by shaking it firmly. ‘I hold no malice towards Terry and respect him as a player,’ Brown later told the assembled scribes. Magpie fans were not so forgiving. Despite witnessing the end of their 32-year premiership drought — 11 704 days to be exact — some were adamant Terry should feel their wrath. A group formed outside the Essendon rooms. Not realising what was going on, Terry had a shower, packed his bag and walked towards the door. He was stopped by Ian Findlay, a long-serving players’ advocate at the VFL and AFL tribunal. ‘Son, I wouldn’t be in a hurry if I was you,’ Findlay muttered. ‘You better wait until the crowd disperses a bit.’ Terry sat in the rooms chatting to his 14-year-old sister, Fiona, while he waited for things to calm down. The game had been finished for almost two hours by the time he decided to make a getaway. Jim and Edna were already at the after-match function, so Fiona braved the car park with him. Anthony and Chris were also by his side. ‘I don’t know why I ended up there with Terry, I think someone forgot me,’ says Fiona. ‘He had this police escort and people kept throwing beer cans at us. I just looked at Terry and said, ‘How come I have to go home with you!”’

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In the coming weeks, Terry received a flood of mail. Most of the correspondence was unflattering, some was downright threatening. Terry put it in a shoebox. By the time it stopped arriving the box was almost full. Amid all the anger, there was some support. Bill Twomey, a Collingwood legend, penned a letter urging Terry to remember that most people connected with the Magpies still regarded him as a brilliant player and great bloke. Terry welcomed the support, although he was sure the tribunal would not be so forgiving. As it turned out, his hearing was delayed by a month because of an International Rules series against Ireland. In somewhat of a quirk, both Terry and Brown were chosen in the Australian squad, which was coached by David Parkin. There were television cameras aplenty when the Aussies held their first training session. As the reporters bayed for drama, chairman of selectors Ted Whitten was quick to deal with any grand final fallout. He instructed the two players to shake hands before the gathered media and do it like they meant it. ‘Gav was alright, good as gold,’ Terry remembers. ‘It never worried Gav. He probably would’ve liked to have played a bit more footy in a grand final but you can’t change it. That’s just the way things work out sometimes.’ If Terry needed any further evidence that his reputation remained intact, it came when the selectors named him Australian captain, a title he had previously held in 1986. The honour inspired him to produce a best-on-ground performance in a practice match against the Irish in Albury. Then he struggled in the first Test at Waverley Park, in which his team was bamboozled by the pace and skill of the visitors. Led by Melbourne ruckman Jim Stynes, Ireland wrapped up the $8000 Waterford Crystal trophy with another thumping victory in the second game at Canberra’s Bruce Stadium. Terry was very disappointed. He loved playing for Australia, and the off-field bonding that went with it. However, the 33-year-old also knew this was his last chance to represent his country. There was some consolation when the Aussies won the final Test a week later in Perth. Plenty of beers with the boys followed. Terry and Brown enjoyed a few cold ones together. For a while the grand final seemed a long time ago. But when the pair returned to Melbourne they were straight back into the spotlight. It was tribunal time.

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In true laid-back style, Terry arrived at AFL House for his hearing dressed in shorts and a polo shirt, having come straight from a window cleaning job. He smiled at the cameras, quickly changed into a suit and prepared to face tribunal chairman Neil Busse. Terry had been alerted that Busse was out to get him because he had escaped suspension for the incident with Daicos two years before. Then, Terry had called upon a who’s who of the footy world to provide character evidence. Sitting before the tribunal panel, he wished he had men like Graeme Richmond and Ted Whitten in his corner this time. ‘I’d used up all my trump cards,’ he admits. Terry’s advocate for the case was Essendon football manager Kevin Egan. There seemed little he could do to help. Having pleaded guilty to striking Brown, Terry asked for leniency, stating he would not have lashed out if Brown had not decked Sporn. ‘Under the circumstances I didn’t have a helluva lot of time to make up my mind,’ he said. ‘I’m upset that’s the action I’ve took. I’ve played in three or four grand finals and in every grand final these things happen. How do you control these sort of things?’ Brown simply stated he could not remember what had happened. During the same evening, Terry pleaded not guilty to striking Craig Starcevich. He insisted he had made a genuine attempt to spoil the ball. While the video evidence looked bad, Terry’s evidence was supported by field umpire Denis Rich, who said he did not believe it was a reportable incident. Yet the tribunal comprehensively disagreed. As he began delivering his verdict, Busse sternly looked at Terry and declared, ‘A player of your experience should not have conducted yourself in the manner you did.’ Even at that stage Terry thought he might escape with a five or six game ban. After all, he had never missed a game through suspension in a 15-year career. And 12 months earlier Geelong’s Mark Yeates had not even been reported for flattening Dermott Brereton at the opening bounce of the 1989 grand final. But Busse was in no mood to be generous. Terry’s jaw dropped as he was slapped with a seven match suspension for hitting Brown. Busse added another four after finding him guilty of striking Starcevich. Eleven weeks in all, it was the toughest penalty since Phil Carman was rubbed out for 20 games in 1981. Stunned, Terry hastily departed the building.

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‘I really think we could have planned our defence a bit better,’ Terry says, pondering the blackest moment in his career. ‘Not only myself but the club as well. They didn’t put enough work into it. The writing was on the wall and they just thought, “He’s going to go, it’s just a matter of how many.” And Busse was after me. There’s no doubt about that. They were making a precedent of it all. They were getting sick of grand final blues and wanted to make a stance on it. That’s the other reason they came down hard on me. Probably since then it’s been pretty quiet.’ The 11-match suspension was front page news in Melbourne. The Herald Sun ran a phone poll to see what the punters thought of the verdict. Somewhat surprisingly, 70 percent of respondents felt the penalty was too harsh. Many sensed an injustice in the Starcevich case, given the tribunal had ignored the umpire’s evidence. A full page of letters from readers was published. The opinions were diverse. Jan Marren of Murrumbeena wrote: ‘Two years ago he was let off for hitting Peter Daicos and he should’ve never been let off. He got exactly what he deserves.’ Rick Tradwell of Mildura retorted: ‘He’s not only an ornament to the game he is a monument to humanity.’ More support came from Stephen Hoy of Warrnambool. ‘Totally unfair because you can never hit a Magpie hard enough.’ For his piece on Channel 10’s Eyewitness News, which aired a day after the hearing, Eddie McGuire visited Terry at work. The report began with some vision of him whistling to himself while cleaning a window. McGuire, a passionate Collingwood supporter, was doing his bit to mend Terry’s image. In his first public reaction to the suspension, Terry told McGuire: ‘She certainly scars you, I guess. It probably hasn’t sunk in a helluva lot just yet. When we get into the season and the football starts again it will be pretty tough.’ A comment was included from Essendon chief executive Roger Hampson, who said, ‘Unfortunately Terry has been tarnished with being a thug of the game when we all know what a great footballer he is.’ When the furore died down, Hampson gave him a vote of confidence by signing him to a new one-year contract. Terry tried to forgot about the events of the previous two months, but there were constant reminders. On one particular occasion he was

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cleaning the windows of a clothing store in Collingwood. He parked his van in the street, forgetting Danihers Cleaning Services was written down its side. After finishing the job he returned to his vehicle only to find it had been covered in Magpies stickers. ‘Better than a rock through the windscreen or a knife through the tyres,’ he jokes. Amid all the dramas involving Terry, the end of Neale’s career at the highest level was barely a blip on the footy radar. During 1990 Neale had achieved a couple of long-held goals by twice playing alongside all of his brothers. His battle-scarred body robbed him of the chance to run out in the finals, although many years later his coach still ponders whether it might have been worth selecting him anyway. ‘In the end I’ve got to live with all of these decisions,’ Sheedy reflects. ‘Decisions about not playing Ron Andrews [in the 1983 grand final], not playing Kickett [in the 1993 grand fina]), not playing Neale Daniher.’ In any case, Neale left Essendon on a personal high, having taken out the reserves best and fairest. ‘That’s probably about where I was at,’ he says, adamant that his comeback was worth it. ‘In the end it was fantastic. I got a couple more years of footy.’ And his efforts to get back on the park had made Edna’s dream come true. Up at the farm that summer, the family had much to talk about between their tennis matches and backyard cricket Tests. It had been some year.

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ssendon’s daniher quartet was officially broken up early in

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1991 when Neale signed with VFA club Werribee. He departed Windy Hill with career statistics that did no justice to his immense talent. Between his debut in 1979 and his first knee injury in 1981 he had played 66 senior matches in a row. When he walked away from elite footy in 1990, his final tally was 82. In the same period, Terry pulled on the boots more than 250 times. But all the struggles failed to kill Neale’s love of the game, so he decided to run around for one more year, this time in Melbourne’s second-tier competition. The season with the Bees — coached by former Fitzroy rover Leon Harris — enabled Neale to enjoy having a kick without feeling any pressure. Playing at centre half-forward against clubs like Coburg, Springvale and Port Melbourne, he revelled in the slower-paced games and enjoyed the space afforded by the Association’s innovation that restricted teams to 16 players on the field. Searching for its first VFA flag, Werribee ended the home-andaway season on top of the ladder. In the second semi-final against Dandenong, Neale wound back the clock with a brilliant performance. He kicked six goals as the Bees won by 13 points and moved straight into the grand final. ‘Daniher was the difference between the two

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sides,’ wrote Damian Barrett in the Herald Sun. ‘His class and poise under pressure stood out in the often messy encounter.’ Neale craved a premiership. It was the main reason he was still playing. Two weeks later Werribee took on Dandenong again, this time in the big one. It was a tough, rugged and always close contest. Although Neale struggled to have an impact, the Bees, led by captain Damian Drum, were four goals up at half-time. But by the last change they had fallen behind. In a frantic last quarter, they went down by nine points. Neale’s 1978 premiership with Ungarie remained his only senior flag. At Essendon, his three brothers battled through a far more up and down year. The Bombers had lost a number of experienced players, including Paul Van Der Haar, who retired after the 1990 grand final for the second and final time. At the same time they had to do without Terry for more than half the season. The addition of the Adelaide Crows to the AFL, which expanded the competition to 15 clubs and led to the introduction of a six-team finals series, meant a bye was included in the fixture. As a result it was round 14 before Terry’s suspension finally elapsed. The time on the sidelines was infuriating for a bloke who loved playing footy. There were, however, a few moments that made Terry feel at peace with the footy gods again. One came a week before his return to the field when the Bombers finally played Collingwood in a grand final rematch at Waverley Park. On that occasion Magpies’ president Alan McAlister invited Terry to the club’s pre-game luncheon, where he was seated next to Lou Richards. It was a gesture he genuinely appreciated. ‘It was good to be accepted,’ Terry says. ‘To me, in footy you just get on with it. That’s the way I always looked at it.’ The other thing that brought a smile to Terry’s face while he sat in the stands was watching Anthony reach the peak of his form. Proving almost impassable at full-back, the 28-year-old played a key role in helping Essendon win its first six games. Some of the Bombers’ early success was due to a very soft draw, although when they began losing to top sides like West Coast and Hawthorn, Anthony continued his impressive performances. He held his own against Peter Sumich when the Eagles scored a historic first victory at Windy Hill and limited

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Tony Lockett to four goals at Moorabbin. Lockett had been in superb touch, booting 34 in the previous three weeks. With Chris battling in the reserves, Anthony was often the only Daniher in the team until Terry finally returned from his enforced lay-off for the round 15 clash with Fitzroy. The Essendon cheer squad celebrated the occasion by raising a banner that read: ‘Return of a champ. Welcome back TD.’ Inspired by having their former skipper back in the senior team (Sheedy elected not to make him find touch in the reserves), the Bombers ran out 39-point winners. Starting at fullforward, Terry struggled early in the game, as his eight-month lay-off took its toll. Moved to centre half-back in the second half, he pulled down a couple of trademark strong marks and accumulated 17 possessions. As Jim looked on from the social club stand, he was happy to hear the Dons’ supporters cheering mightily every time Terry went near the ball. A fortnight later, when Anthony played his 200th VFL/AFL match, all three boys were in the side and it became another day of celebration for the family. With the crop planted, Jim and Edna made the trip to Windy Hill, along with many of the girls, their partners and children, to witness the milestone first hand. ‘Dad always said to me that I was in trouble if I lined up at full-back, but I don’t mind,’ Anthony told the Herald Sun’s Tony De Bolfo in the lead-up to the match. ‘I’m probably enjoying my football more now than I ever have. You seem to get more out of the challenges that crop up and the challenges are certainly there at Essendon at the moment.’ Anthony’s comment was more accurate than he would have liked. His big day was spoiled when he was given the run-around by veteran David Cloke, and the Tigers, who were 13th on the ladder, scored a shock 17-point win. The result failed to deter Edna from penning a congratulatory message in one of the scrapbooks she kept to document Anthony’s career. She wrote: ‘Congratulations Anth. What a wonderful achievement. Never in a hundred years did I think you would make the very top level of footy in Aust, when you were nine years old and playing at Tully. I had to get into you for just standing there watching your little opponent get all the ball!! You were happy for him!! Very well done.’ Then came an unfortunate twist of fate. Midway through the third quarter of the round 18 meeting with North Melbourne at a

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muddy Windy Hill (the club had used a helicopter and numerous gas heaters in an attempt to dry the turf during the week), Anthony was chasing a loose ball when he was tackled from behind. As he was dragged down his boot became stuck in the boggy turf. Something had to give. Anthony crashed to the turf and immediately clutched his knee. Climbing to his feet, he knew there was something wrong. But he felt little pain. The trainers and club doctors helped him from the field. Their initial diagnosis was pinched cartilage. A week or two out of the team at most. Without their star full-back, Essendon still thrashed the struggling Kangaroos by 74 points. The big win put Anthony in a positive frame of mind at the after-match drinks. The lack of pain in his leg convinced him the injury would not be too bad. Plus it was the night of Terry’s testimonial, when the club would pay tribute to one of its favourite sons. ‘I’d just bought a house and the function was at the end of our street,’ Anthony recalls. ‘I couldn’t miss it, so I wrapped up my knee, hobbled down there and we all got on the juice.’ Terry’s big party, titled ‘A night with a champion’, drew 1000 people to the Palatas Reception Centre in Ascot Vale. Such was the interest, all tickets to the function were sold in just a few days. The crowd included the usual diverse mix of Terry’s acquaintances and admirers. Andrew Peacock was there, along with union boss Bill Kelty and some of Terry’s childhood mates from Ungarie, blokes like ‘Red’ McLintock and Mark McGrane. A solo tribute from Simon Madden kicked off the evening, before a group of Bombers, including club doctor Bruce Reid, Mark Thompson, Paul Van Der Haar, Madden and Chris Daniher, presented another musical act. The chorus to their tune went: Now here’s to good old Terry, a champion we are proud, To have a drink and reminisce and sing this song real loud. He’s a red and black hero, with any he would rate, So good on ya son, and she’ll be right, and many thanks old mate.

Shortly after, a video montage of Terry’s career was played for the crowd, with John Williamson’s Hey True Blue providing the

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background music. To finish off, the entire Daniher clan was called onto the stage. ‘It was most the most enjoyable night I have ever had,’ Edna later wrote in the scrapbook she was preparing for Terry. ‘It brings tears to my eyes when I memorise just how hard you have worked and trained to get where you are today.’ Pride overcame pain for Anthony, until the following morning. Upon waking, he immediately regretted his big night. His knee was swollen and sore. He could hardly walk. Arthroscopic surgery on the Tuesday night confirmed his fears. There was substantial damage to his anterior cruciate and medial ligaments. ‘top don out,’ bellowed the headline in the Sun. Anthony’s injury was reported as being a major blow for the Bombers’ finals hopes. Two days later his knee was reconstructed. He was about to find out what Neale had gone through, three times. There was one positive. The days of hip-to-ankle plaster casts for knee injury victims were long gone. As Anthony began his recovery, Terry and Chris were left to fulfil their company’s window cleaning contracts on their own. ‘I’ll be able to get into the books now, get that up to date,’ Anthony joked to scribe Daryl Timms. His brothers grinned when they read the quote. They knew he was never overly keen on manual labour anyway and would be quite content to manage things from the office. On the field, Terry and Chris kept the Daniher name in the newspapers as the finals loomed. But their on-field partnership was broken the week before Terry’s 300th game, when Chris was diagnosed with glandular fever. It was a terrible blow for the youngest Daniher lad, as he had played six games in a row, his longest streak of senior appearances since joining the Bombers. Despite the setback, Chris joined his brothers, sisters and parents in the Waverley Park stands on Saturday 17 August as Terry burst through a giant banner and lined up for his milestone match against Carlton. The day was a celebration of his extraordinary journey from skinny teenaged midfielder at Ungarie, to champion Essendon centre half-forward and premiership skipper. In the lead-up, Terry appeared in the Green Guide (the weekly TV supplement in The Age), where he launched the new BASF five-hour E300 video cassette. Letters and faxes of congratulations arrived from all over the nation. Ted Whitten

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sent one on behalf of Adidas, while some others came from the Ariah Park–Mirrool Football Club and even the Sydney Swans. To ensure that his former club could not forget what might have been, Inside Football published a preview to Sydney’s game that round, which began: ‘We wonder if those old South Melbourne supporters who bother to make the trip for the Swans’ clash with Geelong will conduct a minute’s silence before the match — in memory of the club’s biggest ever recruiting blunder!’ When the game began, Terry, still trying to find his best form after the long suspension, battled hard to have an impact on the contest. It was far from his best performance, although the celebrations were long and sweet after the Bombers stormed home to beat the battling Blues by four points. The win meant Essendon was almost certain to play in another finals series. Chris’s dose of glandular fever saw him struggling to stay awake during the festivities to honour Terry. Usually a ball of energy, he felt like sleeping all the time. Needing a couple of weeks’ rest to regain his health, Chris headed up to the farm during the following week, where the fresh air and Edna’s home cooking sped up his rejuvenation. In a few days he was feeling much better, yet playing a game of footy was the furthest thing from his mind. Down in Melbourne, Sheedy was turning up the mind games before Essendon’s big clash with top side West Coast in Perth. In a major shock, he named Chris in the team to play the Eagles. Footy reporters in Melbourne were baffled. They knew Chris had not travelled west with the rest of the squad. Sheedy spoke to some from the hotel where the Bombers were staying in Perth. ‘There are different types of glandular fever,’ he told the Sun’s Tony De Bolfo. ‘I’m keeping in mind that he played well against the Eagles last time. I’m just weighing up the chances and keeping my options open.’ De Bolfo later rang Hillview and spoke to Jim. The plot thickened when Jim suggested his son might be ‘lost’. One key question needed to be answered. Where was Chris? If he was to line up at Subiaco, he needed to be on the next flight. Finally, it was Age journalist Patrick Smithers who cracked the code. When he rang the Daniher house at Ungarie, Edna answered the call. Smithers identified himself before asking about Chris’s

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whereabouts. Unfailingly honest, Edna replied: ‘Oh yes, he’s asleep in his room.’ She reiterated that he had been wiped out by the glandular fever and was in no state to be playing. Smithers had the scoop. Sheedy was guilty of making phoney selections. The Bombers were subsequently thrashed by ten goals and Sheedy was fined $3000 for selecting a player who did not have a legitimate chance of playing. True to form, the Essendon coach defended his antics. ‘He trained on the Tuesday and Wednesday and I told him to go home and to let me know if he was all right. When I rang him he was up milking the cows. I won’t take it that you can’t play a bloke who is ill,’ Sheedy said after AFL executive commissioner Alan Schwab handed down his penalty. Sheedy was livid the media had exposed his tricks. Following another big loss in the final home-and-away round, this time to Hawthorn, his media conference degenerated into farce. Upon sighting Smithers among the scribes, Sheedy ordered him to leave the room. He finished his spray by yelling ‘and don’t come back’. Amid all this, Chris was still at the farm. He did leave his bed for one afternoon, to attend the Northern Riverina League grand final, in which Girral– West Wyalong defeated Lake Cargelligo. Chris was back in the city when Essendon met Melbourne in the elimination final. The Bombers had scraped into the top six thanks to Collingwood’s capitulation against Geelong at Kardinia Park in round 24 – the defending premiers missed the finals. Chris sat on the sidelines with the other injured players as Terry began at centre half-forward and produced his best form of the year. His team looked unstoppable, racing to a five-goal lead at the first change. The margin was 20 points at the long break, with veteran Shane Heard blanketing brilliant Demons spearhead Allen Jackovich. How different the second half proved to be! Jim Stynes, who a fortnight later won the Brownlow Medal, thrashed Peter Somerville in the ruck and Melbourne’s little men profited. They sent the ball forward over and over again, allowing Jackovich to break free and finish with eight brilliant goals. Essendon’s season ended in a whimper as they lost by 38 points. Refusing to contemplate retirement, Terry guaranteed himself at least one more year at the highest level when named among the Bombers’ few good players.

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Amid the talk of Essendon being a Dad’s Army, doomed to years of rebuilding, skipper Tim Watson decided he was sick of Sheedy and battling constant injuries. He retired at the relatively tender age of 30 and began working for Channel 7. Simon Madden was in no such mood. Inspired by the club’s decision to move its home games to the MCG, he followed Terry’s lead and announced he was playing on. For the Danihers there was a positive conclusion to the season when Anthony was named in the AFL’s first official All-Australian team. This confirmed his position as the pre-eminent full-back in the game. It was a welcome boost as he struggled through the early stages of his recovery from the knee reconstruction. Both Anthony and Terry bypassed the end-of-season trip to support the Week of Champions, a celebration of Riverina sport held in Wagga Wagga. ‘We have had our day, I’m too old for end-of-season trips,’ Terry told the adoring crowd. Instead, the boys relaxed with their families at the farm. Anthony and Jo showed off their newly born second son, Ned, who had arrived on the eve of the finals. He was Jim and Edna’s ninth grandchild. Down in Melbourne, much footy talk centred on the future of Sheedy. He had again been targeted by the Sydney Swans and looked set to accept the job of resurrecting the AFL’s original expansion team. ‘He is on a hiding to nothing if he stays,’ wrote Mike Sheahan in The Age. ‘The existing crop of players cannot win a premiership. He has lost his way . . . and the signs of stress have been obvious in recent weeks.’ Rumours circulated about who was likely to take over at the Bombers. Neale’s name was always in the thick of the speculation. But doubts over the Swans’ future led Sheedy to reject the offer and he was subsequently awarded a new contract. Along with chief executive Roger Hampson, he immediately sought to bring new blood into the football department. Renowned tactician David Wheadon was recruited as player development manager, while Denis Pagan, who had led the North Melbourne Under-19s to five premierships, signed on to coach the reserves. The changes continued when long-serving football manager Kevin Egan was replaced by Danny Corcoran. As well, Sheedy wanted one of his favourites back in the fold. In early October he made a plea to his man through a newspaper column. ‘My first priority as reappointed Essendon coach will be to regain the

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services of Neale Daniher,’ he wrote. ‘Daniher is an Essendon man. He has all the character and principles that the club believe are important in football.’ Luring Neale back to Windy Hill proved more difficult than Sheedy had hoped. Werribee coach Leon Harris believed the 30-yearold had at least another two years left in his playing career at VFA level. And Neale was tempted by the prospect of having a kick for another year. ‘We lost the grand final so I sort of feel obliged to play on and try to get a flag with them,’ he was reported as saying. ‘But then again I am going to have a longer career in football in a non-playing capacity.’ Eventually, Sheedy’s offer of a part-time assistant coaching role proved irresistible. Neale hung up his boots for the final time. His team success in senior football amounted to a premiership with Ungarie in 1978 and a night series triumph in 1981. But there was a positive. For one last season, all four Daniher brothers would be on the books at Windy Hill.

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erry refused to contemplate that his career at Essendon

was coming to an end. A born competitor, he wanted to play forever. When preparations for 1992 began in earnest, he responded to speculation he was finished by training harder than ever. Kevin Sheedy knew this was not the answer. Terry’s 34-year-old body was showing many signs of wear and tear. With David Cloke having retired after 333 games with Richmond and Collingwood, Terry was now the oldest player in the AFL. During pre-season, the coach often urged his admired veteran to reduce his workload. It rarely worked. Fearing for his future, Terry pumped more weights and did more running than the first-year rookies. At times, Sheedy was so exasperated he threatened to fine the former captain if he did not take a night off. Then, as a result of his stubbornness, Terry began suffering from back soreness. As the homeand-away matches approached, he was battling to keep up. Anthony was also struggling. Despite his long recovery from injury, he should have been brimming with confidence. After all, he was the current All-Australian full-back. The doctors said his knee was sound but he felt slower than in the past. Yet in the back of his mind doubts had crept in. Could he again reach the heights of ’91 and dominate the game’s great forwards? It troubled him that he was not sure. For Chris, however, the signs were all positive. ‘About bloody time,’ he often thought during the arduous summer slog. Turning 26 on

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the eve of the season, he had played just 21 senior games in five years at Essendon. He was fortunate Sheedy had so much belief in his talent and toughness. Chris was desperate to repay the faith by earning a regular place in the side. The early signs were very good. He was the only Daniher selected for the Bombers’ round 1 match against St Kilda at Waverley Park. Chris played well, crashing packs, winning a stack of possessions and booting two goals. But for the team it was a disappointing afternoon. For the first time since 1980 — after 20 unsuccessful attempts — the Saints beat Essendon. Stuart Loewe was best-on-ground, while Tony Lockett bagged seven majors. An ankle injury meant Terry was a late withdrawal from the opening weekend of action. In a sign of things to come, he was replaced by skinny youngster James Hird. The following Saturday, Terry returned to take on Fitzroy at the MCG. For him and the Bombers the day was a disaster. The Lions won by 52 points, sending Essendon crashing to 13th on the ladder. Terry began on the interchange bench and after finally being let loose up forward, he was twice dragged by Sheedy for letting Darren Wheildon run off him. On both occasions Terry seemed angry and frustrated, leading the newspapers to speculate on a rift between him and the coach. True to form, he played down such talk. ‘You just have to grin and cop it,’ he told reporters. ‘I suppose I played alright in patches, but overall it was a shocker.’ The spotlight shifted momentarily when Anthony made a stunning comeback against Footscray in round 3. Having lined up in the back pocket, he was too good for tall forward Justin Charles and even set up a goal late in the game. Such was his impact, Michael Stevens awarded him one vote in the Herald Sun player of the year award. His pre-season doubts were erased. Terry, Anthony and Chris ran out together in most of the following nine games. On one particularly memorable afternoon, all three were part of Essendon’s unbelievable round 6 comeback against Melbourne. Five minutes into the last quarter, the Bombers trailed by 47 points. Yet they kicked the final eight goals of the game to win by one point and lift themselves back into finals calculations. A fortnight later came another proud moment when the trio lined up for New South Wales in a genuine State of Origin clash with

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Queensland at the SCG. The only players eligible were those registered at a club in either state at the age of 15. Hawthorn star Jason Dunstall, fresh from booting 17 goals against Richmond, led the Queenslanders, while Terry was named New South Wales captain. Prior to the match he received another honour when the New South Wales Football League announced it would award the Terry Daniher medal to the Light Blues’ best player in all future state games. ‘I love my Origin footy and to have something like this happen is quite unbelievable,’ was Terry’s response. ‘Given this will probably be my last game for New South Wales it has extra special significance.’ Before a crowd of just over 7000, which included Jim and Edna, the contest was over by half-time, when the home side led by nine goals. A knee injury to Dunstall had robbed Queensland of any hope and the final stages of the 93-point rout became a Terry Daniher tribute show. He delighted the paltry attendance with a few trademark grabs, although his contribution was overshadowed by John Longmire, who slotted eight majors in a repeat of his match-winning heroics against the Vics back in 1990. This, however, was not enough to win the newly struck medal. It was awarded to emerging Sydney Swans rover Jamie Lawson, whose electrifying pace was indeed the highlight of the evening. Such were the numbers of people clambering around Terry after he led his victorious team from the field that Edna saved her congratulations for his scrapbook. ‘We were so proud and happy to have been there to see it all,’ she wrote. ‘Sorry we didn’t have more time to talk but I waited until you had finished all your hellos to everyone then you had to leave on the bus, so I couldn’t tell you personally how happy and proud we were. You also did a wonderful job presenting your medals. Sr Sebastian would have been proud of you also.’ While Anthony was the only Daniher named among New South Wales’s best players that night, back at Essendon Chris won more fans by the week, both in the coach’s box and in the stands. His form was as strong as his attack on the ball. He began to find a niche as a tagger, his scalps including Fitzroy’s Paul Roos, who he comprehensively thrashed in a narrow win over the Lions in the unfamiliar surrounds of North Hobart Oval. Chris became the first picked of the Danihers. His place in the team was more secure than that of his more decorated brothers.

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Later in the year he would be rewarded with a sixth-place finish in the Essendon best-and-fairest. In contrast, Terry was reaching the end. The dropping of Simon Madden after round 4 put him on notice and he gave everything to lift himself back into the top echelon of players. It was to no avail. ‘I felt like the game had sped up a bit more,’ Terry reflects. ‘I’d probably over-trained and done more weights. If anything that just slowed me down more.’ A bigger problem was Essendon’s erratic form. By the mid-point of the season the team looked destined to finish in the bottom half of the ladder. Sheedy decided it was time for youth. Neale, who was on the selection committee, urged him to tell Terry his career was finished but Sheedy hated confronting players about such matters. Instead, he simply axed him from the team for the round 12 meeting with Richmond. For Terry, the decision was a shock, if only because he had been convincing himself he could put off retirement until he was ready. Sheedy knew Terry would never be ready. In a clear example of Essendon’s changing of the guard, Chris returned from injury in his place. On the Friday morning, Madden paid Terry a visit. The good mates sat and talked over a cup of coffee. They pledged to play out the season with pride and vigour, regardless of what team they were chosen in. A day later, Terry arrived at Windy Hill at 9 am. It was a foreign experience. Since joining the Bombers in 1978 he had never played a reserves game. Because the senior match was taking place at the MCG, barely 100 people sat in the stands as Terry took to the field alongside some of the club’s brightest emerging talent — young guns like James Hird, Mark Mercuri and Joe Misiti, who marvelled as the oldest man on the ground, a dual premiership captain nonetheless, joked, smiled and gave everything he had. At three-quarter time Pagan asked him if he wanted a rest. ‘She’ll be right,’ came the reply. ‘I’ll battle it out till the end.’ Pondering his demotion as he sat in the change rooms, Terry told Herald Sun reporter Peter Hanlon, ‘They wanted a quicker side and the blokes who came in deserved their opportunity. Unfortunately I was the bloke to go under, but that’s just the way it goes.’ In the afternoon, Terry and Madden sat in the MCG stands and saw Sheedy’s rejuvenated line-up, already dubbed the ‘Baby Bombers

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Mark II’, thrash the Tigers. A new era was beginning without them. The veterans both believed they were still good enough to play in the seniors but they watched on with admiration as Todd Ridley booted two goals, Derek Kickett was outstanding in the centre and Gavin Wanganeen provided dash from defence. And they acknowledged the athleticism of Steven Alessio, who in his third game dominated the ruck contests against David Honeybun and Brendon Gale. Terry’s form in the reserves was solid at best. ‘I thought I’d only be back there for a week then I’d turn it around,’ he recalls. ‘But I was there for another game and another. The further the season went the worse I got. I was in a bit of a rut. And I wasn’t recovering as well as I would’ve liked. In hindsight having that time off in ’91 probably took it out of me.’ Increasing work commitments also made life tougher. To expand their business, the Danihers secured contracts to perform the final clean-up at a number of building sites. The biggest was Multiplex’s Australia On Collins shopping mall development in the inner city. Others included the Epworth Hospital and the Sportsgirl Centre on Collins Street. ‘It took up a lot of our relaxation time,’ Terry says. ‘We were hands on, Chris and myself, and to a lesser extent Anthony. We were pretty gung-ho. They’d really put us under the pump a bit. They were sticking it up us so we thought “Bugger this, we’ll show ’em. We’ll get this bloody job done.” Saturdays were onto us before we knew it. You’ve got to be sharp, got to be fresh. Mentally, I wasn’t feeling like that. I wasn’t as sharp as I could’ve been and I think that had an effect on my football. I don’t want to use it as an excuse at all. I went out and did my darndest but it probably wasn’t good enough in the end anyway.’ It was far from an ideal situation for a trio of elite footballers. Anthony and Chris both remember being so tired they would fall asleep on the rubdown tables at Windy Hill prior to training. Sometimes they even nodded off at work. ‘The Sportsgirl Centre had to be opened soon,’ Anthony remembers. ‘About three weeks in a row we would play footy at the MCG, then by 6.30 pm we’d be back on the tools trying to finish this clean-up. I think it was about 11.30 at night and we were on our hand and knees scrubbing the floors when Chris fell asleep

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on the tools. There was four of us abreast working our way down this corridor when we looked over and said “What’s going on here?” Chris was asleep. It was hard work but it was just too hard. And Terry was the leader of the gang and he just wouldn’t stop.’ Terry’s extended stint in the reserves made him contemplate his footballing future. ‘I’ll be playing footy next year somewhere,’ he told everyone who asked. Grassroots clubs were already queuing up to sign him. At the same time, Anthony’s reconstructed knee was causing him almost constant pain, limiting his effectiveness on the field. The situation came to a head when he was pitted against West Coat sharpshooter Peter Sumich in round 15 at the MCG. On a disastrous day for Essendon and its full-back, Sumich used his unique kicking style to bag 11 goals and eight behinds, most of them on Anthony, as the Eagles won by 75 points. ‘I was really struggling with my knee and even needed painkillers just to train,’ Anthony recalls. ‘There was something in there that was like a knife being stabbed into it.’ He battled through another month of footy. But when he cost the Bombers a goal after being run down by Collingwood’s Gavin Crosisca in front of 88 066 people on a Friday night at the MCG, something needed to change. Anthony was booked in for arthroscopic surgery and wrote off the rest of the season. A year after being named an All-Australian his career was at the crossroads. Essendon’s season went from bad to worse on the following weekend. In an embarrassing performance, the Bombers lost to a resurgent Hawthorn by 160 points. Dunstall finished with 12 goals. Chris was one of the few wearing red and black to win plaudits from a gutted Sheedy. With his team fading fast, and out of finals contention, the coach soon had another issue on his hands. Essendon supporters kick-started a media campaign to give Terry, who had recently turned 35, and Madden, 34, a farewell senior appearance in the club’s final game of the year against Geelong. ‘Is there still sentiment in football?’ asked Tony De Bolfo in the Herald Sun. ‘All will be revealed at Windy Hill on Thursday night when the Essendon match committee decides if club stalwarts Simon Madden and Terry Daniher deserve a send-off befitting their status.’ The same newspaper even ran a phone poll on the subject. Of the respondents, 2014 people voted in favour of the

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two legends finishing their careers in the seniors. Only 122 thought they should not. Dons fans bombarded the club with letters and faxes, urging Sheedy and his fellow selectors, a group that included Neale, to pick the veterans. While Madden’s form in the reserves had been good enough to earn a recall, the fuss did not sit well with Terry. ‘I wasn’t all that keen to play in it because I didn’t feel I deserved to be out there,’ he admits. ‘I was getting fed up with all that crap in the papers. All it did was put the club under more pressure to play us.’ On selection night, TV cameras were lined up along the boundary as the team began training. The men in question ran out to the cheers of a sparse gathering. When the players huddled on the wing and applauded after a brief speech from captain Mark Thompson, it was clear sentiment had won the day. Casting aside his negative feelings, Terry trained like he had been called up to make his debut. At one stage he fumbled a ball and immediately did 20 pushups. Following the light run, the other players quickly headed for the rooms. Terry stayed under the floodlights, bouncing a ball and signing countless autographs. When the team was announced, Terry was named at centre half-forward, alongside Hird. Madden was selected in the ruck. With 690 senior VFL/AFL games between them, they prepared to bow out in style. ‘Sheeds and I disagree on lots of things but I’m really thankful he gave us that opportunity to finish together, in the seniors,’ says Madden. ‘I think it was good the club did that for a couple of blokes who’d been there a long time.’ Nearly 43 000 people filled the stands at Waverley Park and many were there to honour two of the game’s greats. Prior to the opening bounce, Terry and Madden ran a lap of honour, in which they were joined by Tim Watson, who had retired the previous year but had never bid an official farewell to his many fans. The three players were treated to rousing cheers from supporters of both the Bombers and the Cats. There were no tears in Terry’s eyes. ‘It meant the curtain was coming down, that’s all it meant to me,’ he says. When the match began, Watson headed back to his commentary duties with Channel 7, while there were no easy kicks for his fellow old boys. Madden lasted about ten minutes before he suffered a badly bruised hip and left the field. Terry, meanwhile, struggled to keep up

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with the pace of the game, although Sheedy was happy to leave him in the forward pocket. Terry repaid the gesture by bringing the house down with a goal. However, his day ended disappointingly when he was stationed as a loose man in defence during the third quarter. Backing back into a pack, he was crunched by Bill Brownless, the impact leaving a crack in his scapula (shoulder blade). Unable to lift his arm above his head, he finished his 313th senior game on the interchange bench. ‘I was probably glad we played in the end, the crowd was terrific. But in the lead-up I was really shitty we had to play in it. The club felt at the time it would be a good thing to do and you do it for the club in the end, don’t you?’ Madden sat on the pine until an injury crisis late in the final quarter forced him to hobble into the forward line. Led by rampant spearhead Bill Brownless, Geelong had by then blown the contest apart. Catching sight of Madden standing in the goal square, barely able to walk let alone run, Essendon runner Bryan Wood dashed towards him. ‘What on earth is he going to tell me?’ Madden thought. Wood moved within earshot and yelled, ‘Simon, if you kick eight goals and we win this they’ll make a movie.’ Madden was still laughing when the siren sounded. He and Terry were chaired from the field. Wounded, yet proud of their achievements, they settled in for a few beers. Madden knew he had played his last game of football. There would be no running around in a local competition for his aching body. Terry was never going to reach the same conclusion. In fact, he was not even done for the season. Essendon’s reserves had qualified for the finals. When the team won its way through to the last Saturday in September, Terry set about trying to shake off his shoulder problem and win a spot in the side. ‘Sheeds wasn’t too happy about that,’ Terry says. ‘He wanted me to retire and let some other young kid have a run. But Denis was pretty keen to play me. The X-rays showed I just had a bit of a crack in my shoulder blade. I told Denis I’d keep working and working and see how it goes.’ Pagan and the medical staff gave him little chance to being fit. But Terry vowed to prove them wrong. As the grand final approached, he trained his heart out. He had hours of treatment on his injury. By selection night, Pagan shook his head as Terry ran around looking

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fitter than the team-mates who were half his age. Named at centre half-forward, Terry wanted to bow out with a performance of note and that was exactly what he delivered. In a team featuring youngsters like Hird, Mercuri, Misiti, Glenn Manton, David Calthorpe and Michael Symons, he led the way. Before a crowd dominated by Geelong and West Coast supporters, Terry booted six goals and seven behinds as the Bombers claimed another piece of silverware. Terry was voted beston-ground and was carried from the field, premiership cup in hand, while conducting a radio interview on a house brick-sized mobile phone. As more than 90 000 people watched, it was a brilliant end to an extraordinary 17-year career in elite football. Soon clubs from all over Australia, from all levels of competition, were attempting to win Terry’s services. Melbourne coach Neil Balme invited him for an interview about the vacant reserves coaching position. ‘I went and had a bit of a chat but I said, “Look boys, I’m pretty keen to play. I’d like to be a playing coach.” That wasn’t what they wanted at the time, so it didn’t work out.’ He had a chat with VFA club Port Melbourne, and another with representatives of WAFL outfit Subiaco after they turned up at his house in Pascoe Vale. ‘I wouldn’t have minded going over to Perth but that wasn’t going to work out because I was still pretty keen to keep playing footy.’ As elite clubs continued to baulk at his resolve to keep pulling the boots on, Terry spoke to people in Shepparton, Albury and Warrnambool before he pondered a return to the Riverina. His cousin Mick Daniher, a former butcher now working in a development role for the AFL, spread the word around Wagga Wagga, where two of Terry’s sisters were based. In an instant, the president of powerful Riverina League outfit Wagga Tigers, the home club of Brownlow Medallist Paul Kelly, was on the phone. Two committee members flew to Melbourne and tabled an offer. Terry was won over. After some consultation with Gaynor and the children, he agreed to the move. Some time out of the city was just what they needed.

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barbecue and a few beers after training. Smiling women

working in the canteen. Netball for the girls. Bush blokes watching the lads run around, speaking with that country drawl, between gulps of Tooheys New. It was 1993 and Terry was in his element. The return to country football, however, was not without pressure. Wagga Tigers had failed to win a premiership since 1985. In the context of the club’s very successful history, this was a severe drought. Three grand final losses in that that time, all to local rivals Turvey Park, had only made matters worse. One of those defeats, in 1987, came after the Tigers led by 59 points at half-time. The dreaded ‘Collingwood of the bush’ tag had been bandied about. Terry was hailed as the saviour – there was an unprecedented level of enthusiasm at the Robertson Oval. A record number of players turned up for the first night of pre-season in mid-January, where they soon learned that their new coach had not headed north for a picnic. ‘It was the hardest training I’ve ever done,’ young defender Anthony Watson told the local newspaper. ‘The first night he made us do seven laps just to get to know him. Then, at the end of training each night, we would do 200 sit-ups and 120 push-ups to cool down.’ By round 1 they had many miles in their legs and were raring to play.

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For good measure, Terry had invited Paul Van Der Haar and Kevin Sheedy to the jumper presentation night. Sheedy ensured the crowd gathered in the Tigers’ social rooms knew exactly how he regarded their new coach. ‘He’s one of the greatest people ever to play football,’ Sheedy said. ‘Not just as a player but as a person. Terry’s move to Wagga is not only beneficial for the game of football, but also for the community as a whole, because he is a man of great character.’ Terry had already won over most of the Tigers’ players and supporters. Sheedy’s speech convinced them they were members of the luckiest grassroots footy club in the nation. A 155-point win over East Wagga–Kooringal in round 1 continued Terry’s dream start. Looking fit enough to run a marathon, Terry kicked four goals from centre half-forward. Despite the massacre, even the beaten Hawks had something to thank him for. The gate takings were much greater than usual thanks to an influx of interested outsiders. Among them were Jim and Edna, thankful it was now just a two-hour drive to watch Terry, rather than the seven it took to reach Melbourne. Also watching on was Glen Blackwell, a diehard Essendon supporter, who had travelled 410 kilometres from Broadford in Victoria to watch Terry’s first game. Herald Sun reporter Peter Hanlon was also there and captured some of his straightforward addresses to his players. ‘Bocky, ya tried to get around three or four blokes back there — that’s no good for ya, son,’ he told one lad at quarter time. At the long break the Tigers led by more than ten goals, yet Terry was constantly urging his boys on. ‘Matt. Have ya got another half in ya? We need it out of ya son, by geez we do.’ With former Collingwood and Sydney ruck-rover Paul Hawke dominating in the middle and teenagers like Brad Seymour (who went on to play 133 AFL games with the Swans) providing the run, Wagga Tigers steamrolled most of their opposition. A loss to bogy side Turvey Park was their only blemish in the early rounds. Wearing number 15, Terry loved every minute of every game. ‘Mate, it was great,’ he recalls, with a broad grin. ‘It was just footy as though it was in a time warp. It had quickened up a bit. But still a lot of contests. Good for me. Obviously I was slowing down. It was good footy, I really enjoyed it. Even when you played the lower sides they all wanted to get into you,

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have a crack at you. You could hear every word they said from over the fence. Calling you a weak prick and so on.’ Opposition supporters ribbed Terry about playing for a club that was already too strong for most of its rivals. They also sledged him about the amount of money he was receiving from the Tigers. None of this worried Terry. It just made him more determined to win the flag. Off the field, Terry left the cleaning business in the hands of Anthony and Chris and settled into a new job as a used car salesman with the Tigers’ major sponsor. Suddenly everyone wanted to buy a car from Wagga Motors. Given the profession’s reputation, Terry was probably the most popular used car salesman on the planet. Even people with no intention of purchasing a vehicle or truck would wander into the yard hoping to have a chat with the great man. Wearing a short-sleeved shirt and tie, Terry warmly greeted them all. ‘We had a good crew and I enjoyed it,’ he reflects. ‘I didn’t realise how tough it can be. She dried up there in the tough periods when the farmers weren’t making money. But it was a great experience. I made a few sales. John and Gordon Braid, who ran the show, were good people to work for — very proud of what they had.’ In all, Terry spent five years at Wagga Motors. If he had sold a car to everyone he chatted to, he and his bosses would have been billionaires. Just as Terry was getting used to life away from the AFL, he received a call from New South Wales football administrator Craig Davis. Much to his surprise, Davis offered him the chance to coach New South Wales in its upcoming State of Origin match against Victoria at the MCG. A discussion about the position between the two men had begun earlier in the year when Terry had flown to Sydney to receive yet another honour, becoming the first Australian Rules played admitted to the New South Wales Sporting Hall of Champions. At the function, Terry wondered who would be coaching the Light Blues. “Why don’t you get a bloody local bloke like Ricky Quade to do it?’ he asked. “That’s what we need instead of these big names like Ron Barassi.” ‘He doesn’t want to do it. Who else?’ Davis replied. ‘I’ll have a bloody go,’ Terry stated. Davis threw him a pen and a beer coaster. ‘Write down why you should get the job.’

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Terry scribbled a few notes, handed them over, and then forgot about the whole exercise. He was sitting at his desk at Wagga Motors when Davis phoned and offered him the job. ‘Geez,’ Terry thought upon accepting it. ‘This could be interesting.’ It was decided that Alan Jeans, Ron Barassi and David Cloke would be his assistants. The hardest part was convincing coaches to let their star players take part. State games in 1993 were played in a week-long carnival format during the first week of June. Victoria hosted New South Wales on a Tuesday night, then South Australia played Western Australia in Adelaide a day later. The two winners met in a final on the following Saturday. Those chosen could end up playing two games in a week. Terry’s conversation with new North Melbourne boss Denis Pagan was typical of the clubs’ reluctance to release their key men. ‘He said you can have Brett Allison, you can have The Fridge [Mark Roberts], you can have John Longmire but you can’t have Carey. He’s a bit sore.’ After much negotiating, Terry managed to include Carey in his team, which featured Anthony and Chris, along with emerging stars James Hird, Shane Crawford and Paul Kelly. Having led New South Wales to victory the last time it met Victoria, Terry was confident heading into the match but things did not go to plan. Held before a small crowd at the MCG, the game was over by half-time when the Vics led by 56 points. Terry wished he could get out there and help. Watching from behind the glass was not his thing. ‘I said to Barass, “Have you got any moves for me?” He looked at me and said, “You’re the bloody coach mate!”’ The final margin of 65 at least demonstrated Terry’s men did not give up. Crawford and Hird were the Light Blues’ best. Carey, who had grown up in Wagga, seemed uninterested for most of the night and finished in the backline. Delighted to be playing under his big brother, Chris put in a solid effort. But Anthony struggled. His knee was not improving. His form back at Essendon was patchy as well. Three weeks later he found himself under the guidance of another sibling, this time Neale. Now 32, Neale had taken over as reserves coach on the eve of the season, when Denis Pagan won the senior position at North Melbourne. During 1992, Sheedy had often let Neale take training. The new role gave him a chance to work on some match-day tactics

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and motivational techniques of his own. It meant Neale’s workload was huge. His role at Essendon remained part-time, so he still did some IT consulting through MicroHelp. A couple of nights a week he also studied Applied Finance as part of a diploma run by the Australian Stock Exchange. On top of all that he was a father of three with a fourth child on the way. Yet none of these distractions limited his input at the Bombers. Danny Corcoran, who was Essendon football manager between 1991 and ’97, told Age reporter Rohan Connolly some years later, ‘His workload was as much as the full-timers and with the limited time available, he almost had the output of a full-time coach. He certainly didn’t take any shortcuts.’ During his year looking after the reserves, Neale guided Tim Watson through the first tentative steps of his comeback following a year-long retirement. He also saw plenty of Anthony in the second half of the season, as the one-time All-Australian full-back was demoted after Sheedy decided to replace him with 18-year-old defender Dustin Fletcher. ‘I was really struggling with my knee,’ Anthony says. ‘I couldn’t get it right.’ Using his long arms to advantage, Fletcher became a key member of the new Baby Bombers team which charged up the ladder, much to the experts’ surprise. In a line-up dominated by lads aged in their teens or early twenties, Chris Daniher was a veteran — in age if not experience. Keen to test the late-bloomer, Sheedy began setting him big challenges. In 1993 there was none bigger than taking on Gary Ablett, especially when you did not usually play at full-back. Yet that’s what confronted Chris in round 6. He had arrived at the ground expecting to get a tagging job on Garry Hocking or Paul Couch. That was until Sheedy sauntered over and said, ‘You’re starting on Ablett’. Chris was stunned. ‘I didn’t say anything,’ he recalls. ‘I just thought, “Oh no.” I had no preparation. It was bloody daunting.’ Ablett booted four goals in the first quarter and soon had a new opponent. By the end of the match, he had 14. Although Essendon won a remarkable contest, thanks to ten majors from Paul Salmon, Chris walked from the field having barely touched the footy. To forget his disastrous day, he headed out for a decent drink with a few of the boys. Late in the night he ended up at the Tunnel nightclub. Also there with a group of friends was a

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young woman from the tiny Mallee outpost of Walpeup, in north-west Victoria. Chris struck up a conversation with her. Eighteen months later he and Sharlene Corbett were married. ‘That was the only good that happened on that day!’ Chris jokes. An important milestone arrived during the second half of the season when Chris played his fiftieth game in a 20-goal win over the Brisbane Bears at the MCG. Aged 27, he had been at Essendon for six and a half years. It had been a tough slog. He paid tribute to his brothers in an article written by the Herald Sun’s Ron Reed. ‘They told me to keep working at it,’ Chris said. ‘Terry was a big influence. I learned a lot from him in the hard work area, and about the important of getting the best out of yourself.’ The predictions some years before that Chris would be the best of the Danihers had proven ill-founded. But his achievement meant the Danihers became just the second set of four brothers to each play at least 50 VFL/AFL games. The others — Arthur, Fred, Rupert and Stan Hiskens — had done it between 1900 and 1924. ‘Hopefully I can play another couple of years and keep a few blokes honest, and then I might be able to go back to the farm,’ Chris told Ron Reed. ‘We’ll see what happens.’ Fitness problems surfaced again when Chris missed Essendon’s last six home-and-away games, a period that included a dramatic victory over West Coast after which Sheedy performed his inaugural jacket wave. The Bombers finished on top of the ladder, ahead of Carlton and North Melbourne. Amid a spate of injuries to team-mates, including Fletcher, both Anthony and Chris were then recalled for the qualifying final against the Blues. Nearly 80 000 people turned out for the league’s first final played under lights. Chris lined up on a halfback flank and collected 21 possessions in a noteworthy performance; however, Anthony’s evening was far from enjoyable. His opponent, Stephen Kernahan, booted six goals, spearheading Carlton to a memorable two-point win. The loss was a major blow to Essendon’s premiership hopes. Anthony was promptly replaced by Fletcher for the semi-final battle against reigning premiers West Coast. Before a large and partisan crowd, the Bombers skipped out to a 32-point lead at halftime and cruised to victory from there. Michael Long was brilliant, while Chris, again playing in defence, nullified dangerous Eagles

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half-forward Brett Heady, his efforts earning a 7-out-of-10 rating in the Herald Sun. ‘Courage and clever disposal were a feature of his play,’ wrote Paul Gough. Carlton defeated Adelaide to win straight through to the grand final, leaving the Crows and Essendon to fight for the other spot in the big one. Despite his highly-regarded effort the week before, Chris was selected on the interchange bench, where he sat for much of the afternoon alongside Derek Kickett as an extraordinary match unfolded. Adelaide ran the Bombers ragged in the opening half. With Chris McDermott, Mark Ricciuto and Tony McGuinness at the peak of their form, the Crows led by 42 points. Only inaccurate kicking had prevented the margin blowing out even further. Many players wearing red and black copped a blast from skipper Bomber Thompson as they headed into the room but when Sheedy arrived he was unfailingly positive. According to Watson, who played under him for 13 seasons, Sheedy simply wrote the word DEMARCATION on the whiteboard, then delivered one of his greatest speeches. Essendon ran out a different team after the break. Thanks to three goals from Darren Bewick in the third quarter and some magic from Michael Long, the margin was down to two straight kicks by the last change. Gary O’Donnell, Thompson and Sean Denham were inspirational in the final quarter as the Bombers, roared on by their delirious supporters, booted five goals to one and snatched a remarkable 11-point win. ‘It’s one of the great comebacks of our time,’ Sheedy said moments after the siren sounded. It was time for grand final week. Chris felt confident his position in the team was safe. While Anthony did his best on the training track to ensure he was selected, Neale produced a revelatory finding. During the year he had been trying to work out why Carlton consistently took the ball away from centre bounces. He studied countless videos of their matches, adamant that they had a definite system in place. Neale was right. Following the qualifying final, he managed to crack the code. The set-up involved Justin Madden palming the ball to preordained positions at each bounce. Carlton’s midfielders — Greg Williams, Craig Bradley, Brett Ratten and Fraser Brown — were also involved in a rotation, aimed at pre-determining who got the ball on

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each occasion. Neale divulged his discovery to a couple of players, among them ruckman Peter Somerville. Still a part-time coach, Neale was working at MicroHelp on the Thursday before the big game. Having finalised his plan to beat the Blues in the middle, he decided to fax it to Sheedy. He gave the sheets of paper to one of the personal assistants. In what could have been a disastrous mistake, she accidentally sent the document to a supplier, who turned out to be a passionate Carlton supporter. Neale was told about the situation and immediately rang the supplier, demanding he rip up the fax. Eventually, Neale convinced him to ensure the sensitive information was not passed on to the Blues. ‘I trusted him,’ he says. ‘But I was bloody worried.’ Neale’s nerves were still jangling when it came time to select the grand final side. It proved to be a very tough job. When it was all said and done, enigmatic forward Derek Kickett and reliable defender David Flood were out. Mark Harvey and Dean Wallis were in. ‘I thought Sheedy made the right decision,’ Neale says, although he had reservations about the coach not telling his player face-to-face. Kickett discovered he had been axed when he heard the team announced on the radio. He has not spoken to Sheedy since. For the second week in a row Chris was named on the bench. He was happy with that — he was about to run out in a grand final. Anthony didn’t make the cut. Danihers travelled to Melbourne from far and wide. Only Terry and his family could not make the trip, as the Wagga Tigers were playing in a grand final of their own against Turvey Park the following day. When Chris and his Essendon team-mates ran out on the last Saturday in September, the Danihers and their friends filled three rows of a bay high in the Great Southern Stand. ‘We just watched Chris, even when he was on the bench,’ remembers Nerolee. ‘He’d get up to stretch and we’d all cheer.’ The grand final was a dream come true for everyone connected with the Bombers. Ignited by the dash of Michael Long, they led by seven goals midway through the second quarter. It was all over. Chris entered the fray before half-time and was greeted by a roar from his family and friends. His personal highlight came in the third term when Long danced around two opponents on the wing and delivered a long kick towards the goal square. Paul Salmon and his Carlton opponent

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Earl Spalding both fell over, leaving Chris to grab the crumbs. He fended off Matthew Hogg with a powerful forearm to the chest, then slammed through the ball through the big sticks with his left foot. Danihers of all ages leapt from their seats. ‘We just erupted,’ Nerolee remembers. ‘He got a goal!’ Edna cheered and clapped. Intently listening to the commentary of his son’s exploits on his radio, Jim could not have been happier. A few minutes later Carlton skipper Stephen Kernahan punched Chris in the stomach during an altercation. The coaches’ boxes at the MCG were right next to each other. As Chris bent over in pain Sheedy began bashing the wall separating the two coaching groups and yelled, ‘If you fucking cop that I’m coming next door.’ Neale diffused the commotion when he tapped his boss on the shoulder and muttered, ‘Chrissy’s faking it, he’s alright’. Sheedy calmed down and sheepishly looked on as Chris won a free kick and ran freely to the next contest. Kernahan would later be suspended for the first time in his VFL career. It was certainly not his fault that the Blues were embarrassed. He ended the game with seven goals, despite Fletcher’s close attention. Chris finished with ten possessions as the Bombers won by 44 points. Long collected the Norm Smith Medal before the triumphant Dons were called to the dais one by one. Anthony led the Daniher family’s cheering as Chris received his premiership medallion. His seven-year struggle to make it in the big league had paid off. ‘It was an unbelievable feeling,’ Chris says. ‘We were all so tired. It was a pretty hot day. That feeling of being spent and having won, there’s nothing better.’ There was a humorous postscript on the Monday after the grand final when David Parkin took a call from a distraught Carlton supporter. The supplier who had received Neale’s misdirected fax now felt a terrible burden of guilt. If he had revealed Neale’s plan to Parkin, he believed the result might have been different. In the following days, the man in question visited the Blues coach and showed him the document. Neale really had broken their code. Parkin had no option but to see the funny side. Up at Wagga, Terry watched Chris’s great day unfold on the television with his new team-mates. He could not help feeling a pang of regret as his brother celebrated. ‘If I’d had a bit better year [in 1992]

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I might have pinched another grand final,’ he thought. ‘But that’s how she goes.’ The next day he won a flag anyway when he led the Tigers to a 48-point win in the grand final at the Narrandera Sports Ground. Playing in the ruck, Terry combined with Paul Hawke to control the game, ensuring his team made up for being thrashed by Turvey Park two weeks earlier in the second semi-final. Hawke’s final tally of 41 possessions won him the medal for best-on-ground. Wagga’s first premiership since 1985 allowed the club to finally shed its tag as chokers. ‘at last! tigers claim rfl flag’ was the headline in Wagga’s Daily Advertiser. ‘Terry changed the whole mental approach of the club,’ explains Doug Priest, who at various times has been a Tigers player, coach and club president. ‘We went from being a social type of club that had ability to a fully committed club. When they were on the field everyone put in. Off the field, socially, it was pretty good too. We had as many good times off the field as we did on.’ The party went on at the local pubs and sports clubs for a few days. At the vote-count night, Terry was awarded the senior best-andfairest award. Making life even better, his family was relishing the move to the country. ‘Gaynor was happy enough to go to Wagga,’ Terry says. ‘She wouldn’t have gone to Ungarie! I thought she settled in very well. She enjoyed going to the footy and the kids were starting to get actively involved in sport. The girls played netball and the boys played footy and cricket. Gaynor got back into sport a bit as well — played softball and tennis. We had a good time. It was very worthwhile for us, a good time in our lives.’

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ssendon’s fifteenth flag, won with a very young squad,

fuelled talk of a Bombers dynasty. Instead, the club’s achievement in tasting success ahead of schedule had a nasty downside. It suffered an ignominious premiership hangover and would not even make the finals the following year. When planning for the 1994 season began, just one Daniher remained at the club. Anthony admits he probably should have retired at the end of ’93. His body was failing him badly. ‘I reckon the knee only ever got back to about 70 percent,’ he reflects. A once-confident and dashing player, Anthony began expecting himself to fail. ‘I think I got frightened of footy. It was amazing. Even in my last couple of games I started thinking about whether I should back into a pack and go for the ball. It was awful. Even now I think, “What happened there?” Compare that to someone like Terry, who in later life probably has the competitive juices running even stronger through his veins.’ Yet the doubts failed to stop Anthony saddling up for a final season in ’94. ‘I was contracted to play and thought, “Oh well, I’ll do the right thing and play my contract out.” I wanted to put something back into the seconds and help out the kids. That’s the cycle.’ However, he says the birth of his third son, Joe, ‘took my focus further away from footy’. Anthony spent the first eight home-and-away rounds battling away in the reserves. Eventually, the Bombers’ topsy-turvy form opened the door for

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a recall to the firsts. He returned in round 9 and was part of a thrilling one-point win over Carlton at Waverley Park. In all, he ran out nine times in the main games during that year, but found it hard to have a great impact on the proceedings. ‘The hunger was completely gone,’ he recalls. He did not know it at the time, but Anthony’s last senior game proved to be the round 20 Friday night game against Collingwood at the MCG. With more than 76 000 people in attendance, it was a night of great excitement and anticipation, although, in keeping with their form slump, the Bombers lost by 28 points. Essendon’s reserves qualified for September action and Anthony lined up at centre half-back in the elimination final against Fitzroy. ‘Half-way through the game I thought, “What the fuck am I doing out here? Get me out of here.” ’ The Lions won, ending the Bombers’ season and Anthony’s time as an elite footballer. ‘That day I sat in the rooms after the game, took my socks off and that was it. It was over. I’ve never played a game of footy since.’ Anthony’s career took a long time to reach its peak. He had slowly developed a reputation for skill and athleticism in his six years with the Swans, but at Essendon, once Kevin Sheedy placed him on the last line of defence, he truly shone. Yet it all rapidly came to an end. Like what happened to Neale almost exactly a decade earlier, Anthony’s career was cut down by a knee injury when he was at the peak of his powers. That said, his achievements were great. He played more than 100 games with two clubs. He was an All-Australian. He ran out in a grand final. He matched up against Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett, Kernahan and Loewe. And, at various stages, he more than held his own against each of them. At the age of 31, Anthony turned his focus to administering the ever-growing Daniher Cleaning Services. For some years, until his business partner Mark Lynch came on board, he was the managing director, head of marketing and responsible for finding new clients. It was a challenge he really enjoyed. The departure of Anthony from Essendon was soon followed by Neale electing to cut ties with the club. A new team was preparing to enter the AFL and after three years as a part-time assistant coach under Sheedy, the challenge of helping build the Fremantle Football

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Club from scratch appealed. In late 1994, Neale was recommended to the Dockers by former Essendon president Ron Evans, a good friend of Freo’s first chairman, Ross Kelly. The embryonic outfit wanted to recruit people with AFL experience to help inaugural coach Gerard Neesham. Neale was among the first people Kelly targeted. ‘It was a fork in the road,’ Neale says. ‘It was getting to the stage where you couldn’t be part time. The game was moving on. I either had to get into full-time footy or stay in the IT consulting area.’ Footy was always going to win that battle. It was simply a matter of whether shifting to Perth was the best option. ‘The decision was made because I’d been a long time at Essendon. I thought there might never be another new franchise team. Heading west was exciting. I had a young family and off we went.’ It was not actually quite that simple. Neale’s wife, Jan, had grown up in Blackburn, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Change was not something she enjoyed. ‘She didn’t even want to move out of Blackburn to Essendon when we got married,’ Neale says with a chuckle. Before he and Jan committed to uprooting their lives, they wrote down their respective pros and cons. ‘Her list of cons went for a whole page,’ Neale jokes. ‘Her only pro was the good weather!’ After a little more intra-family negotiation, Neale, Jan and their four young children — Lauren (eight years old at the time), Luke (six), Rebecca (four) and Ben (not yet one) — departed for Perth. ‘When we got over there Jan and the kids had a ball. She didn’t want to come back.’ Fremantle footy club was an exciting place to be in early 1995. As Neale reminisces, ‘Everything was brand-new. From the anchor to the colours, the song, the team, the coach, the structure. It was a massive thing and it was all very exciting. It was a great time.’ The club broke with many traditions. It chose to wear different guernseys when playing at home and away. In addition, these jumpers featured the previously snubbed colours of green and purple. The Dockers were also revolutionaries on the field. Neesham arrived from WAFL club Claremont with a game plan in which players were encouraged to carry the ball rather than boot it long. Such was its impact, they fell just five points short of Richmond in their debut home-and-away game at the MCG. The Tigers went on to make the preliminary final. ‘Gerard did

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a great job in the early part,’ he says. ‘He didn’t have a talented enough squad. He had a style of football that was probably before its time, in the sense of keeping possession of the footy. Gerard had his detractors. He’s a personality that can polarise. But when you’re with him, you’re with him. I really enjoyed my time there.’ Captained by Hawthorn premiership player Ben Allan, the Dockers won a creditable eight games in their first season, finishing 13th on the ladder, only two wins shy of the Brisbane Bears in eighth place. Neale gained much respect for Neesham during this time and his own thoughts about how football was most effectively played were reshaped by the experience. ‘The counter-attack, rebound off half-back to set up and initiate attacks, was something Gerard brought to the game,’ Neale says. ‘He was ready to question conventional thinking. If you’re going to be a pioneer you often attract criticism but he was brave enough to do that. You’ve got to admire people who can think outside the square and try something.’ Late in ’95, Neale’s year with the Dockers attracted the attention of Richmond’s embattled board, which was dealing with John Northey’s decision to quit the club and join Brisbane, whose senior coaching position had been vacated by Robert Walls. Neale flew to Melbourne for an interview with a high-ranking Tigers administrator, although the media was already reporting the job would be given to Walls. ‘Why are you even interviewing me?’ Neale asked early in the meeting. ‘While I’m here, no Carlton c*** will ever coach the mighty Tigers,’ came the reply. A day or two later, Neale read about the appointment of Walls in a newspaper. ‘The whole thing was bullshit,’ he chuckled to himself. While he remained with the Dockers for two more seasons, Neale ended up coaching a team of his own anyway. In 1996, the AFL gave him the job of replacing Rodney Eade as coach of the Allies, a composite State of Origin side. Made up of players from New South Wales, ACT, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the Allies had the potential to field an all-star line-up, given that superstars like James Hird and Wayne Carey were eligible to represent them. Alas, the concept failed to win the support of many league coaches and Neale had to make do with a slightly less glamorous squad. It did contain Matthew Richardson, Nathan Buckley and Shane Crawford, but also

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Jamie Shanahan, Ben Doolan and Ryan O’Connor. Neale’s first match in charge was an overly hyped clash with Victoria at the MCG. It was hoped the game would revive interest in state footy but instead it confirmed that the concept was dead. Only 35 000 people turned out and they saw a lacklustre affair. The Vics led by eight goals at half-time and cruised to a 53-point win. Neale took the loss in his stride. Back in Perth, he continued to work on his plan to win a senior coaching position in the near future. In 1997 he guided the Allies for a second time. This match, against Western Australia at Subiaco Oval, proved a better advertisement for Neale’s credentials. Inspired by Buckley, the Allies defeated the Sandgropers by eight points. ‘That gave me a taste,’ Neale reflects. ‘It got my name up there a little bit.’ Meanwhile, some changes were taking place back at the farm. For the first time since Terry’s birth in 1957, Jim and Edna had the house at Hillview to themselves. Now both in their sixties, they became empty nesters when Fiona, the youngest of their 11 children, began attending boarding school in Wagga. Initially, Fiona returned to Ungarie on many weekends, where she played netball and enjoyed bonding with her dad while watching the local footy. However, upon finishing her HSC in 1994, she moved to Melbourne and her visits to the farm became rare. ‘Dad and I used to go to the football every Saturday,’ Fiona says. ‘He’d take me everywhere. Even when I go home now we always go to the footy together. That was just our time I suppose. Now he was going on his own.’ After nearly four decades of caring for kids, it was a strange new situation for Edna as well. ‘When you’ve got kids, everything socially revolves around them,’ says Nerolee, the second-youngest. ‘All of a sudden they went, “What are we going to do?” I think Mum, initially, was lonely. But I don’t think it was just when they had an empty house. When it got down to two of us girls left it was really quiet.’ Fiona agrees. ‘I think it was hard for Mum more so. I think she liked having the daughters around her.’ Jim and Edna’s relationship also had to evolve. ‘They had to communicate with each other again,’ jokes Fiona. Adds Nerolee: ‘Yeah, they had to get to know each other again!’ All was not quiet in Ungarie for long. Julie, daughter number five, moved back from Canberra and married local farmer Mark

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Cornell. Within two years there was a grandchild close by. Jim and Edna often travelled two hours east to see their grandkids in Wagga, where Terry’s performances on the footy field suggested he might really play forever. In the 1994 season he had done it all. He coached Wagga Tigers to a second successive flag, booting eight goals in the grand final. Alternating between the ruck and centre half-forward, Terry also won the Riverina league’s best-and-fairest award, was voted Wagga’s club champion, and was the Tigers’ leading goal kicker. All this at the age of 37. The team’s success came despite Wagga losing ten of its ’93 premierships players, including Paul Hawke, to Tatura in the Goulburn Valley League. ‘The reason the Tigers were so strong was because we always had great kids coming through from the juniors,’ Terry says. Wagga’s administrators never underestimated Terry’s influence. ‘Scribes from every paper in the country have sung his praise,’ wrote president Robert Hughes in the Tigers’ annual report. ‘But none have had the opportunity to witness first hand what we at Tigers have over the past two years. Terry has brought to the club a sense of professionalism and dedication that we have never had. This has rubbed off not only on the players but on the committee and support staff as well and back-to-back premierships have been the reward.’ On top of his efforts with Wagga, Terry coached a New South Wales state team in a game against Queensland’s best non-elite players at the Gabba. And he led the Riverina League to victory in the New South Wales State Championships. Terry was having such a great time he signed on with the Tigers for 1995. That year, Wagga won its way straight through to the grand final, so Terry brought his players together on their week off for what he said would be a ‘light training run’. As Terry and the boys jogged over to a steep incline known within the club as ‘Daniher Hill’, Tigers president Robert Hughes watched on. ‘Well bugger me, they came back from this light training run and to a man said they wished they’d been playing,’ Hughes says. ‘He bloody near killed them. I reckon they went up and down the hill 20 times. They crawled back into Robertson Oval.’ The reward was a hat-trick of premierships. For the third year in a row they beat Turvey Park (which had future Geelong premiership

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player Cameron Mooney running around in its juniors) in the big game, this time by just 12 points. Having turned 38, Terry was no closer to retirement. ‘Whenever he ran out there he was a 220 percent player,’ says Doug Priest. ‘He led by example. He didn’t ask anyone to do anything he wasn’t prepared to do. Usually everyone was flat out keeping up with him.’ It was not just as a player where Terry threw himself into the fray. ‘I remember one day at East Wagga when the reserves umpire didn’t turn up,’ says Hughes. ‘Next thing Terry’s over the fence and umpiring the reserves. While he was doing that his young bloke, Steven, climbed into the car. Terry was directing the game and bellowing at the same time to Steven “Get out of the bloody car!’’ ’ On other occasions, Terry’s people skills endeared him to many opposition supporters and players. ‘I took particular notice of him one day when he walked into the clubrooms after we played Coolamon,’ Hughes recalls. ‘You normally go straight in and have a beer. He put his bag down and walked straight over to a group of Coolamon kids who’d played first grade that day. He stood there and talked to them. He didn’t even look like going to get a beer. I thought to myself “What a fantastic bit of PR.” And I don’t think he did it for PR purposes. That was him. He could talk to anybody about anything. These young fellas were just in awe of him. He must have made those kids feel 20 feet tall.’ On the field, Terry’s dream run finally came to an end in 1996 when Wagga was thrashed by Ganmain–Grong Grong–Matong in the grand final. ‘Geez the crowd gave it to us that day,’ Terry chuckles. ‘Ganmain was just a bit good. They had a top side.’ It was a rare failure in Terry’s time with the club. Some solid recruiting returned the Tigers to the top of the pile and they gained revenge by defeating GGGM on the last Sunday in September a year later. Terry’s record stood at four flags in five years. Amid the celebrations he was sounded out by SANFL club Woodville–West Torrens, which needed a new senior coach. Unsure about the merits of moving his young family to South Australia, Terry initially knocked back the chance to be interviewed. By the time he decided to meet with Eagles officials the job had already been offered to former Brisbane Bears and Adelaide Crows ruckman Mark Mickan. When Mickan accepted the position, Terry returned his

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focus to Wagga. He agreed to saddle up for a sixth Riverina League season, during which he would celebrate his fortieth birthday. By then, Chris was on his way home from the big smoke. The last of Jim and Edna’s boys to pull on an Essendon jumper, he had thoroughly enjoyed his final four years with the Bombers, even though the period immediately after the fairytale 1993 premiership did not start well. A series of injuries led to Chris missing the ’94 pre-season grand final win over Adelaide, which confirmed the Dons as hot flag favourites. He then failed to gain a position in the senior team until round 12. Chris made up for the slow start by featuring in all the remaining matches, where he usually lined up on the half-back flank or tagged one of the opposition’s best midfielders. He was among the few players to improve their standing in the supporters’ eyes as the Bombers tumbled down the ladder and missed the finals. Amid the hard slog of a largely disappointing season, Chris never forgot his ties to home. Following a Friday night loss to Collingwood in which Anthony made his last senior appearance, he made the long trek back to the Riverina where he was the star attraction at the Coolamon Football Club’s centenary celebrations. It was a big effort. Chris had only played nine games for the club in 1986 before joining Essendon. ‘Melbourne is not a great place to be after you get beaten by Collingwood so I am happy to be at Coolamon today,’ Chris told the crowd. Earlier in the day he had conducted a clinic for a host of juniors, enhancing the Danihers’ reputation for putting plenty back into the game. A passionate backer of the youngest Daniher brother, Sheedy was not surprised when Chris enjoyed his most consistent run of form during the next two years. Chris and Sharlene were married amid the heat of a Mallee summer – 1995 began on a high. The service was held at the Catholic Church in Ouyen, then the reception took place at the local hall in Sharlene’s home town of Walpeup. It was the biggest party held in the tiny outpost for many years. Chris went on to play 21 games in the seniors, including the round 1 massacre of Fitzroy in which the Lions did not score in the first half. He also featured in the first Anzac Day match against Collingwood, which ended in a draw. The huge crowd and gripping contest paved the way for the Bombers and

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Magpies to become regular combatants on Australia’s most revered day of wartime remembrance. A welcome distraction from football came when Chris and Sharlene welcomed into the world their first-born son, Callum, and the good news continued when Essendon sewed up a place in the top eight. Chris was a solid contributor in a lacklustre qualifying final win over West Coast at Waverley Park, but he missed the semi-final meeting with a resurgent Richmond due to another injury. The Bombers could have done with a dose of his hardness, as the Tigers, inspired by Matthew Knights, came from 31 points down at half-time to score a memorable 13-point victory. ‘I normally tagged Knights,’ Chris admits. ‘It was a bad way to finish the year. There’s nothing worse than being injured and finishing with a loss.’ The 1996 season was the personal high-point of Chris’s elite footy career. With a solid pre-season under his belt, he started strongly, tagging Knights out of the game in round 1 as Essendon exacted some revenge for its embarrassing loss six months earlier. In response, Sunday Herald Sun reporter Glenn McFarlane wrote a feature article detailing the veteran’s long battle to make the grade. ‘I’m not the greatest footballer in the world, but I love it,’ Chris told McFarlane. ‘And I realise that I am living in my brothers’ shadows. Football has been good for me. I love the social side, I love doing the training and then getting out and having a few beers with the boys after the game.’ Sheedy added some praise: ‘Chris has been a very good team player, a great clubman. Being the last of the Danihers would not be easy but his record is good.’ Chris also stated his desire to take over the farm once his playing days were over. ‘Dad is getting on a bit and he needs a hand, so I will return home,’ he said. Unlike Terry, who for many years said the same thing, Chris was adamant about heading back to the property at Ungarie. Having married a country girl, he knew it was going to happen. Thereafter, Chris was regularly among the Bombers’ best players, making 19 senior appearances during ’96. He was best-on-ground in the return battle with Richmond, when he shut down Paul Broderick and collected 26 possessions of his own. His two goals against Geelong in the VFL/AFL centenary match drew more kudos, while the blanketing

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job on North Melbourne wingman Wayne Schwass in the wet at the MCG was another highly regarded effort. The clash with St Kilda at Waverley Park also stood out. On that landmark Saturday night, Chris was given the big task of tagging Robert Harvey. ‘I was going alright on him actually,’ recalls Chris. ‘Then halfway through the second quarter he started getting away, he just ran that hard. He used to turn around and smile at me. They were the little mind games we used to play.’ There was nothing strange about Harvey collecting a mountain of possessions but what happened in the third quarter was unprecedented. With the Bombers 20 points up late in the third term, the lights suddenly went out. ‘I remember coming back out into the race because it was dark in the rooms as well,’ Chris says. ‘It was absolutely pitch black. We stood there for a while waiting to see what would happen.’ While they awaited a re-start, some restless fans snapped off a point post and paraded it around the ground. Another group lit a fire in the outer. Eventually the game was abandoned for the evening. After much deliberation the AFL commission decided the contest would conclude with two 12-minutes periods the following Tuesday night. It was an altogether farcical situation. Injuries meant the two teams which ran out for the resumption three days later were not the same as those originally selected. Chris was among those unable to front up, due to a back problem. Nevertheless, Essendon held on and won by 22 points. Amid all those memorable occasions, Chris achieved a long-held ambition by becoming the third Daniher to play 100 games, when the Bombers tackled Hawthorn at the MCG in round 13. The mere fact that he made it to the milestone was remarkable enough. Chris’s century of appearances came in his tenth season at the Bombers, by which time he was 30 years old. In the lead-up, Mike Sheahan interviewed Terry about his little brother’s achievement. ‘Chrissy’s done a bloody good job to get to the hundred,’ Terry remarked. ‘It’s been pretty tough for him. It’s just a credit to him; he’s always put the work in. He works hard and he just goes out and he just bloody plays.’ Bombers assistant coach David Wheadon agreed. ‘He really hasn’t had a bad game this year,’ Wheadon told Sheahan. ‘He’s a great worker, a great runner with tremendous aerobic capacity. He’s an exceptionally strong and brave

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mark and he can kick goals.’ So why had he not played more often? Sheahan summed it up. He wrote: ‘His deficiency, for want of a better word, is the mix of an awkward size (183 cm) and pace that’s no more than adequate.’ Before the game Chris received a congratulatory letter from Ian Collins, the AFL general manager, and a fax from Melbourne rover Alastair Clarkson, who wrote: CD, Congratulations on reaching 100 games; a legacy of fantastic courage and commitment. Very few players get the opportunity to play in a premiership and play 100 games of league footy, and you have managed to do both. All the best for the rest of the season. Al Clarkson

On Saturday 30 June, with Jim, Edna, Anthony and many of his sisters and their families in the stands, Chris ran through a giant banner prepared by the Essendon cheer squad. It read: GOOD ON YA MATE! CHRIS DANIHER 100 GAMES FOR OUR MR RELIABLE

A bloke like Chris was never going to be distracted by all the attention. He simply put his head down and got the job done. In another impressive display, he had 17 touches, booted two goals and was named among the Bombers’ best, behind only James Hird, who would later win the Brownlow Medal, and defender Dustin Fletcher. After the big day, Edna left a message for her youngest son in a scrapbook she was preparing for him. ‘Well done Chris for your tireless determination and courage. Hoping now luck with no injuries will see you through 1997 and beyond. Love Mum.’ Inspired by the brilliance of Hird, Essendon finished the home-and-away rounds in sixth place on the ladder. However, Chris’s dream run had come to an end when he broke his jaw on the eve

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of September. As a result he missed the Bombers’ one-point loss to Brisbane in a qualifying final at the Gabba. Back to his default position of battling adversity, he played in the reserves second semi-final at the MCG the following week while wearing a boxing head-guard. Later that afternoon the senior side thumped West Coast, delighting more than 85 000 jacket-waving fans. That set up a preliminary final meeting with Sydney. Chris trained his heart out and Sheedy rewarded him with a place in the team to play the Swans. With a berth in the biggest game of the year on the line, the coach knew it would be a physical game. He needed blokes like Chris. ‘No-one in the side was tougher than Chris,’ Sheedy says. ‘He’d be going back into packs taking those high balls, putting his body on the line. Chris was T-U-F-F! We admired that in Chris.’ A full house of nearly 42 000 people packed into the SCG for the much anticipated contest. It proved to be a classic. Chris was in the thick of the action and with four minutes to go he was set to play in his third grand final. Essendon had maintained its intensity despite the loss of young forward Matthew Lloyd, who was in hospital with a ruptured spleen. The Bombers led by two goals when suddenly the game turned. The Swans narrowed the margin to six points. Then, in the next passage of play, Tony Lockett passed the ball to Daryn Cresswell and kicked truly, levelling the scores. In the final 60 seconds, both teams had chances to steal victory. Finally, Wade Chapman found Lockett, 55 metres out. The siren sounded. Lockett had been suffering groin problems for many weeks. Could he make the distance? As thousands of newly converted Aussie Rules fans held their breath, the big fullforward booted one of the most famous behinds in the game’s history. Sydney won by that single point. The Bombers’ season was finished. Heading into 1997, Chris was unsure how long he had left at the highest level. But he started the year well, kicking three goals in Essendon’s practice match victory over the Swans in Hobart. Feeling fit and fresh, he won selection in each of the first 11 home-and-away games. And his form was solid as the Bombers started with successive wins over Carlton and new boys Port Adelaide. He was among his team’s best in a narrow loss to Geelong and backed up with a notable performance in the Anzac Day game. Again Essendon was defeated.

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The Dons’ season slowly fell apart, although Chris was impressive right through the first half. The finals were out of reach. Issues with an ageing body and declining form sidelined Chris for five weeks before he returned to the senior team in round 17, found his spark, and played out the remainder of the year. Essendon ended its campaign with a four-point win over Adelaide at Princes Park. The crowd was hushed prior to the opening bounce when it was announced that Princess Diana had died in a car accident. But the fans found their voice later in the day to farewell retiring triple premiership player Mark Harvey. The oft-injured, ultra-courageous defender was chaired from the field, as was Sheedy, who had coached his 400th game. Chris relaxed with a few beers, hopeful he could go on for another season. Two months later Chris began pre-season training. Approaching his 32nd birthday, he remained fitter than many of his more junior team-mates. But deep down he felt Essendon’s poor performance in ’97 might lead Sheedy to embark on another youth policy. With the club’s list needing to be finalised by 31 October, Chris decided it was time for a chat with the boss. Over a cup of coffee, he posed the question: ‘Am I likely to play 10 or 11 games in the seniors next year?’ Sheedy was brutally honest. The answer was no. There was no bitterness from Chris. His coach had kept faith in him for 11 seasons when most other coaches would have sent him back to the bush much earlier. Soon after, Chris announced his retirement. ‘Neale gave me a few hints,’ he reflects. ‘It’s such a big part of your life, it’s really hard to say that’s enough. I was a bloke who really craved footy. I just loved it that much, I wanted to keep going. But I knew I’d had a terrific run at Essendon. It was time to move on.’ The news filtered out to the rest of his family. Nerolee and Angela recall being ‘quite sombre about the whole thing’. Sitting at her desk in a city office, Fiona found out when a work colleague handed her a list of the day’s headlines, printed off the teletext service. ‘It said “Chris Daniher retires”,’ she remembers. ‘I was staring at it for ages. I was going, “What do you mean?” I always thought there’d be someone playing forever. I know that doesn’t make any sense. But since I was born there had always been someone playing. I just took it for granted. Then it was really over.’

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Sheedy looks back on Chris’s career with nothing but admiration. He saw a lot of himself in the youngest Daniher: a bloke without the finest skills, height or pace, just a fierce desire to succeed. ‘Chris had talent, don’t worry about that,’ Sheedy says. ‘He had a bit more than me. But he was tough — tough as the whole lot of ’em. He might not have been able to kick goals like Terry, or make great decisions like Neale, or have a long, raking kick like Anthony, but geez he was tough. He was not going to win a best-and-fairest or All-Australian — all the others did that. But he got a premiership. And he deserved it.’ With a combined 752 VFL/AFL games the Danihers set a new record for the most appearances by a set of brothers. They broke the previous mark of 710 set by Simon and Justin Madden. Amid the reflections, now it was all over, their sisters penned a letter that was published in the Herald Sun. We would like to pay tribute to our four brothers — Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris Daniher — who, for as long as we can remember have entertained us on a Saturday afternoon with their football abilities. Last Friday, Chris, the youngest, announced his retirement from AFL football. This ends a family involvement that started with Terry as an 18-year-old 22 years ago. In those years we shared the highs of winning grand finals, the lows of repeated knee reconstructions, suspensions, and witnessed the effort and sacrifice that was needed in order to take your place in the first 18. No longer will our mother, Edna, have to leave the family lounge room on a cold, wintry Saturday afternoon, when the game is tight, to mow the lawn and weed the garden. No longer will we have to tape the Saturday game for our father, Jim, as he headed into town to watch Ungarie do battle so that we could all watch a re-run that night and again after Mass on a Sunday. I guess we’ll be heading for the drawer that contains copies of that famous Carlton game when Neale managed to kick the last two goals to snatch victory. Or even better still, when the boys represented NSW and beat Victoria on that cold, wet evening at the SCG. So many great memories. If only those seven girls had been boys, Jim. Just think of it. To Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris, thanks for sharing your god-given talents with us all. Colleen, Estelle, Dorothy, Angela, Julie, Nerolee, and Fiona Daniher

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With that, Chris ended his days as a window cleaner and floor scrubber, leaving the business to Anthony, who would expand it greatly in the coming years. He, Sharlene, Callum and their newlyborn second son, Harvey, packed their bags and headed for the farm at Ungarie. They arrived just in time for harvest. Driving tractors, chasing sheep, monitoring wheat prices and playing bush footy would be Chris’s new life. Jim and Edna were delighted. They now had grandchildren right next door. Back in Melbourne, the Daniher era on the field was finished. Off it, a new one was about to begin.

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y september 1997, Neale Daniher’s coaching apprenticeship

amounted to five years working under Kevin Sheedy at Essendon, three with Gerard Neesham at Fremantle and two games in charge of the Allies. There was no doubt he was ready to take on a top job and the sacking of Neil Balme by Melbourne midway through the ’97 season had created an opportunity. Neale was contacted by chief executive Cameron Schwab, who he had previously worked alongside at the Dockers. He agreed to be interviewed for the position, yet he was concerned by the parlous state of the Demons’ affairs both on and off the field. ‘Why would I want to go and stake my reputation with you mob?’ he said to Schwab. A year earlier, Melbourne’s members had voted to merge with Hawthorn, only for the Hawks’ supporters to unanimously reject the proposal. The club was eventually saved by mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, a Jewish multi-millionaire dubbed ‘Diamond Joe’ by the media. An injection of Gutnick’s cash kept the club afloat but finishing on the bottom of the ladder in ’97 — four wins behind its nearest rival — meant the future looked bleak. The failed merger had left deep scars among the supporter base, past players and administrators. Internal brawling and point-scoring between the pro- and anti-merger factions was a constant distraction for those trying to move the organisation forward. Melbourne was a barely recognisable shadow of the club which had dominated in the VFL in the 1950s and 60s when Norm Smith and

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Ron Barassi had led it to six premierships in ten seasons. Membership now stood at a paltry 15 350 (it had been just 9544 two years before). Despite this, four applicants emerged for the senior coaching position: Neale, Sydney assistant Damian Drum, Hawthorn assistant Peter Schwab and Melbourne caretaker Greg Hutchison, who had led the senior team through the latter part of the season following Balme’s departure. In a break with tradition, the Demons decided to put each contender through a rigorous evaluation involving psychological profiling. ‘Before it was just a matter of sitting down for a cup of coffee and a sandwich,’ Neale says. ‘They just ask, “What do you think?” Now we’ve got these processes for selecting coaches. Melbourne was probably the first to use it.’ During the long-winded interview process, Gutnick publicly backed Hutchison. However, Neale’s chances increased dramatically when the Demons poached Essendon football manager Danny Corcoran. In the end, one candidate stood out above the rest. Neale was called to Gutnick’s palatial office in the city for a final chat. The two men took a seat by the enormous boardroom table. The president had a few final questions. ‘What if it is round 10, 1998, and the Demons have won only one game?’ he asked. ‘What if the team is faltering and the fans are screaming? What will you do then?’ Neale looked him in the eye. ‘Joseph,’ he began with his customary drawl. ‘Don’t worry about me, mate. What will you do?’ Gutnick appreciated Neale’s steely self-confidence. The exchange confirmed to him that the process had highlighted the right man. ‘When we first interviewed Neale, one of the things that grabbed us was he was so ambitious,’ Gutnick later told the Herald Sun’s Trevor Grant. ‘You saw in his eyes tremendous motivation, ambition, dedication.’ Neale was offered a two-year contract and accepted on the spot. Melbourne’s troubles were pushed to the back of his mind. ‘I was just happy to get the job,’ he remembers. ‘It’s hard to get an AFL job. I’d been given an opportunity and that was fantastic. Oldest club in the world. I thought, “How lucky am I?” ’ The boy from Ungarie had joined the bluebloods. The following day Neale fronted a press conference. Sitting alongside Schwab, Gutnick and new chairman of selectors Greg Healy, he looked happy and youthful. At 36 years of age, he was little

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older than some of the veterans on his playing list. Neale told the media he would bring ‘basically an attacking style of good honest footy’ to the Demons. He would mix a bit of the old Essendon with some innovations from his time at Fremantle. Asked if his dashed hopes as a player were driving him, Neale responded tersely: ‘It was disappointing the way my own football ended. But I’ve always just moved onto the next thing. So to suggest, as I’ve heard, there’s this bitterness in me and I’m striving . . . that’s just a load of crap.’ In the coming week, Hutchison signed on as an assistant and Tasmanian Chris Fagan was appointed reserves coach. ‘I sent my CV off to them and was asked to have an interview,’ Fagan recalls. ‘Then I was sitting on the ferris wheel at the North Hobart Show and Neale rang to say, “You better have a talk to your missus. There’s a fair chance you might get this job so you better work out whether you want to come over.” ’ Former player Stephen Newport was made welfare manager, while the recently retired Alastair Clarkson began overseeing physical education. As Neale and his team got down to business, the club’s dire problems quickly emerged. ‘They’d just come through the merger thing and they were broke,’ Neale recalls. ‘Facilities-wise, future-wise and funding-wise they were in a lot of trouble.’ So thin were the resources on offer, Melbourne did not own a functioning video player. At the same time, Essendon had its own video room (thanks to Neale) and two full-time technicians. The Demons did not have a fully-equipped gym. Their first full-time recruiting officer, ex-Fremantle talent scout Craig Cameron, had only recently been appointed. Neale was aware that ‘the list was old, tired and broken down’ and a number of players were soon retired or culled. Andrew Obst voluntarily ended his career while Robert Pyman, Darren O’Brien and Shaun Charles were among those axed or traded. Nathan Bassett was sent to Adelaide in exchange for small forward Matthew Collins after telling Neale he did not want to play for the Demons. Bassett later became a star at the Crows, winning All-Australian selection in 2006. When the dirty work was done, Neale and his support staff lured young ruckman Jeff White from the Dockers and defender Jamie Shanahan from St Kilda. To top it off, Melbourne had the first selection in the National Draft. Midfielder Travis Johnstone was chosen

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ahead of skinny South Australian ruckman Brad Ottens. Lower down, the Demons found a couple of bargains, snaring Nathan Brown with pick 66 and Guy Rigoni at 77. Neale now believed his squad had the firepower to make some significant improvement, although the lack of experienced players in their mid-twenties, known inside the club as its ‘black hole’, concerned him greatly. Neale initially punished his men on the track. ‘I perceived a little softness in the group, in the way they prepared,’ he recalls. ‘The culture of training changed. We had to be more brutal.’ There was no mucking around. Hard work, and lots of it, was needed to bring the Demons back to life. ‘He was a man on a mission,’ says Fagan. ‘When he first came in it was “my way or the highway”.’ David Neitz discovered straight away that Neale was deadly serious about turning the club’s fortunes around. ‘Between the ’97 and ’98 seasons about 10 or 12 of the blokes bought bikes,’ Neitz reveals. ‘We were doing a lot of cycling and cross-training. We all spent $2000 on the latest whiz-bang machines. As soon as Danners got appointed he said, “Boys, you don’t ride bikes on the footy field. It’s a running game, so we’ll run.” The guys were shattered. We’d just bought these brand-spankers. As soon as training started he certainly put a few rockets up a few guys.’ Not everyone found the new coach a breath of fresh air. ‘He gave me and Neitzy a big spray in the first session for not doing a handball drill how he would have liked,’ remembers David Schwarz. Given they had both suffered the heartbreak of going through three knee reconstructions, Schwarz expected he and Neale might have enjoyed a positive relationship. That was not the case. ‘I have a lot of respect for him but when I was playing I thought he was the biggest c*** I’d ever met,’ says Schwarz. ‘Especially coming after Neil Balme, who was the best bloke ever. We didn’t click at all, we were different characters. Neale Daniher wanted everyone to follow his rules. He liked the blokes that didn’t say much but did everything he asked. I was a bit more of an extrovert. At the same time I had a lot of issues going on in my life, like gambling and so forth, which he didn’t know about, so I was pretty mixed up. We had a lot of clashes along the journey. He was pretty religious, didn’t drink a lot, didn’t socialise a lot, didn’t gamble. When I was going through footy that was my life.’

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Yet Schwarz and his team-mates were won over by the most innovative aspect of Melbourne’s pre-season. Along with improving their fitness, Neale was adamant that all players would be fully versed in his game plan by the opening bounce of round 1. During January the club conducted its pre-season training at Caulfield Grammar, a well-heeled school in Melbourne’s south-east. The new venue was chosen not just because it had lush sports fields. Neale literally wanted to take his men back to school. ‘We needed to teach them, so we taught them and they learnt,’ he says pragmatically. ‘We put them through a university-style full-time program.’ The lads attended lectures where Neale and his coaching staff instructed them on how the team was going to play. ‘We found out then he was really determined and had a very good footy brain,’ Schwarz says. ‘He said, “Right, the backs do this, the forwards do this, the mids do this and the rucks do this. And if one of you blokes breaks down we’re finished.” We had game plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D. We were tested on it. I thought that was great. The new pricks coming in each year, they learned it. That’s how we knew we were on the same page. It was clean, it was clear and it was concise. We never, ever went into a game under-prepared.’ Footy 101, as Fagan refers to the studies, was vital for the assistant coaches as well. ‘It was great for me because coaching the reserves and being the development coach, I needed to replicate his style of play exactly,’ says Fagan. ‘In his own way Neale was not just educating the players, but everyone around him about how he wanted things done.’ There were some humorous moments during this period of intense learning. One afternoon Neale told the group it was ‘time to set the standards for the year’. He made his men watch a wildlife documentary about the feeding habits of lions in Africa. The video demonstrated how when an antelope was caught, in Neale’s words, ‘it gave up the ghost’. But when a water buffalo was attacked it shook its big head and horns and went down fighting. ‘We’re the water buffaloes,’ Neale declared. ‘That’s what we’re going to be. Don’t you ever not run straight at the footy and don’t ever give up.’ The water buffalo became the team’s mascot for the year. Both Neale and the players often referred to it before games. ‘The boys loved that one,’ Neitz says. When the indoor studies were completed each day, they hit the

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training track. It was an all-consuming commitment to footy. Of the few players who still had regular jobs — Glenn Lovett was a marketing executive at Nike, while Anthony McDonald worked for an accounting firm — most decided to quit those roles. In the early days of the Daniher regime, previous performances won no favours. ‘We had some older blokes on their last legs — Stynes, Lyon, Tingay and Viney,’ Neale says. ‘They were fantastic. Terrific people. But I really challenged them, really came in and said, “This is the way we’re going to play.”’ Star forward Garry Lyon had been on the sidelines with back problems for much of 1997. Neale refused to nurse him through the summer. ‘He hit us right between the eyes at our very first meeting with a brutal assessment of where we were as a club,’ Lyon would later say. ‘The thing that struck me was just how ready he was. There was a distinct lack of self-doubt. Some of the sprays he delivered early on set a new standard.’ On the eve of the first serious hit-out for the year Lyon received an even greater shock when he was stripped of the captaincy and replaced by Todd Viney. Neale wanted his skipper on the field every week. Lyon had not convinced him his body was up to the task. By the beginning of the Ansett Cup, Melbourne’s players were fit and had an in-depth understanding of their new game style. They travelled to Wellington in New Zealand for their opening pre-season match against Sydney. ‘He lost his voice at half-time because he went berserk at Neitz and Farmer. Greg Hutchison had to finish it off,’ recalls Schwarz. Neitz has similar memories. ‘Jeff Farmer didn’t even get any instructions whatsoever,’ he remembers. ‘It was just “Wizaaaard, Wizaaaaaaard, Wizaaaaaaaaard!” Everyone looked at each other and went, “Holy crap, what’s going on here?” ’ However, the Demons won, thanks to their fearsome attack on the ball and rapid delivery into the forward line. They won their quarter-final against the Western Bulldogs before being knocked out of the competition by St Kilda. The experts had seen enough to suggest they might just be a renewed force. ‘An equal number of wins and losses is not beyond the Dees,’ Robert Walls wrote in The Age. Fellow analyst Stephen Reilly predicted ‘the Demons will be many things this year; inconsistent, respected and occasionally brilliant. But not finalists.’

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Melbourne began its 1998 home-and-away campaign at Subiaco Oval against Fremantle. The coaching duel contained as much intrigue as the game, with Neale trying to outdo his former boss, Gerard Neesham. On a baking hot day, the Dockers took the points. Students of the game noted that the Demons’ habit of crowding numbers into defence, then rushing the ball forward by carrying it through the middle of the ground, bore many similarities to the style of their opponents. ‘Neale was a coach who changed the way footy was played,’ says Corcoran. ‘And he did it at a club that was battling to make ends meet.’ Round 2 presented an even tougher challenge: North Melbourne at the MCG. Farmer, Schwarz and Lyon were all inspirational as the underdogs prevailed by four goals. The win instilled a sense of confidence in the group that remained even after Neitz broke his ankle and Jim Stynes his hand during a thrilling two-point victory over Carlton at Princes Park. Deep into the final quarter the Demons had been three goals down before Lyon lifted the team by laying a bonecrunching tackle. The scenes in the rooms afterwards were reminiscent of a grand final celebration. Gutnick was in the thick of it. ‘The biggest win we’ve had for three years,’ declared Stynes. The incredibly durable ruckman was forced to sit out the following match, ending his recordbreaking run of 244 straight, dating back to 1988. Neale’s standing in the game grew as the Demons became the feel-good story of ’98. They lost to Essendon in Neale’s first coaching battle with Kevin Sheedy, but the old master responded by writing in his column for the Australian that his protégé was ‘the AFL’s next legendary coach’. By the mid-point of the season they had beaten Brisbane at the Gabba and Sydney at the SCG, and were sitting pretty in the top four. ‘A lot of the blokes were coming back from injury or discarded by other clubs or not rated,’ Neale says. ‘I used that as a theme. They had something to prove. It was us against them. In the end we had a real energy that year.’ Neale set about creating a feeling of inclusion at the club. ‘There’d been so much blood spilt and so many battles fought through the whole merger thing that I had to try and bring them all together,’ he says. ‘As an outsider I was trying to fix up a fractured and broken organisation. Half the members had tried to get rid of the club. We had

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to do a mountain of bridge building.’ He invited Gutnick to watch the eagerly awaited meeting with Collingwood from the coach’s box. It was a smart move. The president had been openly critical of Balme a year prior and Neale knew the importance of keeping him onside. After the Demons won by three points, Gutnick said ‘It was a great experience for me to see how it works and only confirms to me that Neale Daniher’s a great coach and is a real part of the Melbourne turnaround.’ Neale’s efforts to bring the club together prevented another outbreak of internal warfare when the revival hit a snag. A form slump and injury crisis combined to deliver Melbourne two huge losses in rounds 11 and 12. In the first, a 95-point thumping from Geelong, the Demons managed just one goal in the opening half, during which time the Cats booted 15. A week later they took on St Kilda without Stynes, Schwarz, Neitz, Shanahan, Farmer and Glenn Lovett, and suffered a similar humiliation. At the long break in that game, the Saints led 11.8 to 2.5. The final margin was 85 points. ‘Coming from the farm, you don’t take anything for granted,’ Neale later told Age writer Greg Baum. ‘All you can do is work your butt off and if it doesn’t rain you’re stuffed. Sometimes footy coaching’s like that. You do everything you can but you might lose two or three players; you can’t control that. It’s like the rain.’ Fans of the red and blue feared another massacre in round 13, when the Demons travelled to Perth for a clash with West Coast. His team was given no hope of even being competitive, yet the afternoon at Subiaco Oval proved one of the most memorable in Neale’s playing and coaching career. Trailing by ten points at half-time, Melbourne’s inexperienced side, led by Adem Yze, Viney, White and injury-prone wingman Stephen Tingay, fought back to lead at the last change. In a see-sawing final quarter, young Tasmanian Russell Robertson stole victory for the Demons with two goals. It was just his ninth game of AFL footy. When the siren sounded Neale raced onto the field and hugged his players. He was ecstatic. The contrast with Eagles coach Mick Malthouse could not have been greater. ‘The worst thing about footballers is they can read,’ Malthouse fumed to the press. ‘Mind you, some of them just get above grade three but the way you journalists write they can still follow it.’ In the visitors rooms, the Demons

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celebrated. Their season was alive again. ‘It was just unbelievable,’ Neale says. ‘And away we went.’ As the finals neared, Melbourne kept getting better. The team played a beautiful style of football: fast and flowing, the passages of play often ending with Farmer perched on his opponent’s shoulders, hauling in a screamer. By the time the Demons met Richmond in their last home-and-away game, they were guaranteed some September action for the first time since 1994. On that Sunday, the Tigers needed a win to make a rare appearance in the finals. More than 76 000 fans poured into the MCG. They saw a one-horse race. Neitz slotted five goals, as did Farmer, who also took one of his most famous marks, soaring over Lyon. Melbourne prevailed by 76 points and finished fourth on the ladder. The team had won ten more regular season matches than in ’97. ‘The game plan Neale brought to the footy club was a very bold, very aggressive take-’em-on attitude,’ says Shane Woewodin, who, at 22, was among the side’s biggest improvers after being moved from defence into a midfield tagging role. ‘It was just fantastic for our playing group. He really trusted us, really backed us in. It gave us the confidence to really take the opposition on.’ The Demons were expected to meet their match when they tackled Adelaide at the MCG in the first qualifying final, but once again they were brilliant, exciting and very effective. White was best-onground, while Farmer and Neitz kicked six goals each, as Melbourne stunned the reigning premiers, winning its sixth match in a row by 48 points. Another MCG appointment awaited, this time a knock-out clash with St Kilda. The humiliation at the hands of the Saints earlier in the year remained fresh in Neale’s mind and his worries increased when Lyon failed a fitness test and was replaced in the selected side by Johnstone. Nevertheless, Demons fans, usually maligned for their scarcity, were on the bandwagon in droves. A crowd of 88 456 turned out on a day when the warm sunshine signalled that spring had really arrived. Despite suffering a bout of goal kicking yips in the first quarter, Melbourne recovered from its early score of 1.8 to score another crushing triumph. This time the margin was 51 points. Seven victories in a row. Could the Demons pull off the unbelievable and win the premiership? ‘We believe we’re as good a team as any going around

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at the moment,’ Neale told the media after the game. Newspaper reporters compared his team to Essendon in ’93. But the AFL’s original final eight system had a habit of penalising teams that had done nothing wrong. In 1998 it dealt Neale’s side a very harsh hand. Melbourne finished higher on the ladder than the Crows and thrashed them in the first week of September. Yet the Demons had to play top team North Melbourne in their preliminary final, while Adelaide met the second-ranked Western Bulldogs. It proved a very costly situation. The Kangaroos were an almost unbeatable combination. They were never going to fill a supporting role in the unfolding fairytale. On a Friday night, under the MCG lights, Melbourne started well. Woewodin won plenty of the ball in the middle, while unfashionable defender Anthony Ingerson curbed the influence of superstar Roo Wayne Carey. At three-quarter time the contest remained up for grabs. Neale hoped for a miracle finish but in hindsight it was never going to happen. North was the toughest and most talented line-up in the competition — they won by five goals. Bitterly disappointed, Neale was proud of his boys. In climbing from 16th on the ladder in ’97 to third in ’98, they set a new record for the greatest one-season rise. Yet when Adelaide pulled off its second grand final upset in as many years, defeating the Kangaroos by 35 points, there were pangs of regret for the Demons. For a club without a flag since 1964, it was the one that got away. ‘I do think that,’ Neitz says. ‘You do look back, especially now in retirement, and think, “Oh god, that was seriously close.” I remember Todd Viney before the game saying, “This is the one, this is our chance to win the whole shebang.” It was not to be.’ Predictions rely on prior form so all the footy experts tipped Melbourne, despite the retirement of Stynes, to challenge for the premiership in 1999. ‘As crazy as this sounds, Demon coach Neale Daniher, after only one season as a senior coach, is already one of the best coaches in the competition,’ Walls declared in The Age. Herald Sun pundit Scott Gullan stated another top-four finish was likely. Everything pointed to more success. Instead, the year was a disaster. The off-field stability developed during ’98 disintegrated before round 1. The trigger was an internal investigation into player

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payments, following which Gutnick had informed the AFL his club was continually breaching the salary cap. An inquiry of its own was promptly launched by the league. Factions began developing within the Demons’ powerbrokers and Gutnick used the media to lambaste anyone who disagreed with him. Neale became increasingly frustrated with the president’s attitude. ‘He had a bit of money but he really didn’t offer anything else other than that,’ Neale says. ‘He had little understanding of the industry, little understanding of where to take the club. We had some fantastic people on the board but he didn’t offer the real leadership we needed. What we were crying out for was someone who knew how to bring the club together and someone with a sustainable business plan so we could make money outside of just winning games.’ Life for Neale only became tougher when Gutnick sacked chief executive Schwab, with whom he had enjoyed a close relationship, and replaced him with John Anderson. ‘We had a club where our administration was separate to our football department,’ Neale reflects. ‘If you wrote down all the things you wouldn’t do to be successful, Melbourne was doing them beautifully.’ Neitz says the distractions took their toll on the players’ performances. ‘Friends, family, media and all sorts of people kept talking about it,’ he says. ‘You just can’t escape it. There’s no doubt some of those things were disruptive.’ Having won four of their first seven games, the Demons prevailed in only two of the next 15. Neale’s team slumped to 14th on the ladder. Chronic injuries forced Lyon and Glenn Lovett to hang up their boots mid-season. Fellow veterans Viney, Tingay, Shanahan and Steven Febey were rarely fit. As a result, Melbourne ended its campaign with nine straight defeats. Up at Ungarie, Edna found herself spending a lot of time weeding the garden. She felt every loss as much as her son did. For one of the few times in his life, Neale began doubting his abilities. He was not ready for such a sudden reality check. ‘My expectations and those of the club were far too high when measured against reality,’ he admits. Chinks in his methods were exposed. ‘He was a very hard taskmaster and I think he felt that was vindicated by the success in ’98,’ says Chris Fagan. ‘Then we had a lot of young blokes come in and he continued with that hard-nosed, ruthless approach

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in team meetings. To be honest, sometimes he’d start delivering his feedback and I’d think, “Phew, this is pretty fierce.” I’m sure a lot of those young blokes used to cringe at the thought of team meetings.’ Neale was also trying to manage the players himself instead of delegating some responsibility to his assistant coaches. ‘That intensity was great for us in the first year, but I think he did try and take on too much,’ admits Neitz. ‘Early days he was very protective about his views and the ways he wanted things done. By then you could sense within himself it almost got too much. I think in ’99 he learnt quite a bit about himself.’ The worse things got, the more hours Neale devoted to the cause. Eventually, Greg Hutchison took him aside and said, ‘Mate, you’ve got to take a deep breath and slow down.’ Neale had to reduce his workload, but he was obsessed with the job. ‘Being a stubborn Irishman I’d say, “Bulldust, I’m just going to plough through,” ’ he revealed some months later. ‘I’m from a farming, boarding school, Christian background and one of my philosophies has always been that the harder you work the luckier you get.’ These problems would not be resolved until the season ended. Hutchison defected to Richmond anyway. Seeking a remedy, Neale trusted Fagan to help work things out. ‘The great thing about Neale was he sought feedback at the end of that year,’ Fagan says. ‘I said to him that I reckoned young people were changing and the trends in the world were more towards ownership and inclusion. He was aware of that because he’s a smart bloke. He really took that on.’ Schwarz, who the Demons attempted to offload to Richmond in exchange for Wayne Campbell at the end of 1998, was one of few players to prosper during ’99. So consistent were his efforts he won the best-and-fairest, despite feeling restricted by Neale’s stern approach. ‘It was too serious, just over the top,’ Schwarz recalls. ‘For some blokes that was fine. This is where I reckon he couldn’t hit the mark. There used to be half-a-dozen of us that loved mucking around before the game. Kicks around corners and bananas. “C’mon, switch on,” he’d be yelling at us. I didn’t want to be running through brick walls before I got out there. I wanted to be lazy. Some blokes would have their headphones on, Neitzy would be spewing up, because that’s what he

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did. We all had our own routines and he tried to make us all do the same thing. But I think as the journey went on he understood that. In his first couple of years he tried to say “You do this, you do this.” I think he eventually learned to let everyone have their own preparation.’ There were more headaches for Neale once the season ended, as the AFL soon handed down its penalty for the salary cap breaches. In all, Melbourne was fined $600 000 ($250 000 suspended) and stripped of its first selection in the ’99 national draft and its first three choices in 2000. For an organisation short on cash and in need of new talent it was a devastating penalty. Among the players taken in the first round that year were Matthew Pavlich, Joel Corey, Paul Haselby and Robert Murphy. Melbourne had to wait until pick 19, with which they selected Brad Green. Among their other choices was Cameron Bruce at number 65. Twelve months after they had almost made a grand final, Neale and his footy club were right back where they started. ‘That slide really reinforced to us how hard it was to patch up a fragmented club,’ Neale admits. ‘Our senior leaders like Lyon, Viney and Stynes were gone or going. We needed a rebuilding phase and we needed youth, but the whole business model was built around winning games. At that stage it was going to be tough to just survive.’

Jim and Edna at Princes Park

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s they celebrated Christmas at Hillview in the summer of 1999,

Neale, Terry and Chris exchanged similar tales of football woe. Chris was disappointed with his first two years back playing bush footy. His retirement from the AFL in late 1997 had started a bidding frenzy in southern New South Wales. Riverina League clubs Narrandera, Griffith, Coolamon and Temora all came forward with offers, as did Ariah Park– Mirrool, now in the lesser Farrer League. Even Wagga Tigers registered some interest, but Chris knew that joining Terry’s mob would spark an outcry. ‘They’ve won four out of five so it’s time to share it round a bit,’ he told the Daily Advertiser. ‘It is probably better for all involved if we play at different clubs.’ Family ties won out in the end. Three of Chris’s sisters — Angela, Dorothy and Colleen — were settled in Temora, a town of 4600 people, located between Ungarie and Wagga. The girls had already added to the Danihers’ immense sporting reputation by guiding Temora’s A-Grade netball team to four premierships in a row. The local footy club had struggled for some years and had a habit of losing its best young talent to Rugby League but Chris enjoyed a challenge. He signed up as the Kangaroos’ captain–coach. The arrival of Chris, talented midfielder Rob Harper from Ariah Park–Mirrool and promising youngster Lachlan Rowlings from Ungarie meant expectations were high. Wins in the opening two matches raised hopes further, before the rot set in. The

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slide began when Chris suffered a badly corked thigh and was forced to sit out the eagerly awaited first on-field battle between him and Terry. Wagga Tigers subsequently won the game by 123 points. ‘When you leave AFL footy, where you’ve got everything at your fingertips, and you come back to bush footy, where you’ve got to do everything, it’s certainly a big wake-up call,’ Chris says. ‘I was travelling so far that I couldn’t stay long after training. If you can’t spend time with your blokes you’re not going to have the camaraderie and that’s what bush footy’s all about.’ Then Chris was diagnosed with glandular fever again. Doctors ordered him to rest for six weeks. Chris felt this was impossible. He continued making the 230-kilometre round trips to take training at Temora twice a week and was frustrated when on some occasions only 14 players bothered turning up. Chris also refused to take a spell from his playing duties. Just getting to the matches was a big effort. As Temora was the northern-most club in the Riverina league, some of the trips totalled almost 500 kilometres. Feeling constantly lethargic, Chris willed himself to keep playing each Saturday. In one extraordinary afternoon at the Kangaroos’ home ground, Nixon Park, he lined up at full-forward against East Wagga–Kooringal and bagged 12 goals. On top of his commitments with Temora, it was sowing time at the farm. Chris spent countless hours on the tractor planting the winter grain crops. Sometimes he could barely keep his eyes open. But by the middle of the footy season Chris could not avoid the need to rest. Sitting on the sidelines was tough as his team struggled to be competitive. He returned in time to finally take on his big brother. Hoping for a close result, Jim and Edna parked their car by the fence at Wagga’s home ground. Instead they saw another blow-out. Chris tried valiantly, booting four of his team’s seven goals, but Terry’s men cruised to a 108-point win. Temora ended its disappointing 1998 campaign with just six victories. ‘If I had my time over again I’d do it a lot better,’ Chris admits. The club’s positive result in ’98 was on the netball court, where the three Daniher sisters combined for their fifth successive A-Grade premiership. Chris played with Temora in ’99, although he resigned as coach and was replaced by Colleen’s husband, his brother-in-law

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Paul Breust. The constant travelling had taken its toll. He wanted to spend more time with his family and working on the farm. When the new season began, Chris was refreshed. Finally free of illness, the 33-year-old had built up a solid fitness base by running through the paddocks at Ungarie. Playing in the midfield, he collected a swag of possessions each week and often kicked four or five goals. Inspired by his efforts, Temora battled its way into the top five. Late in the season the Kangaroos beat Coolamon, coached by former Adelaide defender Wayne Weidemann, and appeared set for a long-awaited appearance in the finals. Alas, they were thrashed in their final two fixtures and tumbled out of contention. Meanwhile, Terry was amassing an endless supply of happy and funny stories. In 1998, he capped off his stint with Wagga Tigers by coaching them to a fifth premiership in his sixth season at the helm. Along the way he came up against former team-mate Merv Neagle, who was halfway through a troubled stint as coach of Mangoplah– Cookardinia United. He also provided much humour for the Tigers’ players and supporters. They laughed loudest when he suffered a bout of concussion during a match against Griffith. ‘We went into the last quarter quite a few goals down but got up and won the game,’ remembers Doug Priest. However, as the team was walking from the field, Terry misread the score. He thought the Tigers had been beaten by a point. When he staggered into the sheds, he was bemused to find the boys standing in a circle, ready to sing the club song. ‘Terry went right off his nut,’ Priest says. ‘He was yelling, “What are you blokes doing? You don’t bloody sing the song when you’ve lost!”’ Priest tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Ah mate, we won the game.’ Terry’s eyes lit up. ‘What?’ he bellowed. ‘Oh well, let’s have a bloody good sing then!’ Before the Riverina League finals, Terry travelled to Melbourne where he received one of the game’s greatest honours. At the Regent Theatre, with a big tribe of Danihers watching on, Terry was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. His speech, which went on and on and on, only enhanced his legendary reputation as a top bloke. As he thanked everyone he could think of (except his wife!), Terry had the crowd in stitches. A few years in the bush had only improved his larrikin Aussie humour.

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He returned to Wagga and guided the Tigers into another grand final against Turvey Park. This one was a classic. Wagga went into the big game undefeated, yet early in the second half the Bulldogs led by 26 points. With six minutes to go they still led by eight. On a very warm day, both sides began to tire. It came down to a battle of fitness. Aged 41, Terry refused to stop running as boys less than half his age slowed to a walk. His men, who had been punished on the training track, followed his lead. They kicked two goals at the death and snatched a four-point win, ending their campaign without a loss and stretching their winning run to 29 matches. ‘At Mad Monday we were all absolutely stuffed,’ Terry recalls. ‘We could hardly lift a bloody beer. It was a very memorable win that one.’ While Terry drank from the premiership cup yet again, down at Essendon there was turmoil. Sheedy was out of contract and, for the umpteenth time, facing the sack. There had been stories of revolt among the players and assistant coaches. Some of this was eased when Mark Thompson, whose relationship with Sheedy had soured, departed to join Denis Pagan at the Kangaroos. Rather than dispense with the man at the top, Essendon’s board narrowly elected to re-sign him. Chief executive Peter Jackson and president Graeme McMahon then set about recruiting a fresh group of support staff. They believed the club needed to lure back some former players. Terry’s name was thrown into consideration, along with Paul Weston, Mark Harvey, Roger Merrett and Robert Shaw. He travelled to Melbourne for a series of interviews but he was unsure if a move back to the city was what he wanted. Some months earlier, Terry had quit his job at Wagga Motors and started his own Riverina branch of Daniher Cleaning Services. At the same time he was approached by Essendon, he had put in a tender to clean the local city council’s offices. ‘We missed out, but had I got that it could’ve swayed me into staying in Wagga and not going back to Melbourne. I might have stayed there for good. I was happy in Wagga, there was no problem there, although Gaynor was pretty keen to get back to the city with her mates. We had to make a decision because the kids were growing up quick and we wanted them to be settled in their schools.’ Terry was eventually offered and accepted the full-time position as Essendon reserves coach. Harvey and Shaw were appointed as

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senior assistants. Former football manager Kevin Egan also returned as chairman of selectors. Terry soon had his eyes on a bigger prize. ‘Who knows? Sheeds has been there for a while and in a year or two there might be an opening there,’ he told the Daily Advertiser. ‘It’s something you have to have a go at and see what happens.’ At the age of 41, Terry Daniher was forced to finally hang up his boots. For a bloke who really did want to chase a Sherrin around forever, it was a situation that took some getting used to. Having made his senior debut with Ungarie in 1973, he had been playing openage football for 25 years. His final tally of senior games — including bush footy, his years at Essendon, State of Origin appearances and the occasions he represented Australia in International Rules — was somewhere close to 600. A function (beers and a barbie) was held at the Tigers’ clubrooms to send off Terry and his family. They had made an immense contribution to the club’s most successful period. ‘He was a legend here,’ says Hughes. ‘The character of the bloke really shone out. His attitude to family, footy and the club was spot on. He taught us all a fair bit. Not just Wagga Tigers but all the clubs. They all learned they had to lift their fitness. They could see that the Tigers didn’t go out recruiting many players. We just had a lot of kids and we were fitter than everybody else.’ It was back to the big smoke for Terry, Gaynor and the four children. They bought a house in Balwyn, found new schools for the kids and readjusted to city life. Upon his return to Windy Hill, Terry made an immediate impact. During the Bombers’ pre-season he showed up many of the younger lads by completing all the fitness work. A week before the opening practice match the players were tested by new conditioning coach John Quinn. Lasting more than three hours, the testing concluded with a four kilometre time-trial. ‘In your day, TD, you would’ve kept up with us,’ James Hird said cheekily before the run. Terry subsequently completed the distance in 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Hird crossed the line in 14 minutes. Terry sidled up to the Brownlow Medallist, put an arm on his shoulder and, while grinning broadly, said: ‘Next time, son.’ Hird shook his head. Terry was only a few months away from his 42nd birthday.

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Away from the training track, Terry had much to learn. In his six years at Wagga, elite football had changed markedly. Traditions like having a beer with the opposition after the final siren were sadly long gone. During matches players were being rotated on and off the interchange to save their legs. When Terry ran out for the Bombers for the last time, you only went to the bench if you had done something wrong or were injured. All clubs were putting more time into analysis of the opposition. ‘The boring stuff’, as Terry had once called it, was now a key part of a coach’s weekly duties. For a bloke who admitted to never reading a handout written by Sheedy, Terry suddenly found himself learning to use a computer. When the season began, Terry’s approach to guiding the Bombers’ reserves was much different to the way Neale went about his business at Melbourne. He liked his boys to have a bit of a laugh before a game. When it came to pre-match speeches he urged them to ‘get stuck in’ and ‘have a bloody go’. Detailed planning was not Terry’s forte. But the young boys in the seconds looked up to him. He set an example for them at training and demanded plenty each match day. ‘I really did enjoy working with the young kids and helping them,’ Terry says. ‘I probably enjoyed that more than anything. I coached them just like I coached up home,’ Terry says. ‘I wanted to win.’ Long-time Essendon employee Colin Hooper remembers an afternoon when a teenaged top-up player copped a smack under the chin and needed 12 stitches at half-time. ‘He’s as white as a ghost and he sits down at the front of the group,’ Hooper recalls. ‘Terry looks at him and says, “Fella, you alright?” “Yeah I’m OK,” he says. Terry looks at him again and says, “Don’t you go soft on me, son!” The kid looked like he should have been in hospital!’ Terry sometimes added a few oldschool touches to his coaching. After one particularly impressive win he waited until the players had finished their fresh fruit and Powerade, then gave them all a beer. What a great year 1999 turned out to be for Essendon. Well, it almost did. The revamped coaching staff breathed new life into the club. Terry’s formidable work ethic inspired even the veterans. He spent a lot of time working one-on-one with the forwards and at one training session almost consigned Matthew Lloyd to the injury list

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when he dislocated two of the star sharp-shooter’s fingers in a marking contest. Meanwhile, Sheedy reinvented himself and the team’s game plan, again. The Bombers began kicking longer and running harder. Despite James Hird and Scott Lucas missing much of the season due to injury, they finished on top of the ladder, with an 18–4 win–loss record, having twice beaten second-placed North Melbourne. A premiership beckoned. Essendon thumped Sydney in week one of the finals, a match that was expected to be Tony Lockett’s last (he made an ill-fated comeback three years later). That meant a week’s rest before taking on Carlton in a preliminary final. The Blues had finished sixth and were rated little chance of upsetting the Bombers. On the day of the game, Terry’s first job was coaching the reserves against Melbourne. To Terry’s delight his team won through to the grand final. By the time he finished congratulating his boys and headed back to the coach’s box, it was nearly quarter time. He glanced at the scoreboard. It made for unpleasant reading. Carlton was 20 points up. At the long break the situation was worse. The hot favourites trailed 3.10 to 8.4. Sheedy was calm. There was no need to panic. Right on cue the Dons slammed on seven goals to two in the third term. They had all the momentum and one foot in the big one. What happened next still troubles all those involved. Rather than roll over, the Blues fought it out. For much of the final stanza only a few points separated the two sides. Against the flow of play, Carlton grabbed a narrow lead. With a couple of minutes remaining, Essendon’s coaches sighed with despair as Mark Mercuri missed a shot from the goal square. Then Dean Wallis tried to run around Fraser Brown and was dragged down. Valuable seconds ticked away. The Blues raced the ball forward and the siren sounded. They won by the narrowest of margins. For the second time in four seasons Essendon had lost a preliminary final by a single point. It was the first of two monumental upsets that day. Later it was confirmed that Steve Bracks and the Labor Party had defeated Jeff Kennett’s incumbent Liberal Government in the Victorian state election. ‘It was a pretty dark day,’ Terry says. ‘We would’ve won that grand final. It was just a bloody hiccup we had. We would’ve beaten North.’ The Kangaroos could not believe their luck. A week later they easily beat Carlton and collected the flag. Prior to that, Terry gained

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bragging rights at the Christmas table when he guided the Essendon reserves to a victory of their own. Terry’s team, which featured veterans Sean Denham and Ben Doolan, along with young lads Mark Bolton, Mark McVeigh, Jason Johnson and Adam Ramanauskas, beat St Kilda in a fiery affair. ‘Little Lukey Beveridge snotted Seany Denham and busted his snout,’ Terry recalls. ‘I said to Doolan, “It’s your last game mate, isn’t it? You saw what happened, square it up for us. We’re not taking any of that nonsense.” The message got to him and he had a go. We let Lukey know we weren’t going to cop that crap.’ Essendon took home the last reserves trophy, before the competition was merged with the VFA and rebranded as the Victorian Football League. The triumph continued Terry’s extraordinary run through the 1990s. It was his seventh premiership in eight years. Neale wished some of that success would begin flowing his way.

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here was little debate about Melbourne’s prospects for the

2000 season. It was unanimously agreed the Demons were in big trouble. Herald Sun journalist Mark Robinson predicted Neale’s team would take home the wooden spoon. This was hardly an outlandish statement. Melbourne had been denied a crucial draft selection and had lost inspirational veterans Garry Lyon and Todd Viney to retirement, while its board, still led by Joseph Gutnick, was in a constant state of disarray. But behind the scenes, Neale had a plan to resurrect the club’s on-field fortunes. Having learned much from the meltdown in 1999, he handed greater responsibility to his assistant coaches, a group which now included Brian Royal and recently retired players Lyon, Viney and Jim Stynes, who had all taken on part-time roles. ‘That was part of the review at the end of that year,’ says Neitz. ‘He needed to let more people in and let them be more involved. Credit to him, he realised that himself as well. One of the great things about him was although he was very determined, he always wanted to hear the feedback. Then he’d go away and make some little changes to adapt to the situation and improve.’ As the new era of openness began, the biggest challenge was filling the void left by the retirements of former captains Lyon and

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Viney. Development coach Chris Fagan came forward with a novel idea. He suggested the formation of a two-tiered ‘leadership group’. When it was formalised, David Neitz was appointed the new skipper. He headed the top tier, along with vice-captain David Schwarz and deputy vice-captains Shane Woewodin and Andrew Leoncelli. Members of the second tier were Jeff White, Jeff Farmer, Anthony Ingerson, Steven Febey, Guy Rigoni, Adem Yze, Alistair Nicholson and Jamie Shanahan. ‘We didn’t have too many leaders but we figured we could teach them and hurry that process up,’ says Fagan. ‘We set up a pre-season teams competition where we put young blokes in charge and made them compete at various things. We engaged a sports psychologist to teach them communications skills and questioning skills and listening skills and problem solving skills that leaders need.’ During the summer, these players also developed a mission statement — an idea of what their club should stand for. It was a task they took seriously. Neale urged his men to look upon this leadership change as evidence that Melbourne was making a fresh start. ‘He played on that situation really well,’ Neitz explains. ‘He was able to generate a bit of positive feeling and optimism throughout the group and that was a great effort.’ The home-and-away matches commenced three weeks earlier than usual to ensure the grand final did not clash with the Sydney Olympics. For Melbourne, desperate to erase memories of ’99, round 1 could not come quickly enough. Shortly before their opening game against Richmond, Neale organised for all the Demons’ employees — players, coaches, administrators and support staff — to gather in the middle of the MCG at 9 pm. The 1964 premiership cup, the last won by the club, was placed in the middle of the group. Footage from the ’64 grand final win over Collingwood, cut together with highlights of the present team, was played on the two big screens. Then the leadership group presented its mission statement. ‘We had five key behaviours — things like competitiveness — under that statement and each of the guys talked about what that meant in terms of performance,’ Fagan says. ‘It was symbolic I suppose but when you look back it was innovative. There was the dream in front of us. You could touch it, you could see it, you could feel it. It was pretty inspirational. It was a brave thing to do when you think that the previous year we finished down the

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bottom and it didn’t look like we had much hope. I think that’s one of the things Neale did really well at Melbourne. In lots of different ways he sold hope.’ Alas, a first-up two-point loss to Richmond meant the Demons had now lost ten games in a row. Finally, in round 2, they scored an upset win over North Melbourne thanks to six goals from recruit James Cook. The former Carlton and Western Bulldogs forward made only one additional appearance before chronic ankle problems forced him to retire. The other new boys proved much more durable. Brad Green, Cameron Bruce and Stephen Powell (a bargain trade from the Bulldogs) added some dash and polish to a team that six months prior had appeared slow and bereft of skill. Green’s accurate field kicking and supreme confidence made him an instant hit with the coaches and supporters, while Bruce played with poise and maturity. He had played against men for some years in the Victorian amateur competition, but was only 21. Although Melbourne lost to Sydney at the SCG in round 3, the match was notable for the brilliant performance of Shane Woewodin. On that Sunday afternoon, the 23-year-old struggled in the first half, before Neale moved him into the midfield and demanded he spark the team into action. He collected more than 20 possessions in the following hour. ‘That was it,’ Woewodin says. ‘It was the defining moment for me. I stayed on the ball for the rest of the year and enjoyed some real success.’ Melbourne thumped St Kilda by 90 points in round 4, a game that was the beginning of the end for Saints coach Tim Watson. By halfway through the season the Dees’ youthful team was in the top eight. It had already enjoyed six wins, the same number as in the whole of ’99. With each victory came more confidence. Gutnick and his fellow board members maintained their peace. One particular loss made the footy public take notice. In 2000, Essendon went within 11 points of going through the year undefeated. Other than the Bulldogs, who actually beat the Bombers, only Melbourne and Sydney got within three goals of them. The Demons’ effort in round 9 made Neale particularly proud. With Terry sitting in the opposition box alongside Kevin Sheedy, he was desperate

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for a solid showing against his former club. His boys went down by just 13 points. The team’s future appeared very bright. Unfortunately, a 16-goal drubbing at the hands of Carlton a month later undid much of the good work. Rather than write off the season, Neale adopted a very positive approach. ‘He gathered the group together and kept the spirits up,’ Fagan says. ‘By then he knew when to be hard and when to be soft. He could read the play. He knew 2000 was going to be a critical year for him and he adjusted. All credit to him for that.’ No-one, not even Neale and his closest confidants, expected the remainder of the season to pan out as it did. Melbourne rebounded from its embarrassing encounter with the Blues and thrashed Collingwood, then Hawthorn. When the Demons scraped past the Tigers they were suddenly within reach of the top four. They found themselves on an almighty roll. Their attractive style of play was back, fuelled by the youthful exuberance of lads like Anthony McDonald, Daniel Ward, Troy Simmonds, Peter Walsh and Ben Beams. Big scores flowed. ‘It was great fun, some of those times,’ says Neitz. ‘We were a great counter-attacking side. The game’s played a lot differently now with flooding and so on. Around that time was a great era to be playing footy.’ Between rounds 14 and 22 the Demons’ only loss was to North Melbourne, by one point. Woewodin dominated during this period. ‘Neale backed me the whole way,’ he remembers. ‘I knew I had to grasp my opportunity and I did.’ In the final three home-and-away games Melbourne thrashed Fremantle by 83 points, beat Geelong by 26 and humbled West Coast, in Perth, by 70. Against the Dockers and Eagles the Demons kicked 25 and 26 goals respectively. They did not merely qualify; the team went to the finals on the back of a five-match winning streak. Insiders and onlookers were staggered by the improvement. ‘If someone told us we would finish third on the ladder, we would have phoned that person a taxi and told the driver to go to the funny farm,’ a very surprised Danny Corcoran told the Herald Sun’s Damian Barrett. Neale Daniher was a genius again. ‘The cliquey-ness around the club has gone,’ declared Gutnick. ‘We’ve got a long way to go to relive those glorious years of the 1950s and 1960s. But we are looking to Daniher to equal those days of Norm Smith.’

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Despite all the positive press, Carlton was hot favourite to win the second qualifying final on a Sunday afternoon at the MCG. A grand final between the Blues and Essendon was seen as a foregone conclusion. And at three-quarter time there was nothing to suggest Melbourne was about to rock the boat. The Demons trailed by only 21 points, yet they had been comprehensively outplayed. It was 24 scoring shots to 13. Of their forward line stars, Neitz and Farmer had been benched, while Schwarz was struggling to find the ball. Fans of the red and blue gave Neale plenty as he ran out to address his team at the last break. His message was simple. ‘He told us we just had to attack,’ Leoncelli revealed to the media after the game. ‘That has been his theme all year since we got drubbed by Carlton.’ Neale isolated young-guns Green and Bruce in the forward 50 and ordered the midfielders to punt the ball in there quickly. Everything fell into place. As the Blues tired, Leoncelli, Powell and Yze dominated the centre clearances. Both in their first year of AFL football and playing in their first final, Green and Bruce produced a remarkable display. Green kicked three final-quarter goals, while Bruce bagged two as the Demons piled on seven in all to score an emotion-charged nine-point win. Neale hugged his players as they walked triumphantly from the field. ‘All of a sudden I was a magician at the end,’ he joked in the rooms. Green was hailed as footy’s next superstar. His performance had opposition recruiters shifting uneasily in their seats. How had he lasted until pick 19 in the draft? Keen for his players to enjoy the moment, Neale encouraged them to have a few beers afterwards. They were one win away from the grand final. Two weeks later the Demons faced North Melbourne in a Friday night preliminary final at the MCG. The Kangaroos were in their seventh successive prelim, but they were a shadow of their former dominant selves. In the opening weekend of the finals they had lost to Essendon by 125 points. That evening Matthew Lloyd rubbed it in by booting his 100th goal of the season. Melbourne’s new-found status as a premiership contender meant it was strongly favoured to defeat the Roos and win a berth in the decider. By half-time the job was done. The Demons led by 39 points. A revival from Wayne Carey, who was being smothered by Anthony

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Ingerson, was the reigning premiers’ only hope. This, however, was Melbourne’s night. The backmen stayed tight, while Powell, Woewodin and Leoncelli thrashed their opponents in the midfield. Up forward, Neitz returned to form after his shocker against the Blues, and Jeff Farmer was at his brilliant best, finishing with eight goals as the Demons prevailed by 50 points. What a rise it had been! Neale’s once-maligned side was in the grand final. Watching from their lounge room at Hillview, Jim and Edna watched the Dees’ supporters wildly cheer their son. The following day Essendon completed a dream weekend for the family by thrashing Carlton. Terry and Neale would be in opposing coaches’ boxes on footy’s biggest day. For once, Edna felt relaxed about a game involving her offspring. ‘Essendon have had their success over the years and I do favour Neale a bit because of that,’ she told the Daily Advertiser. ‘But I really don’t care who wins. We’ll be celebrating either way.’ Grand final week was a blur for Neale. Apart from spending many hours with his assistants trying to plot the downfall of a team regarded as the best ever, he attended the Brownlow Medal count and was thrilled when Woewodin polled 24 votes to edge out pre-count favourite Scott West. In the coming days, distractions were everywhere. Almost as many people turned up at Melbourne’s last training session as had attended some games the year before. To ensure a level-headed approach within his group, Neale instructed his players to avoid reading the newspapers or taking in news bulletins on radio or TV. ‘Put ’em away and you’ve got six months of pre-season to read every article,’ he told them. By the Friday, Neale’s biggest problem was the fitness of Cameron Bruce, who had suffered a corked thigh against the Kangaroos. Bruce was selected in the team, yet doubts remained over his ability to recover in time. The grand final parade gave Terry and Neale the chance to wish each other luck. Cameras clicked as the two men shook hands. ‘I think Neale’s done a marvellous job,’ Terry explained. ‘He’s put a long time into it under Kevin [Sheedy] and at the Dockers. He’s recruited well and he’s still in with a chance.’ In contrast to Neale’s very serious approach to the looming contest, Terry said: ‘I picked a good time to come back. We’ve got a good list and some good young players. The game to me is about going out to have a bit of fun.’

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At Ungarie many other Danihers were having their say as well. Herald Sun reporter Mark Stevens made the trip to the Riverina and first visited Jim and Edna. Met with tea, cakes and fresh scones, Stevens described the welcome as ‘even more friendly than you would expect’. After some careful consideration, Jim admitted he wanted to see Neale holding the premiership cup. ‘You’ve got to win a flag to be recognised as a coach and that’s hard to do,’ he told Stevens. ‘Neale probably has been a student; he always spent more time studying the opposition than Terry did. Terry believed if you had the footy everything else went out the window, no matter how good the other coach was.’ Seeking a few tips from some Danihers on who would win the flag, Stevens was directed to the shearing shed, where he interviewed Terry and Neale’s uncle Leo and his sons Mark, Pat and Rodney. The scene was a city photographer’s dream — four bush blokes standing around a freshly shorn fleece. Leo and his boys all thought Essendon would win, yet they would be barracking for Neale’s underdog Demons. On Saturday 2 September, Jim and Edna took their place in the MCG stands. Seated in close proximity were many of their 26 grandkids. ‘At one stage I had six grand-daughters in the space of 15 months, so you can get a bit lost,’ Edna had told Stevens. Also there was Chris, who had been heartily celebrating a premiership of his own. Early in 2000, Chris ensured the career of one Daniher brother went full circle when he cut ties with Temora and returned to Ungarie. With no more two-hour trips to training, he found himself simply enjoying the game once more. Aged 34, he modestly dominated the competition, kicking many bags of goals, while playing alongside the sons of men who were Terry’s team-mates in the 1970s. Ungarie’s flagwinning side, which defeated Barellan United in the grand final, also included Kyle Archibald, a talented youngster drafted by Richmond in 2003. Chris followed in the footsteps of his father, uncle and brother by winning the Northern Riverina League best-and-fairest. Now living at Ungarie and running around with the locals, he could not have been happier. ‘If I had my time again I would have come straight home,’ Chris reflects. ‘The travelling knocked us around a fair bit.’ There was no case of itchy feet for Chris as the teams warmed up at the MCG. Watching Neale talking to his men on the field,

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he struggled to comprehend how his brother coped with the stress of being an AFL coach. Orchestrating an upset soon became even tougher for Neale when Bruce withdrew and was replaced by Ben Beams. Yet he had his men — eight of whom had played less than 50 games — convinced they were a chance if prepared to run and run. ‘I think we definitely believed that, probably until quarter time,’ says Neitz. At the first break Melbourne trailed by only 11 points, but they were grimly holding back the tide. Only inaccurate kicking had prevented the Bombers from running away. Making matters worse for the Dees, Dean Wallis had fixed up Brad Green with a jumper-punch to the jaw. By half-time Essendon was 41 points up. It was 26 scoring shots to ten. There was no miracle comeback. Jeff White, Stephen Powell, Travis Johnstone and David Neitz battled manfully and ensured Melbourne avoided embarrassment. Farmer kicked three goals, giving him an impressive 76 for the season. But it was the Bombers’ day. Two years after narrowly avoiding the sack, Sheedy had done it again, winning his fourth premiership as a coach. James Hird capped his remarkable comeback from injury to win the Norm Smith Medal. For the Danihers the occasion was another example of Terry’s Midas touch. As Neale pondered the defeat, Terry celebrated his involvement with an eighth flag in nine seasons. At Melbourne’s post-match function, most members of the Daniher tribe spent time commiserating with Neale. While the Demons had not been expected to win, the atmosphere was appropriately sombre. Any grand final loss is an opportunity missed. But Fiona, now 24, and a group of her friends were keen for a party. ‘We said we were stepping out to use the loo,’ she remembers. ‘Then ten girls leave. We went over to the Essendon function. “Why didn’t we just start here?” we kept saying. It was great. Poor Neale. I did feel sorry for him.’ Although the year ended in disappointment, Neale looks back fondly on Melbourne’s rollicking journey that year. ‘We had a bit of the old, a bit of the new and it was just a really good mix,’ he says. ‘We had a team that featured many players who’d started out as rookies. Craig Cameron did a great job recruiting them. They were boys like James McDonald, Robertson, Ward and Woewodin, who won the Brownlow

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and best-and-fairest. That’s what made 2000 so spectacular. The older blokes on the coaching panel — Lyon, Stynes and Viney — were brilliant, as were Brian Royal and Chris Fagan. Paul Ford, who looked after the players’ conditioning, also played a big role. We got to the grand final and were exposed but it was a good ride.’

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uring his first season at Melbourne, Neale Daniher was asked

by Age scribe Greg Baum why he had taken on a job that appeared one of the most unattractive in football. ‘There’s a line in a Steve Martin movie,’ began Neale’s reply. ‘Do you get on the roller-coaster or are you happy on the little merry-go-round? I thought, “I’ll have a go on the rollercoaster for a while.” ’ The choice of quote proved prophetic. Especially in Neale’s early years, the Demons’ rapid rises were followed by dramatic falls. Soon after the grand final loss to Essendon, the club’s brains trust began nervously preparing for 2001. Neale and his assistants were worried because although making the big game had been a great experience for all involved, the unexpected success had interrupted their plans. ‘The coaches — Brian Royal, myself and Neale — all felt that we were still well and truly in development mode,’ explains Chris Fagan. ‘What we had achieved in 2000 wasn’t a true reflection of where we were as a team. But the problem with that is you’ve then got supporters and board and media saying, “You’ve just made a grand final. The next step is you win one.” It put a lot of pressure on Neale as a coach to deliver again. It was a great dilemma for us because we knew exactly where we were at. We needed to stay down for a while, draft in players, then steadily come up.’

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Neale knew Melbourne was not the second-best team in the competition. But the shock success meant it was very difficult to patch the holes in the club’s list. Making matters more complex was the continuing salary cap penalties imposed by the AFL, which in 2000 shut the Demons out of rounds two and three of the national draft. As a result they were able to snare South Australian midfielder Scott Thompson with pick 16, then had to wait until selection 62 to grab Daniel Breese, who never managed a senior game. ‘We often talk about the fact that it would’ve been nice after ’99 to improve a little bit, then a little bit again and do it in a way you know is going to sustain success,’ says Fagan. ‘But the whole time we were there the pressure was really on Neale as a coach to produce a team that made finals, because we were very reliant on our membership and sponsorship. We weren’t that well off and the pressure was on to make the finals year after year. Bottoming out wasn’t really a great option for the Melbourne Footy Club.’ However, there would be no finals in 2001. Another pre-round 1 gathering was held in the middle of the MCG (it would be repeated in each of Neale’s ten years at the club), yet the coaches’ concerns proved well founded when, after a bright start, Melbourne fell away terribly. Having won four of their opening six games, the Demons took the points in only two of their next 11. Making matters worse, the club’s financial woes had forced it to sell a home fixture to Brisbane. With the Lions reaching their peak, it was an additional headache Neale did not need. ‘They asked me what I thought of it,’ Neale says. ‘I fully understood our predicament but it was very difficult for the players and coaches to cop. We were trying to win games to keep the club alive. Then we were selling games, which we were more likely to lose, to help the club survive.’ The end product was $250 000 extra in the bank, but a 49-point loss on the scoreboard. A quartet of victories in their last five games simply papered over the cracks, lifted the side to 11th on the ladder, and cost the recruiting staff an earlier selection in the draft. Many of the team’s big names faded during ’01. Brownlow Medallist Shane Woewodin made 20 appearances, yet was hounded by taggers and struggled to have his customary impact. ‘I knew all the pressure was going to come, not just

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on the field,’ Woewodin admits. ‘I’d only played four years of AFL footy. I didn’t know how to take it. I wish I could have my time again and do things differently. I would handle it differently mentally. I think I listened to too many people. I was trying to take all this advice on board rather than doing my own thing, which I’d been doing in the previous 12 months. I was probably getting distracted that way.’ Key defender Anthony Ingerson missed a string of matches due to injury, while Jeff Farmer booted just 33 goals and was traded to Fremantle amid the fall-out. The form of Adem Yze and David Schwarz, who ran first and third in the best-and-fairest, were two of few bright spots, as was the debut season of rookie defender Troy Broadbridge, who won the most improved player award. Russell Robertson took out the goal kicking with only 42. ‘I think the playing group, after making the grand final, thought we were a bit better than what we were,’ says David Neitz. ‘The game ends up teaching you a lesson. We were a young team and we over-achieved in 2000. When we took the foot off the pedal a bit we couldn’t get a decent result.’ Off the field there were further problems. After a tumultuous reign, Joseph Gutnick was forced to cede the presidency in May, despite the fact that he had no clear successor. Prominent accountant Gabriel Szondy eventually took the reins. ‘There were people happy to be on the board but no-one really wanted to be president of the Melbourne Football Club,’ says Neitz. ‘Szondy did it for a while but he didn’t really have a driving passion to be the president. He just wanted to help out. We had an interesting stage there at the top of the tree. For Neale, as coach in that time, it was quite a difficult situation to be in. There was a real lack of stability. He had to continually re-educate people about what the football department was doing.’ The terrible 2001 season resulted in Melbourne posting a $1.6 million loss. But with the draft restrictions coming to an end, it also gave the recruiting staff a chance to add some much-needed talent to the club’s list. The first three young men taken in that draft — Luke Hodge, Luke Ball and Chris Judd — gained much publicity. With pick eight, Geelong took Jimmy Bartel and the Demons entered the fray with selection nine. They passed over Nick Dal Santo, Campbell Brown and Steve Johnson, instead choosing key defender Luke Molan,

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a team-mate of Bartel in the Under-18s. Later they added Western Australian Steven Armstrong, New South Welshman Aaron Rogers and Queenslander Brad Miller. In the earlier trade period, Melbourne had gained defender Craig Ellis from the Bulldogs, Clint Bizzell from the Cats and Peter Vardy from the Bulldogs. The squad had been reshaped but still lacked a solid group of players in their mid-twenties. As was the case before the 2000 season, the Demons were expected to struggle in ’02. In reality that was probably what they needed. ‘The model is that you’ve got to be brave enough as a coach to rebuild and go through a four or five year period of getting talent together,’ Neale admits. ‘The survival mechanism of the club meant that just wasn’t an option. The club relied totally on the team and the crowd to make money day-to-day. Even then they lost money and continued to lose money. The only thing going for the Melbourne footy club at any stage was the results and the team maybe making the finals.’ Knowing only a recovery would do, Neale and his fellow coaches knuckled down, ensured the players had a solid summer, and tried to lift the Demons back into the top eight. Melbourne confirmed its status as the yo-yo of the AFL by winning six of its first nine games. Neitz was in career-best form up forward and receiving surprisingly good support from Vardy. In the middle of the ground, Travis Johnstone at last began delivering on his enormous potential. It was a year of living dangerously for the Dees with nine of their home-and-away matches decided by three goals or less. They won four but a series of narrow losses through the middle of the season threatened to end their finals chances. As Neale tried to lift the group, David Schwarz decided to end his colourful career. He and Neale had never seen eye to eye, often clashing at training and behind closed doors. However, they both realised the bullocking forward was struggling to keep up with the game. ‘I went to him and said, “Neale, I’m thinking about retiring,” ’ Schwarz says. ‘He said, “Good idea.” My body was still fine. I hadn’t had an operation since ’97. But mentally I was gone.’ For a bloke who went through three knee reconstructions, Schwarz, then aged 30, left the game with an imposing record. He managed to play 173 games, boot 243 goals and win a best-and-fairest.

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Some years later, after straightening out his life and especially his gambling addiction, Schwarz has come to appreciate the way Neale coached him. ‘I was immature and he was probably one person that saw through the bullshit that I had,’ Schwarz reveals. ‘He was a very clever man. With a little bit of luck we could have gone a lot further. He had really good talent identification. He was slow making moves and I reckon if he had given a bit more autonomy to the players we would have been a better group. Other than that he was bloody good coach. I reckon if Neale had a weakness it was the ability to communicate on different levels with different people. But it’s a bloody hard skill. Even Neil Balme, who I reckon was a bloody great coach as well, had everything that Neale didn’t have. But he didn’t have the prick about him like Neale Daniher. Neale had that really mean streak. You knew where you stood, whereas Balmey was just good mates with everyone.’ The Demons qualified for the 2002 finals with four wins in their last six games, including a six-point triumph over West Coast at Subiaco. Neale had them playing with real spirit and adventure. Crowds were up and the club administrators were delighted. Neitz’s 75 goals during the home-and-away rounds were enough to win the Coleman Medal. Melbourne was a team on the rise again. The inconsistent form of Woewodin was the only real concern. A clash with North Melbourne in the first elimination final kicked off the Demons’ September campaign. Johnstone continued his brilliant form, Vardy finished with five goals, and they won easily, setting up a meeting with the Gary Ayres–coached Adelaide at the MCG. At three-quarter time, Melbourne appeared certain to advance to its third preliminary final in six seasons. The lead was 24 points. Then, in half an hour, a year’s hard work went down the drain as the Crows came from nowhere to win by 12 points. The two previous finals defeats during Neale’s reign — to the Kangaroos in 1998 and the grand final loss to Essendon in 2000 — had been expected. This was a complete waste. Amid the disappointment, Neale could not shake the belief that his club had just witnessed another false dawn. ‘Against Adelaide we had Russell Robertson playing centre half-forward and Clint Bizzell at centre half-back. That structure was not going to get us anywhere,’ he told Age reporter Caroline Wilson. Like they had after the 2000

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grand final, he and Fagan wondered where the team was really at. Complicating the review was the realisation that Melbourne faced salary cap issues and had a number of players coming out of contract. Some big earners needed to take pay cuts or be moved on. Shane Woewodin, a native of Western Australia, had signed a very lucrative deal after setting alight the competition in 2000. ‘Freo and West Coast were down the bottom,’ Neale says. ‘Joe Gutnick and the CEO didn’t want them having a crack at their Brownlow Medallist, so he ended up with a contract that was unsustainable. At that stage I had nothing to do with contracts and that made matters more difficult for me.’ In 2001 and ’02, the blond-haired crowd favourite finished outside the top 10 in Melbourne’s best-and-fairest. ‘Neale and Shane got on well and he was really keen to keep him. But it got to the point where he was getting well paid and not producing,’ says Fagan. The club decided Woewodin should accept a salary reduction in exchange for an extra year being added to his contract. ‘This was the most upsetting part of my footy career,” Woewodin reflects. ‘My partner, manager and I met with Danny Corcoran. I copped some really harsh words. After that I was left speechless. I wondered where it was all coming from. I felt there wasn’t much unity at the higher level. I was getting mixed reports from board members and others about what was going on. But I held the cards because I still had two years left on my contract.’ Woewodin offered to take a pay cut, but it was not enough to satisfy the club’s demands and a stand-off developed. Still, after a positive meeting with Neale, he headed off on an overseas holiday fully expecting to remain a Demon. Instead, trade week arrived and the situation remained unresolved. ‘I think there was a belief, on behalf of his management, that we weren’t serious about what we were asking him to do,’ Fagan says. ‘They probably thought if they held out we would buckle. It was never the agenda to move him on. But at the same time we couldn’t jeopardise the rest of the list for what one player was getting paid.’ While he lay on the beach in Mauritius, Woewodin’s name was thrown into discussions. ‘I wanted Shane to stay at Melbourne,’ Neale states. ‘It was a really tough time. The club was in a really tough position because it was always financially in trouble. A hard decision had to be made.’

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Woewodin was shocked when informed of the developments. He had a long phone conversation with the coach. ‘Neale said too much water had gone under the bridge and I had to go,’ recalls Woewodin. ‘I didn’t want to go, I wanted to captain the footy club if the opportunity ever arose. I called Danny Corcoran and I asked him, “Has the coach lost faith in my ability?” The answer was “Yes he has.” That felt like a stab in the back. I don’t know what was going on there. Deep down I didn’t think Neale wanted me to go. I think he liked me as a player. I think it was all pressure from above.’ As the trading period neared its deadline Collingwood expressed an interest. Woewodin was contacted by Magpies coach Mick Malthouse and president Eddie McGuire. ‘I wanted to be at an organisation that wanted me,’ he remembers. ‘I thought, “Bugger it, I’ll go.” ’ A deal was hatched whereby the Demons pledged to pay a portion of his salary for the following two years. And with that it was done. Melbourne’s pin-up boy was despatched to the Magpies in exchange for a first-round draft pick. There was an immediate outcry from Dees supporters. Most of the anger was directed at Neale. He had shot Bambi. Fagan was dismayed at the lack of support his boss received from the club’s board at the time. ‘Sure, he was the coach, and he made the ultimate call, but there were a lot of other people who believed that was the right decision to make. I’m not sure some of the club officials agreed. They never came out and stood next to Neale. They should have. A few of them were playing politics and Neale was hung out to dry. It was a brave decision. Neale believed that was the right thing to do and I agree with that 100 percent. It was an example of his honesty and his courage. It was a big thing to do. He would not back down or hide when tough calls had to be made.’ In the wake of the trade a letter was mailed to all Melbourne members explaining why Woewodin had been released. It failed to calm the fans’ anger and served to rile the player himself, leading to a series of bitter exchanges between him and Neale through the media. ‘It got super ugly,’ Woewodin says. ‘I remember at the best-and-fairest night there was a lot of verbal stoushing. It wasn’t pretty at all.’ Neale subsequently pledged to play a greater role in the

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management of Melbourne’s list. ‘After the Woewodin issue, never again would I not know about the details of my players’ contracts. I don’t shirk away from having to make a hard decision, but I was forced to clean up a mess that I didn’t create. I always knew who was earning what after that.’ Woewodin’s arrival at Collingwood coincided with Terry Daniher being appointed to the Magpies’ coaching staff. Terry’s four-year tenure in charge of Essendon’s VFL team had ended when the club decided to base the side in Bendigo. The formation of the Bendigo Bombers (the result of a merger with the struggling Bendigo Diggers) was aimed at using the VFL competition to build the Dons’ supporter base in central Victoria. Happy with Terry’s efforts, Essendon’s administrators were keen for him to remain as coach, a role that centred around developing the club’s youth. Likewise, Terry wanted to continue, despite the challenges associated with trying to make his bunch of kids competitive with tough former VFA teams like Sandringham and Port Melbourne. ‘It was hard work,’ Terry remembers. ‘I had to race around and find players. Sheeds was always a bit coy about who he was playing and who he wasn’t. I had to have players on stand-by in case Sheeds changed his mind. And I wasn’t allowed to use boys from the Under18s, because of the rules. I got kids from the country areas and all over the place. I had fellas like Josh Mahoney. It was great to see him go to Port Adelaide and play in a flag. That was real good.’ But Terry’s hopes of coaching the new VFL team were ended when the Bombers’ hierarchy decided they wanted him to be based in Bendigo. ‘I wasn’t going to uproot my kids,’ he recalls. ‘Steve was doing Year 12 and they were all settled back into school. I said, “I’ll drive down to Bendigo but I’m not going to bloody live down there.” They got a bit annoyed with that.’ Negotiations continued for some time, as Essendon was hoping to use Terry and the Daniher name as a promotional tool in central Victoria. ‘Being a bush boy it would’ve worked out OK,’ Terry reflects. ‘And I wouldn’t have minded to do it but it was the wrong time for me. The funny thing about it was Peter Banfield took over and he just visited Bendigo anyway.’ Wanting to stay in football, Terry sought a new job. Without a manager since he finished playing at Essendon, he simply phoned

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people he knew. After making a few calls, Collingwood offered him a one-year contract as development coach, with additional responsibilities for looking after the forwards. The Magpies had lost the 2002 grand final to Brisbane and they proved an even better team in ’03. While Mick Malthouse conducted training, Terry did a lot of one-on-one coaching with players like Chris Tarrant, Anthony Rocca, Jarrod Molloy and Alan Didak. Of those, Tarrant especially benefited from Terry’s key philosophies: that you must be as fit as possible and must compete for everything. ‘We had to work him pretty hard but he was just enjoying his footy,’ Terry says. ‘We did a lot of work together and, geez, when he was on song he was good.’ Tarrant emerged as a player reminiscent of Terry in his prime. He became a hard-running forward, willing to push up the ground to set up play and then back towards the goals to capitalise on the dominance of a midfield led by Nathan Buckley. For that season, Tarrant seemed to have it all. He hauled in some towering marks, won selection in the All-Australian team and took out Collingwood’s goal kicking with a career-best 54. But like his team-mates, he could not deliver on the one day that mattered. The Magpies went into the 2003 grand final against Brisbane as favourites, having beaten the battered and bruised Lions in a qualifying final. This was despite losing Rocca to suspension, a situation which led to conflict at the selection meeting. Terry thought ruckman Steve McKee was the best replacement for Rocca, while Malthouse wanted to go with youngster Tristen Walker. ‘I had a bit of a blue with Mick over that,’ Terry chuckles. ‘I just asked him why he wouldn’t look at McKee. My own gut-feel was that Walker was a bit green. We had a good debate over that.’ In the end Malthouse went with Walker at full-forward and usual defender Jason Cloke at centre half-forward. Woewodin booted an early goal but Collingwood lost by 50 points. ‘Looking back in hindsight we didn’t have enough support down there for Tarrant. We didn’t have any marking power to help him. Mind you, Brisbane was way too good anyway.’ Terry’s contract was not renewed when the Magpies decided to hire former Eagle Guy McKenna in his place. While Collingwood was shattered with its late-September capitulation, Melbourne was again engulfed in far more drama. For

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the Demons, 2003 was a nightmare. Late in 2002, following the decision to axe Woewodin, Melbourne had continued its patchwork recruiting policy by snaring three youngsters — Daniel Bell (drafted with the pick secured in the Woewodin deal), Nicholas Smith and Jared Rivers — while also adding experienced players Gary Moorcroft and Chris Heffernan to its list. Neale hoped these acquisitions would stave off what many considered an inevitable tumble. Two wins in the opening three games of the home-and-away season was a positive start. Maybe, Neale thought, the up and down sequence, which had lasted for five years, was about to be broken. Nothing of the sort transpired. Melbourne ended the season in 14th place on the ladder, having registered a pitiful five wins. It was worse than the dark days of 1999. Its chief executive, John Anderson, was removed and replaced with Ray Ellis. Crowds went through the floor. Only 17 534 people saw the Demons take on West Coast at the MCG. A week later, at the same venue, 12 410 turned up for the meeting with Port Adelaide. The Woewodin issue refused to go away and came to a head when the Demons played Collingwood in round 11. Having declared he wanted the Magpies to smash his old side in the lead-up, Woewodin helped Collingwood to a 56-point win. As the Dees lost their last eight games, Neale copped it from everywhere. He found himself in an emotional slump, which made it difficult to lift the team’s spirit. Basically, his pre-season fears about the state of his squad came back to haunt him. ‘One: we weren’t a great team,’ Neale reflects. ‘And two: we got injuries.’ The list of wounded was always a long one. Midfielders Andrew Leoncelli and Guy Rigoni spent much time on it, as did small forward Peter Vardy. A hero in ’02, he managed only nine appearances and bagged a paltry five goals. Tall defenders Alastair Nicholson and Craig Ellis were cut down by knee reconstructions, while fellow back man Troy Broadbridge had serious knee then shoulder problems. Finally, Luke Molan, the great keyposition hope from the 2000 draft, broke his leg, then hurt a knee. He would never play a senior game. ‘Most of our downs came from the fact that we didn’t have great depth,’ Neale continues. ‘Any time we were exposed to three, four or five injuries we were going from being very competitive to down the bottom. We just weren’t great. We needed

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everything up and going, having our best team playing in good form.’ In the middle of the slide came an even more startling revelation when emerging stars Travis Johnstone and Daniel Ward admitted to suffering gambling addictions. Both had run-up five-figure debts. On top of that David Neitz was involved in a drunken scuffle with security staff at Crown Casino. The wheels well and truly fell off. Seeking a scapegoat the board considered sacking the coach, but could not afford such a drastic measure as he had another two years to run on his contract. ‘There would have been a chance and it would have been a poor decision because of what we had put in place,’ Neale later stated. ‘That would have been another weak football decision — one that keeps clubs weak.’ Rather than worrying about the coach, the directors had their own issues to confront. Consistent criticism from groups of influential Melbourne supporters was destabilising Gabriel Szondy’s board. As if the on-field situation was not bad enough, threats of extraordinary general meetings flew back and forth. Szondy announced he was stepping down as president at the end of the home-and-away rounds, but not before lambasting his detractors for lacking guts and pushing their own agendas. When calm was restored, in late 2003, the Demons were in the hands of advertising executive and theatre buff Paul Gardner. The new leader, who decided his title should be ‘chairman’, informed the members of a $2.3 million loss. Then he called for unity and declared Neale’s position as senior coach was safe — usually code for ‘he’s gone’. However, Neale had convinced the men at the top he could drag the team up the ladder again. David Schwarz watched this unfold with interest. ‘I never thought he had it in him but he was a very good mover and shaker away from footy,’ Schwarz reveals. ‘While he gave the perception it was “Fuck the board, fuck them, it’s us in the footy department versus the world,” he was schmoozing and cruising behind the scenes. I have no doubt that came from Kevin Sheedy. He was the greatest at it. If he learned anything from Sheedy it’s that you’ve got to feather some part of your nest. He did that well.’ As 2004 began, there was more off-field wrangling when Ray Ellis was sacked as chief executive. Board member John Phillips became acting CEO until, after a long search, former Herald Sun and

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Age editor Steve Harris was appointed. For the Demons to shed their rapidly deteriorating image, they needed another quick return to the finals. Board members, assistant coaches and players looked to Neale for inspiration. ‘First I worked on selling hope within the club,’ he says. ‘Just trying to survive was not motivation enough. Trying to survive was draining everyone. I tried to sell hope internally so people believed we would eventually have long-term success. Then I knew I had to take the message to the members otherwise we’d be stuffed.’ Melbourne’s coach, long regarded as stern and overly serious, reinvented himself. ‘The Reverend’ was born. The fact that Neale actually did go to church each Sunday added another layer of meaning to the nickname. Using his country charm, Neale smiled broadly to the few assembled reporters as his team began its pre-season. He preached the virtues of the Demons to the masses. ‘Get on the wagon,’ was his message to supporters. ‘It’s going to be a big year.’ Behind the scenes, Neale developed a solid working relationship with Paul Gardner. A marketing expert, he was delighted with the coach’s new salesman persona. ‘Somewhere along the line Neale decided he wanted to be more than our coach,’ Gardner told The Age. ‘Now I rate him as a bloke and as a genuine stakeholder in the future of our club. That might sound like advertising jargon, but when and if we sit down to do a new contract we’ll be looking at him in that way.’ In the following 18 months, the Demons’ membership leapt from 20 647 to almost 25 000. A rare benefit of Melbourne’s collapse in 2003 was access to a couple of the most highly rated youngsters in the nation. Thanks to a priority selection, the Demons had picks three and five in the national draft, with which they selected midfielders Colin Sylvia and Brock McLean. Needing some mature bodies, the club brought Ben Holland across from Richmond, while former West Coast onballer Phil Read was taken in the pre-season draft. Yet the club’s reputation derailed its effort to lure Nick Stevens when the gun midfielder quit Port Adelaide. ‘No-one ever wanted to come to Melbourne,’ Neale laments. ‘We had no funds, no facilities and no future.’ That was the reality. But The Reverend refused to dwell on it. He soldiered on, delivering sermons laced with hope and energy.

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With a fit and happy squad, Melbourne progressed to the semifinals of the Wizard Cup pre-season competition. Still, there were few experts brave enough to predict that the roller-coaster was heading upwards. A round 1 thumping at the hands of Hawthorn seemed to confirm that this was not the case. However, from the depths of improbability emerged a revival of genuine substance. The Dees won their next six games and Neale’s charm offensive continued. ‘He has come to represent the plight of the Victorian clubs and that’s a great thing for football — not just Melbourne,’ Gardner gushed to Caroline Wilson. By the middle of the season Neale’s team sat second on the ladder, with an 8–3 record. The inspiration came from an unheralded bunch of new boys. Brad Miller surprisingly held down centre half-forward, while Jared Rivers dominated in defence. In attack, indigenous rookie Aaron Davey proved a revelation, although at one stage it had seemed the club’s financial crisis would prevent him being elevated to the senior list. It took a fundraising effort from a coterie group to ensure he was able to play. Remarkably, the Demons rose to giddy new heights in the coming weeks. When they thrashed Hawthorn in round 18 and moved to 14–4, they found themselves on top of the ladder, a game clear of the mighty Brisbane Lions. The media and the club’s long-suffering fans were in rapturous agreement. Melbourne was going to win the flag for the first time since 1964. Followers of the red and blue were not to know but the roller-coaster had reached its high-point. This situation was partly created by a couple of key injuries, including a hamstring strain to Davey, which robbed the side of some much-needed pace. However, the Demons also brought pain upon themselves. With the team guaranteed a spot in the finals, the fitness staff ordered an increased training load to ensure the players were in peak condition when September arrived. ‘Nowadays the individualisation of training programs is in,’ says Fagan. ‘What you give a bloke depends on where he’s at. Back then it was a matter of the whole group training hard for three weeks then tapering again. We thought we were doing the right thing. It didn’t turn out that way. It took them longer to freshen up than we thought and they actually flattened out a little bit.’ Neale’s men were flattened so comprehensively they did not win another game. A 73-point drubbing from Adelaide in round 19

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had the alarm bells ringing. Further losses to Sydney, Carlton and a Chris Judd–inspired West Coast saw the Demons finish the home-andaway rounds in fifth place. Premiership favourites a month earlier, they found themselves in an elimination final against Essendon. A fourmatch losing streak was hardly ideal preparation, and losing Neitz to injury was the final straw. ‘We just didn’t have the depth in our list to cope with that,’ Neale says. ‘We were running on the smell of an oily rag and that’s why we crashed. We weren’t much good.’ Melbourne’s fall from grace was complete when the Bombers saluted by five points. Like in 1998, 2000, ’02 and ’04, Neale had manufactured an againstthe-odds revival with a little-rated list. But again he had no silverware to show for it.

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as the roller-coaster now pointing at the sky or the

earth? Given that Neale’s first seven seasons at Melbourne had alternated between good and bad, and the club had made the finals the previous year, it was assumed the latter. But another predicted slide failed to deter The Reverend from signing a new three-year contract and then rallying people to his cause. Early in the pre-season he urged the members to sign up again. ‘We only need to improve a bit,’ was the crux of his message, ‘and we’ll go OK’. Neale’s positive approach impressed the Demons’ powerbrokers, especially as it helped deflect attention from the true nature of their problems. The club was relying on AFL handouts to survive. So dire was its financial situation, the football department budget for the 2005 season was cut by $500 000. It was a big blow for Chris Fagan, who had taken over as football manager. ‘We were already under-resourced,’ he explains. ‘It was a business decision to try and keep the club afloat but that’s the sort of thing you had to deal with all the time. We were operating with 12 or 13 full-time staff. Clubs like Collingwood had 26 or 27 full-time people on their staff. We were trying to get the same result with half the people. And we got the same result with half the people. That’s what people have to understand.’ Melbourne’s facilities were little better than when Neale had arrived in 1998. The club had some years earlier been offered the

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chance to redevelop part of the Olympic Park precinct as its training base. However, its financial situation meant this opportunity was passed up, leaving Collingwood to make the area its own. In summer the team was unable to train at the Junction Oval in St Kilda, where its makeshift offices were based, because it was used for district cricket. ‘We’d be training at Trinity Grammar, Sandringham, Victoria Park, all over the place,’ says Fagan. ‘The amount of time and energy that’s wasted in cars driving to and from training, I reckon it has a cumulative effect over time. Driving through the city traffic makes you grumpy. It took a lot of energy out of the players and coaches. Even the property man who had to keep packing and unpacking his van every day. We were doing that from November until the middle of April. It makes it really tough to actually get through the year.’ Three years later, when Fagan moved to a new role at Hawthorn, which has built one of the best training bases in the competition at the old Waverley Park, he immediately noticed the difference. ‘At a club where everything’s there for you, the amount of energy you save is incredible,’ he says. ‘The lack of resources at Melbourne really makes it tough. We never used it as an excuse but as a coaching staff it was in the back of our minds. We asked a lot of our blokes and it took its toll. Little things like that make all the difference.’ Nevertheless, as the Demons finished up for their Christmas break at the end of 2004, there was an air of confidence in the camp. The boys were fit and the late-season capitulation a few months earlier had fuelled an ambition to make amends. It was impossible to be prepared for the shock that was around the corner. Even when the extraordinary pictures of the Boxing Day tsunami began appearing on Australian television, Melbourne’s players and coaches never expected it to have such an impact on their lives. But on 27 December, the disaster came right to their door. Defender Troy Broadbridge had married his girlfriend, Trisha, on 18 December. It was a great celebration. Team-mate Daniel Bell was a groomsman, while many other Demons were there. A few days later the couple headed off to Thailand for their honeymoon. They were walking along the beach on Phi Phi Island when the tsunami began its devastating march across the land. Trisha survived and was taken to

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Bangkok. Troy could not be found. On 28 December the Melbourne Football Club released a statement confirming the 24-year-old was missing. Troy’s father, Wayne, flew to Thailand and began searching for his son. It was a particularly grim task. Thousands of bodies were piled under tarpaulins. Finally, on 3 January, Wayne made a bitter breakthrough when he identified Troy’s body at a makeshift morgue. He was the thirteenth Australian confirmed dead. Melbourne’s club chaplain, Cameron Butler, who had married Troy and Trisha, counselled the grieving players and coaches. Three weeks passed before the funeral was held at St James Catholic Church in suburban Gardenvale. Hundreds of people attended, including all of Troy’s team-mates and many former Demons who had played alongside him. As part of the service Trisha recited her wedding vows. She and Troy had been married for eight days. Amid all this, Neale had to pull his team together and prepare it for the upcoming season. Life had to go on. ‘We didn’t say everyone had to focus back on footy,’ Neale recalls. ‘We let everyone deal with it in different ways. We had closure at different times. There was the funeral and then we had another night where everyone was able to express their thoughts on Troy and the situation. The blokes were able to grieve in their own ways and I think collectively, under difficult circumstances, Chris Fagan, Cam Butler and the club handed it really well.’ The practice matches soon arrived. Initially it was very tough for the players to focus on football again. ‘None of us are equipped to deal with those things when they happen,’ says Fagan. ‘I was as proud of that group as any Melbourne team I was involved with. There was just so much that they had to cope with. All those blokes who thought they were bullet-proof realised they weren’t. You don’t have teammates die, it doesn’t happen. And we had it happen at our club, under unbelievable circumstances. It carried us for a fair while. They were boys on a mission.’ Melbourne’s first home-and-away game was a Saturday night fixture against Essendon. Six months earlier, Troy had been part of the team beaten by the Bombers in an elimination final. Such was their drive to achieve something for their lost mate, the Demons were

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never going to lose the re-match. Emotions flowed on the field and in the MCG stands before the opening bounce. Trisha Broadbridge stood alongside her husband’s former team-mates as both teams observed a minute’s silence before the Dees gathered their thoughts and dominated the contest. When the final siren confirmed a 46-point victory, a mix of relief and joy was etched on their faces. Trisha came down to the rooms, where she joined the boys in a heartfelt rendition of ‘It’s a grand old flag’. Afterwards, Cameron Bruce summed up the players’ feelings. ‘The memories of Troy are going to be with us forever,’ he said. ‘The whole of this season’s about having a little bit of Troy Broadbridge in all of us.’ Pushing on, Melbourne scored rousing victories over Sydney at the SCG and Collingwood at the MCG on the Queen’s Birthday holiday before a crowd of more than 65 000. By the mid-season break they were second on the ladder, having won nine of 13 games. But while the week’s rest was great for their wounded bodies, it broke the Demons’ fierce intensity. ‘There was a big collective “Phew”,’ says Fagan. ‘They’d had the emotion since January. You don’t need emotion in January. You need emotion in the months of the football season. I thought our blokes were emotionally shot.’ Six losses in a row, by an average margin of 48 points, followed. The ugliest defeat was a 15-goal hiding from St Kilda, which now counted Terry Daniher among its assistant coaches. Melbourne slumped to 11th on the ladder. Injuries to Jared Rivers (the 2004 Rising Star award winner), Clint Bizzell and Cameron Bruce were proving costly. The finals appeared out of reach. Hoping a change of scenery might refresh the squad, Neale organised a short camp at the seaside town of Queenscliff. ‘The media was trying to paint a doom and gloom picture,’ recalls Fagan. ‘We just took the other approach.’ The players and coaches spent time talking about all they had been through during the year. They pledged to give their all in the final month of the season. ‘I think the players felt good about being able to do that,’ Fagan continues. ‘Because they felt they hadn’t done for Troy what they should’ve done.’ That weekend, Melbourne suffered a big loss to Adelaide at Football Park. It seemed nothing could pull the Demons out of their slump. When they trailed Geelong by 27 points at half-time in round

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20 it was time to organise the footy trip. But unpredictability was the key trait of Neale’s team. Written off, the team emerged from the Skilled Stadium change rooms an inspired outfit. By the end of the third term they had snatched the lead. In a frantic final quarter, Melbourne hung on to win by a point. Russell Roberton finished with seven goals. It was the club’s first success at Geelong in a decade. Seven days later, with their finals hopes hanging by a thread, the Demons took on Rodney Eade’s hard-running and in-form Western Bulldogs. Both sides needed a win to keep their finals hopes alive and the Dogs looked home when they led by 22 points with ten minutes remaining. Sparked by the dash of Travis Johnstone (he later won the best-and-fairest), Guy Rigoni and Nathan Brown, Melbourne conjured a miraculous comeback. Four late goals — the last kicked by ruckman Jeff White from deep in the forward pocket — secured a four-point victory. Neale did not hide his jubilation in his press conference. ‘It was another special moment backed up from last week, the season on the line, and it’s great for our supporters,’ he said while grinning broadly. ‘The spirit in the group, they weren’t ready to give the season up and I couldn’t be prouder to coach them. Our leadership and our spirit got us over the line tonight.’ To feature in September, Melbourne needed to beat Essendon at the MCG in round 22. The Bombers were already out of finals contention but they fought all the way. Just 19 points separated the combatants at the final change. Challenged on a number of occasions, the Demons rallied to win by 10. They had, against all odds, made the top eight. And the up and down cycle of Neale’s reign at Melbourne had finally been broken. An elimination final clash with sixth-placed Geelong was the prize. Although forced to leave out Neitz, Neale was confident. His team was on a charmed run. Instead, the meeting with the Cats proved one big test too many. The game started terribly when Jeff White was accidentally kicked in the head by opposing ruckman Steven King. White suffered horrific facial fractures and the incident seemed to flatten his team-mates. Geelong raced away in the second half to prevail by 55 points. ‘We were a spent force emotionally and physically,’ reflects Fagan. Robertson’s four goals gave him an impressive final tally

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of 73, but Melbourne’s tumultuous season was finished. ‘Some people probably see that year as a failure, because we promised so much at the half-way mark,’ says Fagan. ‘But I thought the players showed great character to be as far up the ladder as they were. Then they showed character at the end to get up and play in the finals when everyone thought they were going to lay down and die. Credit to Neale for being able to keep the group together during a very difficult period of time.’ After successive appearances in the finals failed to yield a September win, let alone a serious crack at the flag, Melbourne needed to prove a point in 2006. Believing the team required toughness, Neale and his recruiting staff traded two national draft picks to secure Port Adelaide hard-man Byron Pickett. With the selections they kept, the Demons chose midfielder Nathan Jones and defenders Simon Buckley and Clint Bartram. All three were from Victorian Under-18 teams. Melbourne began the year on a positive note, reaching the semi-finals of the NAB Cup pre-season competition. The team lost confidence after a huge loss to Adelaide and it began the home-and-away rounds with three consecutive defeats. A close follower of the Demons’ form under Neale could have punted on what would happen in the following three months. In the blink of an eye, Melbourne became almost unbeatable, winning 12 of its next 14 games. After round 17, in which the Demons thrashed the Western Bulldogs, they were third on the ladder, behind only Adelaide and West Coast. David Neitz was back in form, while a band of youngsters led by Bartram and 2004 draftee Matthew Bate were exceeding all expectations. The Reverend had everyone on side. He was getting the best out of the players, delighting the supporters and ensuring the club’s most influential backers were part of the ride. ‘He really did take on a lot of responsibility, not just for the team but for the club in general,’ says Neitz. ‘His communication skills were really good. He struck up good relationships with a lot of the coterie groups and that’s something outsiders would never see. There is that whole political side. Part of the progress was to constantly educate the board members on what the football side was up to.’ Just when everything was going perfectly, Neale’s men stopped listening to the messages of warning from their preacher. An

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embarrassing seven-point loss to eventual wooden-spooners Carlton in round 18 triggered another late-season fade-out. A draw against Geelong, then a big defeat at the hands of Adelaide in their final regular season match, saw the Demons tumble from fourth to seventh on the ladder. ‘Against opponents we really respected, we performed really well,’ Fagan says. ‘But against Carlton we got our pants pulled down. Twice. That ended up costing us a spot in the top four.’ Deleted from premiership calculations, Melbourne emerged from its slumber in the first week of the finals. Brock McLean, Brad Green, Cameron Bruce and Jeff White were all impressive in a threegoal win over St Kilda. The result so dismayed the Saints’ powerbrokers that they sacked coach Grant Thomas a couple of days later. In week two, the Demons’ failure to finish in the top four really hurt them. Rather than enjoying a home final they had to face Fremantle at Subiaco. Johnstone, Daniel Bell and Brad Miller led the way, but the Dockers ran out 28-point victors. Another year, another missed opportunity. Heading into 2007, Neale had just 12 months left on his contract. Despite three consecutive finals appearances, Gardner and his board elected against extending it. They placed him under pressure to succeed. Unfazed, Neale felt his list still had the makings of a premiership contender. ‘I knew it was the last roll of the dice with that squad,’ he reflects. ‘Neitzy and a number of others were coming to the end. Then we’d have to go through another cycle.’ Stung by the finals failures, Neale and his assistant coaches decided their game plan needed some tinkering. Flooding, the scourge of football during the previous two seasons, was subsiding. A fast, handball-oriented, run-andcarry style was emerging in its place. Neale wanted to make sure his team adapted to this change. Unfortunately, this was just one of many things that failed to work out in ’07. Melbourne was knocked out of the NAB Cup pre-season competition in the first round, yet the Demons were still expected to win the home-and-away season’s opening match, a Friday night game against St Kilda. Instead they produced a listless performance and lost by five goals. Further defeats from Hawthorn and Geelong brought a number of underlying issues to a head. On its own, the 0–3 start was not enough to write off the team’s finals prospects. But an injury crisis, which had sidelined 14 players — among them

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Bartram, Bizzell, McLean, Neitz and Rivers — broke The Reverend’s positive outlook. ‘By round 3 I knew it was gone,’ Neale says. ‘We were shot.’ The Demons proceeded to lose their next six games. Three of the defeats were by a goal or less, including a one-point loss to North Melbourne, after which Neale dryly told the media, ‘Footy sucks sometimes.’ Melbourne was 0–9. Neale’s demeanour became subdued. Neitz remembers thinking ‘I’m not sure where it’s all going with him.’ The team’s once-beautiful style of play was nowhere to be seen. ‘There was some confusion,’ Fagan admits. ‘We went from being a really good kicking team, to having higher possessions, more handball, more run. It’s probably fair to say that backfired a bit. We began to question it. But I will never really know if it was the right thing to do, as we never had our best team on the park.’ In an attempt to manufacture a win, Neale tried to simplify the game plan again. ‘He was in the process of developing our game into what we knew Geelong and Hawthorn were doing,’ Neitz says. ‘I think he started to do it and thought, “This is a four or five year process and I’ve got one year.” He kind of aborted that in the end. Where the list was and where he was as a coach, he probably just didn’t have the time to do it.’ Fighting wins over Adelaide and Collingwood did little to ease the strain. Gardner was frequently heard on the radio and quoted in the newspapers. In these interviews he not only refused to guarantee Neale’s future but declared the coach would be required to re-apply for his job. ‘Maybe they didn’t know whether they wanted to keep going with me or not,’ Neale says. ‘But when they said they wanted me to go through an interview process I knew that was a facade. I’d been there nine years. If they didn’t know what I was about by then they never would.’ A Friday night debacle against winless Richmond in round 12 was the final straw. When Melbourne trailed by ten goals at half-time, Neale knew his ride on the red and blue roller-coaster had come to a close. During the following days he consulted his family and made up his mind. On Wednesday 27 June he arranged a meeting with Gardner and Harris. Neale told them he would not be a candidate for the

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interview process. ‘I just wanted to stop all the nonsense,’ Neale says. ‘It was best for both of us if the whole game finished, so I finished it.’ That afternoon he informed the players. At the same time a horde of journalists, photographers and cameramen descended on the Junction Oval. A grey, rainy day created a sense of gloom. But with a weight lifted from his shoulders, Neale smiled and joked with members of the media pack. ‘I always thought in my contract years, “Don’t have a bad year in your last year,”’ he told them. ‘It’s been a difficult year and I think it’s the right time for me to move on.’ There was no sense of bitterness. No tirade directed at the board members who pushed him. ‘Indeed, he put on his bravest face,’ wrote Martin Blake in the following day’s Age. ‘You don’t coach at this level for ten years and take teams to a grand final without being able to perform in public. Daniher was all class.’ Initially it seemed Neale would stay in charge for the remainder of the season, until a further meeting between the departing coach and the president resolved that a swift exit was best. He was given the chance to farewell the Demons’ loyal fans by guiding the team for one last time against Essendon at Telstra Dome in round 13. In many ways that match, played before a near-full house, summed up his time at the club. Despite a host of injuries and off-field distractions, the Melbourne boys gave their all. Six goals down at quarter time they fought back, producing some brilliant, attacking football, to lead by 13 points at the final change. For much of the last quarter they looked on track for an emotional victory. But Scott Lucas goaled in time-on and the Demons fell two points short. As the Essendon theme song blared around the stadium, Neale left the coach’s box to thank his players for their efforts. He made a point of embracing his long-serving captain. In a special moment, he and Neitz walked from the field arm-in-arm. They had been on some journey. Looking back on his final year at Melbourne, Neale admits he probably should have done things differently. ‘I knew I didn’t have the energy to go through the rebuild again,’ he admits. ‘So 2006, in hindsight, was when I probably should have left. But I wanted to roll the dice once more with the group.’ Having made the finals six times in nine and a half seasons, he departed without a premiership, but

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with a strong sense of pride for what he had accomplished under trying circumstances. ‘Hawthorn have been able to rebuild and make four million dollar profits,’ Neale says. ‘We had no supporters, no home, and yet we were able to achieve these things.’ Fagan, who was by Neale’s side for his entire stint at Melbourne, has much admiration for his former boss. ‘I was a bit more of a gutfeel person, whereas Neale always wanted to know the facts and the figures and why things were happening,’ Fagan says. ‘In a sense we probably complemented each other. He was a bloody good coach. I saw him evolve with the times. As he progressed through his coaching career he began understanding the principles of player ownership and the power in that. It was the same with his staff. Over time he changed as society evolved and as the young people he coached changed to that Generation Y. He never whinged about the facilities and the lack of resources. He tried to lift the club. I’m not saying he’s perfect. But I don’t believe at any stage, as a team, did we underachieve.’ Corcoran, who departed the Demons in late 2004 to take up the position as chief executive of Athletics Australia, agrees. ‘What he achieved at that particular footy club was extraordinary,’ Corcoran says. ‘Melbourne was a club that hadn’t moved with the times and he changed it. Especially in 1998 he was very unlucky not to win a flag. One can only guess at what he would have done with a big club behind him.’ At 46 years of age, Neale emerged from the football bubble. The second-longest serving coach in Melbourne’s history behind the legendary Norm Smith, he watched on with interest as another former Essendon player, Dean Bailey, was appointed to his old position. Soon Bailey was dealing with the off-field instability, as a group led by muchloved former ruckman Jim Stynes ousted Gardner and took control of the board. ‘In a way, making the finals was simply hiding the cracks and hiding all the mismanagement and lack of leadership that was the Melbourne Footy Club,’ Neale ponders. ‘Looking back, we fought a really good battle. We kept the club alive and healed a lot of the wounds caused by the merger debate. But we all knew there was no business model other than the club winning. The club was in survival mode the whole time. All the off-field problems that I started with are

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still there. Given that, I hope Jimmy [Stynes] and the new guard can find another revenue stream, outside of the team winning, that can enable them to build for long-term, sustainable success. Being a life member of the Demons, I really hope people are still barracking for the mighty Demons, in Melbourne, in ten years’ time.’ Edna breathed easier when the 2008 footy season began. For the first time since Terry had headed to South Melbourne in 1976, none of her sons were involved with an AFL club.

CHAPTER THIRT Y-ONE

THE NEW GENER ATION

J ust when it seemed

the Daniher name was about to drift from prominence, a member of the new generation arrived at Australian football’s highest level. In late 2007, Darcy Daniher joined Essendon under the father–son rule. Darcy’s path to the big time could not have been more different from that of his old man. Anthony grew up on an isolated farm with ten siblings. He left home and school at 16 and headed to Wagga Wagga, where he trained as a wool classer. Before arriving in Melbourne he played two years of open-age footy against battle-hardened men. And when he won a place on the South Melbourne list, he still had to work full-time at the wool stores in Laverton. There were no pressure placed on Anthony. Being a Daniher was no big deal back then. He made his debut with the Swans on a Saturday afternoon at a stadium known as VFL Park against a team called Footscray. Afterwards, he had a pie and a few beers. Then, in 1981, admission to a game was $4. In contrast, Darcy was born and raised in the city. He wore a jacket and tie to school at St Bernard’s College in Essendon. The oldest of Anthony and Jo’s three boys, Darcy began his football career in the juniors at Aberfeldie, a local club that is part of the Essendon District League. He did, however, play one game for Ungarie, in the Under17s, during a family trip to the farm. He was 12 at the time. In some age groups at Aberfeldie he was coached by his dad.

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These days being a Daniher results in high expectations. Darcy’s father and his three uncles all made the grade. He shares a bloodline with a dual premiership captain and cannot escape the constant comparisons to them. ‘You’re a disgrace to the Daniher name,’ an opposition supporter yelled during one grand final after Darcy had used his solid frame to stop a rival in his tracks. After winning the Under-16s best-and-fairest, he progressed to the TAC Cup, an Under-18 competition whose specific task is to provide a flow of talent to the AFL. At the Calder Cannons, Darcy played against lads his own age. He was taught about the importance of eating the right foods and how to look after his body. A premiership with the Cannons was an achievement that caught the attention of many recruiting scouts but the single senior game he played with his mates at Aberfeldie when he was only 16 stands out among his fondest memories of that time. Because Anthony made more than 100 appearances with both the Swans and Bombers, both clubs tried to gain Darcy’s signature. His mum was keen on a move to Sydney. She could see the benefits of heading north where there is no Aussie Rules obsession, where his surname would raise few eyebrows. But the Danihers are an Essendon family and just prior to the 2007 national draft, Darcy signed up with the Bombers. It was the first step in achieving his long-held dream. ‘I always planned on making it to the AFL,’ he says. ‘It’s just what I wanted to do.’ When Darcy began his first pre-season at Essendon, he started a new life as a full-time footballer. He immediately felt at home when he walked into Windy Hill. Many of the trainers began telling him stories about his famous uncles – they had strapped his dad’s ankles. The only thing missing from the old days was Kevin Sheedy. After 27 years in charge the old master was gone. The fresh-faced Matthew Knights would guide the club’s latest Daniher recruit. Aged 18, Darcy made his league debut on a Sunday evening under the roof at a stadium known as Telstra Dome against a team from South Australia. Admission to the outer was $19 but seats were also on sale for three times that amount. Football keeps bringing the Danihers together, as Darcy’s first game showed. Anthony requested 61 tickets from the club for both family and friends. Uncle Terry was

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there, along with aunts Nerolee and Fiona. Jim and Edna proudly watched their grandson live on pay television in Ungarie. Chris was on the tractor sowing the winter grain crops, but his wife, Sharlene, and their three children, Callum, Harvey and Josie, made the four-hour train trip from Wagga. Josie had painted a ‘Go Darcy’ sign, which she held proudly. Ten-year-old Harvey wore the Essendon jumper Darcy had given him for Christmas. It had his cousin’s number 28 on the back. As the Bombers ran onto the field, Harvey talked non-stop. With freckles on his nose and a bush upbringing, he is a new generation of the old-style Danihers. ‘Darce should come up to the farm,’ he stated. ‘It’s better up there. You get to drive utes, ride motorbikes and stuff.’ Noticing I was furiously taking notes, Harvey asked: ‘What are you writin’ down?’ ‘I’m writing a book about your dad,’ I replied. Harvey was bemused. ‘Why? All he does is work on the farm and stuff.’ Darcy took his place in the forward line. At 191 centimetres and 88 kilograms, with a very upright stance just like his old man, he certainly did not look out of place. The siren sounded. Jo had a quick nip of whisky. Like Edna, she becomes a ball of stress watching her sons play. Sitting near her, Anthony casually sipped on a beer. ‘I told Darce, “No superstitions, straight through the banner!”’ he said, wearing a broad grin. A new chapter in the Danihers’ football story was about to be written. ‘When I played my first game the expectations were so low it wasn’t funny,’ Anthony reflected. ‘Now I think about the expectations placed on Darce and I think, “Wow. That never happened in our day.” ’ A couple of early possessions soothed Darcy’s nerves and brought his many supporters to life. They roared as he grabbed the ball on the half-forward flank, ran around two players, and had a long shot at goal. They sighed when the umpire signalled he had run too far. Unfortunately the game was a debacle for the Bombers. Their young team could not keep up with Port Adelaide’s fleet of pacy midfielders. At one stage Darcy found himself minding the Power’s freakish forward, Daniel Motlop. It was a tough gig. ‘They should take him off Motlop,’ Harvey announced with absolute certainty. ‘He’s too slow.’ Motlop finished with seven goals as Essendon lost by 64 points.

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Darcy trudged off the field. It was not the dream debut he had hoped for. Sharlene and her children began the long journey back to Ungarie. Harvey was still talking. It was as if his Uncle Terry has been cloned. After he returned home, Darcy’s disappointment lingered. Friends wanted to talk about the game. He just wanted to sleep. But he is confident good times lie ahead. He has been earmarked to eventually replace veteran Dustin Fletcher on the last line of defence. ‘Fletch took over from me at full-back,’ Anthony says. ‘Now Darce might take over from him. That would be nice.’ As Darcy seeks to create his own Daniher story on the field, the four blokes who first thrust the family name into the spotlight remain attached to the game. Terry is still a man of the people. As a country football ambassador he visits clubs in the bush, where he takes training, has a few beers with the locals and spins a few yarns. In 2008 he also coached the Victorian team at the national Country Football Championships. It is a welcome change of pace after an eightyear stint back in the AFL ranks, which began at Essendon and took him to Collingwood, St Kilda and Carlton. Terry’s last full-time job in footy was with the Saints, where he spent the 2004–05 seasons. St Kilda made the preliminary finals in both years, but Terry parted ways with the club after failing to see eye-to-eye on a few issues with head coach Grant Thomas. He was a part-time forward coach at Carlton under Denis Pagan during 2006–07. When Brett Ratten took over, bringing with him a new team, Terry knew it was time for a break. His long-time mate Paul Van Der Haar says, ‘I reckon he would’ve made a great coach back in the old-school. He would’ve been the old inspirational motivating type of coach. I think he’s the type who still makes people feel like a human and not a machine.’ Terry now spends much time watching his sons, Steven and Todd, who are both talented local footballers. Each summer Terry heads to Van Der Haar’s holiday house at Nagambie, where they reminisce about their playing days. ‘We have our long, hard nights,’ Van Der Haar says. ‘At night-time the conversation’s about footy. Micky Conlan kicking the goal to beat us. Stuff like that. Every morning Terry says, “C’mon we’re going for a run.” I say, “Piss

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off! I’m not going anywhere.” Terry will be off swimming across the river or running across the bridge. He just goes a hundred mile an hour.’ Over the years, Van Der and Terry have also played night tennis and basketball together. On the tennis court Terry’s personality and constant chatter brings back memories of the old days at footy training. ‘If they hit it out he’ll say, “Never mind old son, just hit her a bit softer there next time,” ’ Van Der Haar says. ‘They always remember us when we play them again.’ In the wake of Kevin Sheedy’s sacking, Neale applied for the Essendon coaching position. He probably did not have the energy to take on such a high-pressure job so soon after cutting ties with Melbourne, but he acknowledges that taking charge of the Bombers would have been a fairytale development. ‘I knew I was tired and needed a spell, yet I didn’t want to regret not putting my hat in the ring,’ he says. ‘The job had not come up for nearly 30 years and the Bombers are a club I love.’ In the end, Neale’s brief flirtation with a return to Windy Hill ended in slightly disappointing circumstances. ‘I found out I was no longer in the running when I turned on the radio at seven o’clock one morning,’ Neale says. ‘My wife and I had just woken up and a news report came on stating “Neale Daniher has missed out on the coaching job at Essendon.” I looked across at Jan. She rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t worry. At least you know these things don’t only happen at Melbourne.” ’ Neale immediately got up and phoned a member of the selection panel. ‘Oh, hasn’t anyone told you yet?’ came the reply. Neale subsequently enjoyed a year away from the demands of full-time football. He stayed involved at the highest level, filling the position of chief executive of the newly formed AFL Coaches Association. He even managed to win a long-awaited premiership when he guided the Kew Rovers Under-15 team to victory in the Yarra Valley Junior Football League grand final. His son, Ben, and his nephew (Colleen’s son) James Breust were both in the side. Kew Rovers president Jeff Hooper later told The Age there were so many Danihers in the crowd, including Jim and Edna, ‘they filled up about half of the grandstand’. However, Neale was never going to be out of elite footy for long. In late 2008 he accepted the role of football operations manager

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at the West Coast Eagles. Following his decade at Melbourne, where finances were always tight and the facilities well below par, working for the powerful, cashed-up Eagles offered a big change. When Neale coached the Demons, the club had 13 full-time staff. West Coast has 30. His new job has brought Neale back into contact with Shane Woewodin, who now coaches East Fremantle in the WAFL. Six years after their bust-up at Melbourne, the two have reconciled, to a degree. Neale reflects that ‘Shane was a fantastic fella for our club and it’s a shame he didn’t play his whole career at Melbourne.’ Woewodin confirms they have moved on. ‘We’ve never spoken about that time,’ he says. ‘I would love to. I’d love to sit down over a beer or glass of wine and go through it. One day we might be able to do that. But right now we’re getting along really well. We can ring each other now with no problems. I wanted to go into a career in coaching and I’ve sought advice from Neale. Footy’s a small world so I’ve had to mend some bridges. Neale was the one who got my career up and going. He got the best out of me as a player. He instilled so much confidence in you. He was a very difficult coach to communicate with but I learned a hell of a lot off Neale and I’ve taken a bit of his coaching into my own coaching.’ Neale still has that steely determination to succeed. He is his own man, his personality shaped in many ways by being despatched to boarding school when not yet 12 years of age. Having spent a couple of seasons with the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL, Neale’s oldest son, Luke, has returned to Perth with his parents. A skilful midfielder, he has continued his footy career in the west. Anthony’s life is dominated by his management role with Daniher Property Services. What started out as a simple window cleaning venture now has offices in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns. It directly employs 30 staff and has 40 subcontracting teams, which clean, maintain and manage around 120 properties. This massive growth has not come without a few headaches. Anthony credits his business partner, Mark Lynch, with staving off a financial crisis that almost brought the firm to its knees a decade ago. Since then, Lynch has ensured the expansion has not outstripped the capabilities of those involved. Terry returned to the

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enterprise when he cut ties with St Kilda, but has more recently set up his own smaller operation. With Darcy now at Essendon, Anthony’s main involvement with football is at Aberfeldie, where his two younger boys, Ned and Joe, are progressing through the ranks. Both have been inspired to take footy more seriously now their brother has made it to the AFL. Anthony coaches a junior team each year and enjoys putting something back into the game which gave him plenty. Meanwhile, Chris is back at Ungarie working the farm. Nearconstant drought has made the decade since he returned from Melbourne very tough. But he never wants to live anywhere else. ‘You’ve got to think of the good things about it,’ Chris says. ‘It’s still a great place up here. The kids are growing up in a pretty clean, green environment. It’s a matter of looking at the positives. It might improve.’ Chris only becomes sombre when contemplating the future of his home town. The dry years have accelerated Ungarie’s decline. Its population has dipped to under 400. ‘It was a thriving small place when I came back,’ he says. ‘Just watching it deteriorate every year has been the worst thing. Because of the drought we’re losing people, the school’s getting smaller. There are not many people to run things any more. People get in their car, drive somewhere and get everything done for them. It’s easier to do that than getting in behind the footy side or the cricket side. Even the pub is struggling. That’s just the plight of the bush at the moment.’ By having four children, Chris and Sharlene have done their bit for Ungarie’s future. The most recent addition to the clan, Logan, arrived during 2008, nine years after Josie, their third. Now in his early forties, Chris desperately wants to keep the Ungarie Football Club alive for the next generation, but it’s a battle. Back in 2001, he played in his second successive premiership with the local team and won the Northern Riverina League best-and-fairest. Since then he has expanded his personal medal collection further, but after consecutive grand final losses in 2002 and 2003, the Magpies have struggled. At an age when he should be retired, Chris has had to pull the boots on most weekends. He still loves running around, although his creaking

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body is suggesting the time to give it away is nigh. But there are no new boys to take his place. ‘If we can round up enough players I’d be quite happy to sit on the sidelines,’ he says. ‘But I want to keep it going so my kids can play footy at home, rather than us folding and having to drive another half-hour to play with someone else.’ Population drift means the Ungarie team travels extraordinary distances to have a kick. Once a year the boys pile into the team bus and head north to Cobar. The round trip is 640 kilometres. ‘That’s how important footy is for us,’ Chris says. ‘It’s our key social outlet.’ The journey back from Cobar always includes stops at a few pubs. Sometimes it is close to midnight when the bus arrives back at the Central Hotel. Such is his passion for the club, Chris took over as president in 2005. He also runs the AusKick program for the juniors. Keeping the netball club viable for his daughter, Josie, is every bit as important. There are a few days every year when Ungarie comes alive. Over the festive season the Danihers invade the town again. Since 2006 they have played a post-Christmas cricket match against the Ungarie townsfolk to raise money for a local charity. Not only children and grandchildren of Jim and Edna take part. Offspring of Jack and Beryl, along with those of Leo and Dorothy roll the arm over as well. In fact, if the entire extended family was home, the Danihers would have around 150 people to pick from. During this time, Jim and Edna’s house at Hillview becomes engulfed in activity. Often there are more than 50 pairs of shoes piled up outside the front door. At last count, they had 33 grandchildren and the tally is still growing. Two of those arrived in 2008. Edna delights in selflessly looking after everyone. Her children often describe her as a saint. Thanks to her sons’ achievements she has received some notoriety of her own. During the late 1980s, Elle McFeast (the alter ego of comedian Libby Gorr) performed a song titled ‘Thank God for Edna Daniher’. In 2004, her efforts were recognised in more mainstream fashion when she was named AFL Football Woman of the Year. It was Kevin Sheedy who nominated her for that award. Forever grateful that Sheedy allowed her sons to play together just once, Edna refers to him as the family’s ‘fairy godfather’.

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Her daughters joke that Edna, at the age of 75, still stresses when watching any level of football involving a family member. She was so exhausted after seeing the Ungarie Under-12s, which included her grandsons Harvey and Jock, lose their 2008 grand final by one point, she did not have the energy to watch her daughter Julie play netball. Jim lives for the times when his boys are home and they can sit in the lounge room and talk footy. At 80, his passion for the game is as strong as ever and he spends hours each week watching matches on pay television. He looks forward to Darcy becoming a regular Essendon player and would love a few more Danihers to make the big league in the coming years. Jim also hopes his beloved Ungarie Magpies can survive, ‘because she’s a real good club’. He and his mates have saved it a few times in the past. Now, Chris finds himself in the same situation while his brother heads up a multi-million-dollar football department on the other side of Australia. Above all, Jim is proud of what his sons have achieved. He hoped they would be good enough to play in the local league. Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris accomplished that and much more. Mate, they had a red hot go.

FOOTBALL CAR EER STATISTICS

TERRY DANIHER

born: 15 August 1957 vfl/afl career: South Melbourne 1976–77; Essendon 1978–1992 games: 313 (South Melbourne 19, Essendon 294) goals: 469 (South Melbourne 22, Essendon 447) vfl/afl premierships: Essendon 1984-85 state games: 15 (Victoria 11; New South Wales 4) vfl/afl highlights: Essendon best-and-fairest 1982; Essendon leading goalkicker 1979, 1983; Essendon captain 1983-88; VFL Players Association MVP 1983; All-Australian team member 198386, 1988-89; named on the half-forward flank in Essendon’s Team of the Century

post-afl career: Wagga Tigers premiership coach 1993–95, 1997–98; Wagga Tigers best-and-fairest 1993–94; Riverina Football League best-and-fairest 1994

NEALE DANIHER

born: 15 February 1961 vfl/afl career: Essendon 1979–85, 1989–90 games: 82 goals: 32 state games: 3 (Victoria 2; New South Wales 1) vfl/afl highlights: VFL Recruit of the Year 1979; Essendon bestand-fairest 1981; Essendon captain 1982

afl coaching career: Melbourne 1998–2007 games: 223 (108 wins, 114 losses, 1 draw)

STATISTICS

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ANTHONY DANIHER

born: 21 January 1963 vfl/afl career: South Melbourne/Sydney Swans 1981–86; Essendon 1987–94

games: 233 (Sth Melb/Sydney Swans 115, Essendon 118) goals: 80 (Sth Melb/Sydney Swans 62, Essendon 18) state games: 5 (New South Wales 4; NSW/ACT 1) vfl/afl highlights: runner-up Sydney Swans best-and-fairest 1985; All-Australian team member (full back) 1991 CHRIS DANIHER

born: 31 March 1966 vfl/afl career: Essendon 1987–97 games: 124 goals: 40 vfl/afl premierships: Essendon 1993 state games: 4 (New South Wales 3; NSW/ACT 1) vfl/afl highlights: Ungarie best-and-fairest 2000-05; Northern Riverina Football League best-and-fairest 2000–02, 2004; Ungarie premierships 2000–01

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I learned many things while working on this book. But one fact kept presenting itself over and over again: a lot of people feel great affection for the Daniher brothers. There were many whose views on Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris I deliberately sought. They were from numerous backgrounds, from all walks of life. In most cases their lives had intersected with the Danihers because of football. All were delighted to be given the opportunity to spin a yarn or two about the boys. Former Essendon president Colin Stubbs, long-serving football manager Kevin Egan and one-time general manager Barry Capuano revelled in the tales about how they lured Terry and Neale away from South Melbourne. From the Swans’ perspective, ex-captain Rick Quade still found it hard to discuss the infamous trade, but was very generous with his time, as were the club’s then general manager Oberon Pirak and 1977 coach Des Tuddenham and the man at the centre of it all, Neville Fields. Stories about Terry abounded and came from many sources. Of the blokes who played alongside him at Ungarie, Lindsay Henley, Harry Rowling and Harry Sanson kindly made the time for a chat over a few beers at the Central Hotel. Terry’s first coach at Windy Hill, Barry Davis, chuckled his way through many an anecdote, as did his premiership team-mates Paul Van Der Haar, Tim Watson and Simon Madden. Lifelong Bombers supporter and Dick Reynolds Club president Bruce Heymanson, revealed much about Terry and Neale’s love of a party. Details of Terry’s exploits at Wagga Tigers came from local footy identities Robert Hughes and Doug Priest. A priceless yarn about his time in charge of Essendon’s reserves was told by Bombers stalwart Colin Hooper. When piecing together Neale’s story, his Goulburn schoolmates Mark Carmichael and Jim Dixon provided some brilliant insights into his early years. Later, renowned Assumption College football and cricket coach Ray Carroll enthusiastically described Neale as

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a teenage sports star, while his classmate Jim Morgan shared memories of him away from the footy ground. Club doctor Bruce Reid shed light on Neale’s terrible run with injuries. Tales of his near-decade as Melbourne coach came from ex-skipper David Neitz, 1999 best-and-fairest David Schwarz, 2000 Brownlow Medallist Shane Woewodin, former football manager Danny Corcoran and Chris Fagan, who was part of the Demons’ footy department during Neale’s entire reign. Quade was the chief source when it came to understanding Anthony’s impact on the field during his time at South Melbourne and the Sydney Swans. His sister Colleen enjoyed recounting the many legendary parties that took place in the harbour city after the Swans arrived in town. Tales about Chris as a youngster were lovingly told by his many sisters, while details of the drama-filled flight to Ungarie to sign him up came from former Essendon recruiting manager Noel Judkins. The highest praise for Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris came from legendary former Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy. His respect and fondness for the Daniher boys was clear during a lengthy interview at his “office” in the bar at the Hilton Hotel, over the road from the MCG. When I informed Sheedy that the book was for Jim Daniher’s 80th birthday, his immediate response was, ‘Whatever you do, don’t forget Edna!’ Of course, it is impossible. Edna is a truly amazing woman. The mother of 11 children, she remains the backbone of the family and a damn good cook. Her efforts in compiling a mountain of scrapbooks, which capture every moment of her four boys’ football careers, certainly made my job much easier. Spending time with Edna and other members of the Daniher family was a wonderful experience. The hospitality afforded by Edna and Jim when I visited the farm at Ungarie was greatly appreciated, and Jim’s laconic storytelling was a real highlight. His memory, especially when it comes to footy, is as sharp as ever. Over at Temora, Colleen hosted a gathering of five Daniher sisters, which included Estelle, Dorothy, Angela and Julie. The winefuelled tales told that night were both hilarious and vital in capturing the essence of what it is like to grow up in a big family out in the bush.

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Back in the city, Nerolee and Fiona added plenty more during a midweek lunch hour. The spreadsheet Nerolee put together of the extended family — Jim and Edna have 33 grandchildren at last count — was a godsend. Finally, there were the many meetings with the boys themselves. It was always great fun heading over to Terry’s house for a chat and a Melbourne Bitter or two. His wife, Gaynor, was always welcoming and proved a great help when Terry could not remember his kids’ birthdays. Neale’s effort in making a trip to Ungarie with me was much appreciated. Despite the featureless scenery, the 14-hour drive was rarely dull, as the conversation ranged from Melbourne’s backline to American politics. Neale delighted the local youngsters by taking footy training and afterwards looked right at home in the front bar at the Central Hotel. He also arranged a morning tea that featured Jack Daniher, his wife Beryl and their nephew Pat. All shared memories of the good times at Ungarie. Anthony was always friendly, always smiling and having a laugh. His wife, Jo, was equally enthusiastic about the boys’ story being told. She provided some valuable insights over a few red wines one Sunday afternoon. Darcy, the latest Daniher to make the big time, also happily talked about the pressure that comes with carrying a famous surname. Whether speaking on the phone or in person, Chris was unfailingly positive when telling his story. My most memorable interview with him was while we were chasing sheep through a dusty paddock one morning at the farm. His successful harvest in 2008 was due reward for hard work and perseverance. Many others were involved in bringing this book to life. I sincerely thank Andrea McNamara at Allen and Unwin for giving a bloke from Manangatang the chance to tackle such a great project. Her encouragement and support never ceased and we both gained much enjoyment from sharing Daniher tales through the year. Author and broadcaster John Harms deserves much credit for introducing me to Andrea in the first place. He and fellow writer Paul Daffey are wonderful mentors and friends. Thanks to Ryan Davidson at Channel 10 for taking the time to scour the archives for Daniher-related stories

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and to sports producer John Gibson for always being flexible with the roster. Tim Hodges and Jon Ralph helped with tracking down phone numbers and were always on hand when a few beers were needed to cure writer’s block, as were Luds and Cuey. Staunch Bombers fan Julian De Stoop generously loaned me his copy of Neale’s brilliant last quarter performance against Carlton in 1981, while Mick Daniher assisted with some family history details. Thank you to all the people mentioned and my lovely wife Zara, whose support and proofreading skills were invaluable. Thanks also to the many others who made suggestions, or simply told me how much they loved the Danihers when I mentioned what I was working on. Their contribution has added many layers to an important family story and to the rich history of Australian Rules football. Adam McNicol

ACK NOWLEDGEMENTS

From all of us, a big thank you to Mum and Dad for your support over the years. We were always well looked after and encouraged the whole way. Your love for us all and your hard-working influence has played a major role in our lives. To Mum, what a work ethic – there wasn’t anything you wouldn’t do for your children. The four of us ended up at Essendon through your vision of us playing together. Dad, what a great example to follow – make sure footy boots are polished, check sprigs, keep your eye on the ball, keep your bumpers up, don’t get caught behind, cop one – even up, put the ball out in front, one grab, shepherd for team-mate, pin the tackle, win lose or draw shake hands after the game, after-match celebration or commiseration, then do it all again next week! We were all extremely fortunate to have had three brothers to kick the footy around with. As we got into our teens all those training sessions on the farm pounding the gravel roads, running along the Humbug Creek that ran through the property or Neale’s speciality out in the paddock – measured run throughs – made us who we are today. The leadership and friendship during training, work and playing footy was extraordinary and inspirational. To our sisters Estelle, Dorothy, Colleen, Angela, Nerolee, Julie and Fiona for all the good times we had growing up and still have today. Even though you were kept busy with netball, basketball and tennis on weekends, you always made time to support your brothers on those special occasions. To St Joseph’s Primary School in Ungarie: thanks to the many Catholic sisters who allowed us to run free playing cricket and footy during breaks from class – to play the ‘real game’. Big thanks to the likes of Whirly, Dangles, Woody, Mick, Poe, Spadge, Franko, Pat, Tony C and Poulso. We had the time of our lives at the Essendon Football Club. To coach Kevin Sheedy – thank you for your incredible confidence in and patience with us. When the team needed direction and guidance, assertiveness, innovation, a win-at-all-cost attitude – and you could

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throw in education, travel and humour as well – you had it all. A darn good person and coach – the best! Thanks also to docs Reidy and Rubber, physios Paul Lew, Bruce, Paul Wise as well as Killer and all the trainers for patching us up and getting us back on the field so many times. We couldn’t have done what we did without you. To all our team-mates – we couldn’t have asked for better. You were an inspiration on and off the field. Adam McNicol – thanks for taking us on this great journey. We appreciate all the hard work you did, including your help on the farm! Lastly, thanks to all our loyal footy fans – your support makes it all worthwhile. TERRY: A big thank you to my wife, Gaynor, and our kids – Nicole, Steven, Brittney and Todd. At Ungarie Central school, thanks to Red, Louey, Flash, Dick, Harry, Lindsey and others for all those games of footy – the ups and downs, the trips, the fun times! At Ariah Park–Mirrool, thanks to Buster, Quadey, Jim, Risty, Plem, Bluey, Chad, Hairy and others. Seventy miles south of home, Sunday games, great standard of footy, big after-matches, friendships, Monday’s headaches, stiffness, back to work. At South Melb: Quadey, Lonely, Rat, Blairy, Robbo, Jacko, Blossom, Roundy, Coelli, Lanten, Thomo, Barrel, Mopsy, Vic, Gossy, Gully, Woody, Muzza and others. Big smoke, footy lifting another notch, playing under Ian Stewart, Smoky Cleggs, pleasant Sunday mornings, down to the VFA – Port Melbourne or Sandy – what a learning curve. At Essendon: Simon, Watto, Vander, Daisey, Stan, Spitfire, Rattler, Fish, Bakes, Nobby, Bomber, Harvs, Roger, Bluey, Woody, Hawks, Fouldsy, Ducky, Saltbush, Anton, Lighty – the list goes on. Another opportunity, coaches Barry Davis and K Sheedy, belief, great group of team-mates, taste of success! Great times … At Wagga Tigers: Gunny,Priests, Dosey, Piepers, Rusty, Mort, Flexs, Stoney, Browny, Waddles, Schultzy, Barbers, PJ. The twilight years, back to grassroots footy, competitive, the odd whack behind the ears, coaching, playing hard on and off the field, success, fond memories.

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Saving the best to last, I would like to thank all my previous coaches, led by Kevin Sheedy, for their support over time. NEALE: A big thank you to my lovely wife, Jan, for her support and love, and to our children Lauren, Luke, Rebecca and Ben. Thanks also to my in-laws Bruce and Margaret, and Jan’s brother Ross and sister Sandra. Thanks for sticking up for me. A special mention to my Assumption College football and cricket coach Ray Carroll, and my team-mates back then: Morgs, Macca, Hoges, Mick, Spence, Marty, Chink, Flano, Zoof and Co. At Essendon, like all my brothers, a big thank you to all the teammates TD has mentioned, as well as Sheeds who kept including me in my brothers’ footy journey even when my knees gave way. Additional thanks to Dave Wheadon and Pago who helped Sheeds bring the Baby Bombers together in 1993. To Peter and Lorraine Batemen – great people, great fun – thanks for taking me in and looking after me. Bernie Sheehy – you continue to be a great mentor, mate and football sage. Thanks for everything. To my mates at Werribee FC: Fenno, Drummy, Leon, Knighter, Mixer, Sellsy, Nick and the boys – what a fun time. And at Fremantle Football Club: Gerard, Macca, Smarty, Sols and others – we were the pioneers. From my time at Melbourne Football Club: to my great mates Fages and Bomber – thanks for your patience and support. To Choco, Yeater, Pete, Dougie, Rats, Wilbur, Willo, Rocky, Cam, Dan, Jackie, Daff, Greg, Fordy and Roscoe who rode the roller-coaster with me – thanks. Thanks to all the players, especially the captains Toddy and Neita. The General Ingo, Jimma, Gazza, Macca, Jnr, Browny, Rigs, Powelly, Whitey, Ooze, Robo, Sauce, Riv, Greeny, Flash, Biz, Big Ben, Godders, and the many other water buffaloes. Keep your eye on the red and the blue! ANTHONY: Thanks to the following people not only for what you did, but for making me feel that I was worth it! At Turvey Park: A big thanks to coach Allan Hayes, Michael Daniher and his wife, Lee, for looking after me on and off the ground,

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Peter Daniher and Turvey Park team-mates who helped me grow up fairly quickly: Macca, Meeksie and Dum. At Ganmain: ‘Turkey’ Tom Carroll – what a great coach – thanks also to his brother Kevin for guiding me in my early days. At South Melbourne: Thanks to Ian Stewart my first coach, Jack Marks, Barry Rogers, Greg Miller, and to Vi Woods for looking after me in my first years in Melbourne – what a lady! At Sydney Swans: My coaches were not only great mentors but became great friends – thanks to Rick Quade, John Northey, Bob Hammond and Tom Hafey who worked us hard and fair. Thanks also to my loyal team-mates in the early years of the Sydney Swans: Mark Browning, Barry Round, ‘Rocket’ Rod Carter and especially Tony and Karen Morwood who are now my family and have always been the greatest of supporters of Jo, me and the boys. At Essendon: Special thanks to Sheeds, and the excellent docs Reidy and Rubber who got me on to the paddock many times, and who are still there to get Darcy back on the paddock! At Munro Street: Our wonderful neighbours and friends who showed me that there was life after football – and what a life! Last but not least, my family: thank you Jo, my beautiful wife, for being so supportive in my life’s journey and for raising our gorgeous boys Darcy, Ned and Joe. CHRIS: Thanks to my wife, Sharl, and kids Callum, Harvey, Josie and Logan for all the joy you’ve brought to my life. To all my junior and senior coaches and team-mates at Ungarie: they were (and still are) great days playing with mates and catching up with friends after. To the APM, Coolamon and Temora Football Clubs for the opportunity to play and coach at these respective clubs. At Essendon: Thanks also to Sheeds, Robert Shaw, Merv Keane, Dave Wheadon, Dennis Pagan, Mark Williams, Neale, Bomber Thompson and all the reserve coaches. To all the footballers I played with – with special mentions to David Flood, Peter Sommerville, Paul Hamilton, Dean Wallis, Mark Harvey, Peter Cransberg and Sean Denham – it’s been a great journey so far – thank you all.

INDEX

Aanensen, Vic 48 Aberfeldie Football Club 333, 339 Ablett, Gary, Sr 156, 202, 211, 212, 256, 263 Ackerley, David 143 Alessio, Steve 247 Allan, Ben 265 Allen, Gubby 227 Allison, Brett 255 Anderson, Greg 210, 212, 226 Anderson, John 153, 191, 287, 317 Andrews, Ron 50, 62, 69, 92, 103, 116, 117, 118, 122, 126, 128, 132, 134, 135–6, 142, 149, 150, 159, 232 Antrobus, Tony 195 Archibald, Kyle 305 Ardlethan Football Club 2 Ariah Park–Mirrool 40–3, 44, 45, 107, 150, 159, 188, 189, 190, 239, 291 Armstrong, Steven 311 Arnol, Jody 223 Ashman, Rod 124 Assumption College, Kilmore 58, 63, 64, 65, 66, 76–9, 80, 81 Aylett, Allen 119 Ayres, Gary 218, 312 Bailey, Dean 331 Baker, Col 5 Baker, Leon 155, 160, 161, 174, 201 Ball, Luke 310 Balme, Neil 50, 166, 170, 51, 277, 280, 284, 312 Banfield, Peter 195, 315 Barassi, Ron 55, 102–3, 117, 219, 254, 255, 278 Barassi Line 2, 39 Bartel, Jimmy 310 Bartlett, Dr John 134, 189 Bartlett, Kevin 56, 68 Bartram, Clint 327, 329

Bassett, Nathan 279 Bate, Matthew 327 Baum, Greg 93, 117, 170, 284, 308 Beames, Ben 302, 306 Beasley, Simon 119, 133 Beddison, Wayne 143 Bedford, Peter 44 Beecroft, Bob 102 Beitzel, Harry 49 Bell, Daniel 317, 323, 328 Bendigo Bombers 315 Bennett, Peter 63, 95, 97, 100, 131 Beveridge, Luke 298 Bewick, Darren 211, 258 Bews, Alf 52 Bibby, Frank 60–1, 62, 63 Bizzell, Clint 311, 312, 325, 329 Black, Jim 77 Blackwell, Glen 253 Blight, Malcolm 84, 86, 87, 137, 202, 211, 212 Bolton, David 177, 217 Bolton, Mark 298 Bosustow, Peter 126 Bourke, Francis 133 Bradbury, Peter 161 Braddy, Craig 143 Bradley, Craig 181, 258 Braid, John and Gordon 254 Breese, Daniel 309 Bremner, Ian 47 Brereton, Dermott 174, 175, 208, 211, 218, 231 Breust, James 337 Breust, Paul 292–3 Brice, Garry 46, 55 Broadbridge, Trisha 323, 324, 325 Broadbridge, Troy 310, 317, 323–4 Broderick, Paul 270 Brown, Campbell 310 Brown, Frank 59 Brown, Fraser 258, 297

Brown, Gavin 218, 225, 226, 227, 228–9, 230, 231 Brown, Nathan 280, 326 Browning, Mark 46, 61, 109 Brownless, Bill 2, 199, 212, 217, 250 Bruce, Cameron 289, 301, 303, 304, 306, 325, 328 Bruns, Neville 173 Bryant, Bob 26 Bryant, Peter 38, 39, 80 Buckenara, Gary 114 Buckley, Jimmy 125 Buckley, Nathan 265, 266, 316 Buckley, Simon 327 Buhagiar, Tony 117, 120, 136, 148, 166 Burgooney 6, 19 Busse, Neil 231, 232 Butler, Cameron 324 Cahill, John 159 Cahill, Terry 68 Calthorpe, David 251 Camakaris, George 61 Cameron, Craig 279, 306 Campbell, Graham 62 Campbell, Wayne 288 Capper, Warwick 158, 182, 183, 210 Capuano, Barry 127, 147, 190, 203 Carey, Steve 98, 174 Carey, Wayne 215, 217, 255, 265, 286, 303–4 Carman, Phil 94, 96, 117–18, 231 Carmichael, Mark 75–6 Carroll, Denis 114, 199, 217, 226 Carroll, Ray 77–8, 79 Carroll, Tom 107, 110, 111 Carter, Rod 226 Chapman, Wade 273 Charles, Justin 244 Charles, Shaun 279

INDEX

Chessell, Jack 108 Clarkson, Alistair 272, 279 Clayton, Cameron 46, 148, 150 Cloke, David 117, 141, 159, 236, 243, 255 Cloke, Jason 316 Coelli, Rod 52 Collins, Matthew 279 Conlan, Mick 183, 336 Connolly, Rohan 168, 220, 256 Considine, Ed 196 Cook, Fred 52 Cook, James 301 Coolaman Football Club 189 Corcoran, Danny 241, 256, 278, 302, 313, 331 Cordy, Neil 217 Corey, Joel 289 Cornell, Mark 266–7 Cornes, Graham 84 Couch, Paul 218, 256 Crawford, Shane 2, 255, 265 Creswell, Daryn 273 Crosisca, Gavin 248 Crow, Max 125 Daby, Joey 110 Daicos, Peter 201, 226, 231 Dal Santo, Nick 310 Danaher, Ellen 9 Danaher, Michael 9 Daniher (now Reinhold), Angela 24, 30, 180, 217, 218, 274, 275, 291 Daniher, Anthony All Australian 241 ambitions 33 approach to football 105–6 birth 24 country football 4, 97, 104, 106, 107, 108–9, 110–11, 112, 339 Daniher Property Services 276, 338–9 family 210, 211, 241, 262 marriage 184, 198 playing with three brothers 8, 218–24, 244–5 represents NSW 199, 215–21, 244–5 school football 27 studies 107, 109

Teal Cup 107–8, 111 Daniher, Anthony at Essendon 183–4, 192, 209, 215 at full-back 202, 211, 213, 217, 235–6 Grand Final 1990 226–9 injuries 196, 221, 243, 248, 256, 263, 237 knee reconstruction 237, 238, 241 last game 263, 269 150th game 210 plays with three brothers 8, 221–4 200th game 236 Daniher, Anthony at South Melbourne debut 118 Essendon interested 108 off-season training 130–1 playing against brothers 121, 142, 156, 158 reserves 120 tied to by recruiting zone 105, 109–10, 112 Daniher, Anthony at Sydney Swans 164–5, 175 cements place in team 139, 156 contract terminated 184 Essendon interested 178, 184, 189 1986 finals series 183–4 relocates to Sydney 140 salary boost 178–9 Sydney lifestyle 141, 144, 157 Daniher, Ben 1, 2, 6, 337 Daniher, Beryl 20 Daniher, Brittney 197–8 Daniher, Callum 335 Daniher, Chris 6 ambitions 33, 53 awards 126 birth 24 country football 4, 106, 126, 150, 164, 188, 189, 269, 291, 305, 339–40 expectations of 192 family 270, 276, 339 farm life 4, 28–32, 276, 292, 339

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glandular fever 238, 239–40, 292 influence of brothers 257 marriage 256–7, 269 Northern Riverina League B&F 305 NSW team 199, 215–21, 244–5, 255 personality 28 playing with three brothers 8, 218–24, 244–5 St Kilda supporter 31 Teal Cup 188 Temora captain-coach 291–3 watching brothers play 53, 97, 306 Daniher, Chris at Essendon accommodation 191 ambitions 33, 192 contract 190 debut 196 50th game 257 Grand Final 1990 225, 226–9 Grand Final 1993 259–60 injuries 164, 175, 180, 189, 196, 202, 209, 210, 221, 269, 273, 292 100 games 271–2 playing with three brothers 8, 193, 199, 244–5 recruited 135, 187 resemblance to Terry 191–2 reserves 209, 213, 215, 236 retires 3, 274, 291 Daniher (now Breust), Colleen 24, 30, 31–3, 97, 180, 218, 275, 291, 292–3 Daniher, Darcy 4, 211, 333–6 Daniher, Dorothy (aunt) 21 Daniher (now Vearing), Dorothy (sister) 24, 30, 126, 218, 275, 291 Daniher, Edna AFL Woman of the Year 340 children leave home 266 cooking 3–4, 32 grandchildren 340 marriage 11, 20–1 raising children 23, 28–32, 58

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and son’s careers 53, 97, 152, 171, 236, 245, 272 at Terry’s testimonial 238 wants all four to play together 175, 191 Daniher, Eileen 11–12 Daniher, Ellen 9 Daniher (now Finemore), Estelle 23, 28, 30, 58, 218, 275 Daniher, Fiona 30, 48, 58, 150, 229, 266, 274, 275, 306, 335 Daniher, Gaynor 133–4, 135, 136, 142, 155, 180, 192, 216, 261, 348 Daniher, Harvey 335, 336, 341 Daniher, Jack (great-uncle) 9, 10 Daniher, Jack (uncle) 11, 15, 20, 33, 43 Daniher, Jim (father) 3–7, 53, 97 advice to sons 154 farm life 24, 28–31 four boys playing together 215–24, 244–5 inspiration for sons 26 life since his boys retired 340, 341 manager for sons 63, 108, 109–10, 112–13, 172, 191 marriage 11, 20–1 playing football 4, 12, 15–17, 19, 20, 24–5, 26–7, 28, 32–3, 34–6, 38, 39, 341 playing with sons 34–5, 108, 109–10, 112–13, 191, 217, 218–19, 220, 222, 223 supporting local football 26, 28, 32–3, 39, 199, 218, 222, 341 2000 Grand Final 304, 305 watching sons play 46, 53, 97, 217–19, 222–3, 304, 305 Daniher, Jim (grandfather) 6–7, 8–12, 13 Daniher, Jock 341 Daniher, Joe 339

Daniher, John 9 Daniher, Josie 335, 339, 340 Daniher (now Cornell), Julie 24, 218, 266, 275 Daniher, Leo (cousin) 81 Daniher, Leo (uncle) 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 24, 33, 305 Daniher, Logan 339 Daniher, Luke 338 Daniher, Mark 305 Daniher, Mary 143 Daniher, Mick 41, 42, 43, 107, 251 Daniher, Neale 172 ambitions 33 Assumption College 58, 63, 65, 66, 76–9, 82, 83 back to Ungarie 1–7 birth 23 coaches Allies 265–6 country football 4, 33, 76, 80–1, 106 cricket 27, 37, 77–8, 175–6 Essendon assistant coach 242, 246 Essendon reserves coach 255–6, 258–9, 260, 315 Essendon skills coach 191, 193–4, 202–3 family 194, 203, 222, 256 football brain 133, 258–9 Fremantle assistant coach 263–5 growing up 28–33 joins the media 1 marriage 148, 157, 165 NSW representative 215–21 only senior premiership 7, 80–1 personality 28, 76, 79, 90, 97–8, 99, 102, 124, 338 playing with three brothers 8, 218–24, 244–5 playing for Werribee 234–5, 242 St Patrick’s, Goulburn 29–30, 58, 73–4, 75 school football 27, 77–8, 82, 83 Teal Cup 79, 80 Victorian representative 98, 118–19

West Coast football operations manager 337–8 Daniher, Neale at Essendon 3, 91, 101, 102, 117, 120, 121–6, 225 accommodation 95, 97, 131–2 awards 64, 79, 129 captain 132–4 in coaching box with Sheedy 135, 166, 167–8 coming back after injury 134, 154, 157, 166, 167–9, 203–6, 209, 210, 215 delisted 213 first senior game 82–3 Jim his manager 63 joins club 73, 80 knee reconstructions 127–9, 134, 137, 171 match routines 98–9, 121–2 nicknames 85, 90, 97–8 off-season training 81, 130 part of trade to get Terry 63–4, 65–6, 71, 73, 78, 80 playing against Anthony 121, 169 plays with three brothers 8, 244–5 Recruit of the Year 93 rehabilitation 130, 132, 134, 135, 139, 146–7, 153, 154, 157, 158, 165 resigns as captain 134 retires 171, 175, 233 socialising 83–4, 99–100 studies 83, 84, 95, 99, 132, 181 working 146, 171–2, 194 Daniher, Neale at Melbourne appointed coach 277–9 assistants 299, 307 game style 282, 283, 328–9 Grand Final loss 2000 299–307 hard taskmaster 287–9 innovations 280, 281–2 last match a loss to Essendon 330–1 leaves mid-season 329–30

INDEX

looking back 330–1 and player contracts 314–15 playing list 279–80, 282 The Reverend 3, 319, 327, 329 selling hope 283–4, 285, 300–1, 319 thinking coach 258–9 video review of games 194, 203 Daniher, Ned 241, 339 Daniher, Nerolee 29, 30, 172, 173, 217, 218, 220, 259, 260, 266, 274, 275, 335 Daniher, Nicole 142 Daniher, Pat 79, 81, 305 Daniher, Peter 41, 43, 107 Daniher, Rodney 14, 81, 305 Daniher, Sharlene (nee Corbett) 269, 279, 335, 336 Daniher, Steven 336 Daniher, Terry All-Australian 146, 200 ambitions 33 Australian Football Hall of Fame 293–4 awards 38, 40, 93, 137, 142–3, 152, 245, 254, 261, 267 birth 23 captain coach Wagga Tigers 251, 252–4, 267, 292, 293, 294, 295 captain NSW 199–200, 245 coach NSW 254–5 coaching at St Kilda 336 Collingwood development coach 315–16 country football 4, 25, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 37–8, 39–43, 44, 45, 336 cricket 27, 37, 58 Essendon reserves coach 294–8, 301–2, 304 family 142, 155, 197–8, 210, 261 farmer at heart 40, 70, 88, 153–4, 155, 163, 182 growing up 28–32 International Rules captain 184–5, 230

life since retiring as a player 336–7 marriage 133–4, 135, 137 maths 27–8, 98–9 NSW captain 217, 244–5 NSW Sporting Hall of Champions 254 part-time Carlton coach 336 personality 28, 69, 98–9, 132, 137, 145, 162, 163 playing with three brothers 8, 218–24, 244–5 playing coach with Wagga Tigers 251–4, 259, 260, 267–9, 295 retires as a player 295 St Kilda assistant coach 325, 336 school 26, 27–8 tally of senior games 295 Teal Cup 38–9 Terry Daniher Medal 245 Ungarie mascot 25 used car salesman 254 vice-captain Irish tour 162–3 Victorian captain 166 Victorian representative 87–8, 207–9 Victorian vice-captain 146, 156 Daniher, Terry at Essendon accommodation 66, 95, 97, 132, 136 Brownlow votes 93 captain 142, 145, 152, 176, 192–5 dropped to reserves 246, 247, 250 first senior game 66–7 Grand Final 1983 149–51 Grand Final 1984 159–61, 174 Grand Final 1990 226–9 injuries 87, 89, 91–2, 93, 96, 118, 119, 155, 172, 181, 195, 201, 210, 211, 215, 244, 250 last game 250–1 loses captaincy 207, 213 moved from forward to back line 142–3 150th game 155

355

playing with brothers 8, 221–4 socialising 86, 95, 99–100 suspended for striking 201, 227–32, 235, 236 testimonial 237 300th game 238–9 tipped as superstar of the 80s 94, 95 traded from South Melbourne 62–5 training 95–6, 116, 130–1 200th game 181–2 250th game 209 working 66, 155, 180, 254 Daniher, Terry at South Melbourne accommodation 45, 49 city living 48 Essendon offer 62–6 finals 1977 54–7 first senior game 46–7 Fitzroy offer 61, 62, 63 off-season 48, 49, 58, 59 Quade a father-figure 64–5, 67 refuses to ‘fix-up’ a player 57, 61 signs with 42, 44–5 social life 52–3 sports shows 50 trade bait 61–3, 64–5 training 47–8 working 45–6, 50 Daniher, Todd 210, 336 Daniher Cleaning Services 193–4, 208, 216, 232–3, 238, 247–8, 254, 263, 276, 294 Daniher Property Services 276, 338–9 Dare, Norm 98 Davey, Aaron 320 Davis, Barry 62, 68–9, 82, 84, 85, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 99, 101, 102–3, 116 Davis, Bobby 50 Davis, Craig 88, 254 Davis, Michael 145, 201 Day, Barry 83 Demetriou, Andrew 144 Dempsey, Gary 86, 96, 101 Denham, Sean 258, 298 Devine, John 203

356

THE DANIHERS

Dickson, Kevin 61 Didak, Alan 316 Dipierdomenico, Robert 122, 158, 161, 186 Ditterich, Carl 86, 94 Dixon, Jim 75 Donohue, Brian 161 Doolan, Ben 266, 298 Doull, Bruce 124, 148 Drum, Damian 235, 278 Duckworth, Bill 133, 160, 161 Dunn, Jack 56 Dunnell, Frank 195 Dunstall, Jason 202, 208–9, 211, 217, 245, 248, 263 Durnan, Neil 45 Dyer, Jack 50 Eade, Rodney 136, 265, 326 Edelsten, Dr Geoffrey 177, 178, 182 Egan, Kevin 62, 80, 103, 108, 147, 162, 188, 190, 231, 241, 295 Ellis, Craig 311, 317 Ellis, Ray 317, 318 Elshaug, Tony 174 Essendon all Danihers play together 8, 221–4 Anthony joins 183–4 Baby Bombers (original) 85 Baby Bombers Mark II 246–7, 256 changes with Sheedy 103, 115–16 Davis resigns 84–5, 101–2, 103 demonstration match in Japan 197 discontent with Sheedy 200–1, 202, 203 drinking culture 86 Fields released to South 60, 62 Grand Final 1983 148–52 Grand Final 1984 159–62 Grand Final 1985 173–4 Grand Final 1990 226–9 Grand Final 1993 257–9 Grand Final 2000 304–7

history of underachievement 116 injuries 196, 221, 243, 248, 256, 263 internal turmoil 1998 294–5 a losing culture 82–3, 85 Neale delisted 213 Neale part of Terry’s trade 63–6, 71, 73, 78, 80 Pagan to coach reserves 241 Sheedy appointed 103 Sheedy replaced by Knights 334 signs Terry 62–6 supporters 67, 83, 122 team ‘too cocky’ 118 team-building in 1980s 94–5 Terry reserves coach 294–7, 298, 301–2, 304 want Anthony 108, 109–10 want Chris 187, 189, 190 see also Sheedy, Kevin Euroa Football Club 10 Evans, Bernie 139, 179 Evans, Ron 201, 264 Exell, Gavin 211, 212 Ezard, Alan 157, 165, 227 Fagan, Chris 279, 280, 281, 287, 288, 300, 302, 307, 308, 313, 314, 320, 322–3, 324, 325, 327, 328, 329, 331 Farmer, Jeff 282, 283, 284, 285, 300, 303, 304, 306, 310 Febey, Steven 287, 300 Fields, Neville 59–60, 62, 63, 66, 67, 70–1, 73, 89, 90, 116 Findlay, Ian 229 Fitzpatrick, Mike 125 Fletcher, Dustin 169, 256, 257, 260, 272, 336 Fletcher, Ken 90, 96 Flood, David 259 Flower, Robert 146 Ford, Paul 307 Foschini, Silvio 139, 40–1, 144 Foulds, Gary 85, 102, 123, 129

Four Corners Football Club 6, 17–20, 26, 38, 80–1 Francis, Tony 225 Franklin, Tony 52, 60 Gale, Brendon 247 Ganmain Football Club 110–11, 112 Gannon, Ken 202 Gardner, Paul 318, 319, 320, 328, 329, 331 Gawley, Kerry and Robyn 45 Gay, Neville 190 Gayfer, Mick 217 Glendinning, Ross 149 Goggin, Bill 127, 219 Goodingham, Barry 48 Goss, Norm 46, 63, 71 Grant, Trevor 87, 88, 278 Green, Brad 289, 301, 303, 306, 328 Grenvold, David 190 Griff Evans Cup 16 Grong Grong–Matong 43, 111, 112, 188, 268 Gutnick, Joe 277, 283, 284, 287, 299, 301, 310, 313, 302 Hafey, Tom 115, 178, 179, 184, 199, 200 Hamilton, Paul 197, 202 Hammond, Bob 156, 165 Hampson, Roger 203, 232, 241 Hanlon, Peter 253 Hardeman, Gary 87 Hardie, Brad 173 Harmes, Wayne 93 Harper, Rob 291 Harris, Leon 234, 242 Harris, Steve 318–19, 329 Hart, Royce 31, 47, 97 Harvey, Mark 172, 222, 259, 274, 294 Harvey, Robert 271 Haselby, Paul 289 Hawke, Paul 253, 261, 267 Hawker, Glen 86, 123, 125, 126, 136, 142 Hayes, Alan 107 Hayes, Kenny 109 Heady, Brett 257–8 Healy, Gerard 177, 217 Healy, Greg 278

INDEX

Heard, Shane 240 Heffernan, Chris 317 Henley, Lindsay 34, 38 Henley, Lou 37 Heymanson, Bruce and Rosalie 99–100 Hird, James 244, 246, 249, 251, 255, 265, 272, 295, 297, 306 Hiskens brothers 257 Hobbs, Greg 51 Hocking, Garry 256 Hodge, Luke 310 Hoffman, Steve 55 Holland, Ben 319 Honeybun, David 247 Hooper, Colin 84, 296 Hounsell, Colin 46, 52 Hughes, Robert 267–8 Hunter, Ken 183 Hutchison, Greg 278, 279, 282, 288 Hyde, Robert 92 Ingerson, Anthony 286, 300, 303–4, 310 International Rules 163, 175, 184–5, 230, 295 Ireland, Dud 18 Ireland, John 81 Ireland, Terry 38 Ironmonger, John 219 Jackovich, Allen 240 Jackson, Francis 109 Jackson, Peter 294 Jackson, Stevan 225 Jeans, Allan 108, 151, 152, 255 Jenkinson, Noel 56 Jesaulenko, Alex 123 Jewell, Tony 115, 117, 119 John, Graeme 88 Johnson, Jason 298 Johnson, Steve 310 Johnston, Wayne 83 Johnstone, Travis 279, 306, 311, 312, 318, 326, 328 Jones, Bernie 63 Jones, Nathan 327 Judd, Chris 310, 321 Judkins, Noel 190

Keane, Merv 56 Keenan, Peter ‘Crackers’ 78, 83, 85, 92, 97 Kelly, Craig 227 Kelly, Paul 251, 255 Kelly, Ross 263–4 Kerley, Neil 88 Kernahan, Stephen 169, 183, 200, 257, 260, 263 Kerrosin, Shane 227 Kickett, Derek 227, 233, 247, 258, 259 Kilby, John 103 Kimberley, Craig 44, 56 King, Steven 326 Kink, Rene 101, 123. 147, 149, 151, 152, 172 Kinnear, Col 218 Kirwan, Ron 155, 193 Knights, Matthew 270, 334 Krakouer, Phil 137 Kruse, Max 91 Lake Cargilligo Football Team 39–40 Lambert, Greg 55 Langford, Chris 218 Lawson, Jamie 245 Leigh, Howard 102 Leoncelli, Andrew 300, 303, 304, 317 Light, Peter 145 Lingwood-Smith, Max 42, 44 Lloyd, Matthew 273, 296–7, 303 Lockett, Tony 195, 202, 208, 236, 244, 263, 273, 297 Loewe, Stuart 244, 263 Long, Michael 169, 209, 227, 257, 258, 259, 260 Longmire, John 199, 217, 218, 219, 245, 255 Longwood Football Club 10 Lord, Ray 46 Loveless, Shane 102 Lovett, Glenn 282, 284, 287 Lucas, Leo 44 Lucas, Scott 297, 330 Lunn, Stephen 128 Lynch, Mark 263, 338 Lyon, Garry 218, 282, 283, 285, 287, 289, 299, 307

357

McAlister, Alan 235 McConnell, Roy 62, 108 McDermott, Chris 258 McDonald, Anthony 282, 302 McDonald, James 306 McEvoy, Phil 79 McFarlane, Glenn 270 McGrane, Mark 34, 37, 237 McGrane, Tom 26, 32 McGuane, Mick 225, 226, 228 McGuinness, Tony 258 McGuire, Eddie 206–7, 314, 232 McKee, Terry 316 McKenna, Guy 316 McKenna, Peter 47 McLaughlin, Hugh 59 McLean, Brock 319, 328, 329 McLeish, David 55 McLintock, ‘Red’ 37, 237 Maclure, Mark 83, 90 McMahon, Graeme 294 McVeigh, Mark 298 Madden, Justin 79, 136, 258, 275 Madden, Simon 70, 85, 92, 96, 102, 119, 123, 126, 127, 132, 146, 148, 149, 160, 161, 162, 174, 197, 223, 225, 237, 241, 246, 249, 250, 275 Mahoney, Josh 315 Main, John 69 Malaxos, Steve 163 Malthouse, Mick 56, 155, 166, 173, 284, 314, 316 Manton, Glenn 251 Marks, Jack 112 Matthews, Bruce 127 Matthews, Leigh 47, 136, 150, 151, 152, 158, 173, 174, 228 Melbourne Football Club Balme sacked 277 Board instability 310, 318–19 captaincy 282 coach selection process 278 Daniher leaves mid-season 329–30 facilities 279, 322–3, 338

358

THE DANIHERS

failed Hawthorn merger 277, 283 finals 1998 285–6 financial woes 309, 310, 311, 313 Grand Final loss 2000 304–7 Gutnick 277, 283, 284, 287, 299, 301, 310, 313, 302 injuries 284, 317, 328–9 loses draft picks 289, 309 new game plan 2007 328–9 player payment investigated 286–7 playing style under Daniher 285 Stynes takes control of board 331–2 team’s mission statement 300–1 tsunami 323–5 two-tiered leadership 300 Woewodin trade 285, 313–15, 317 see also Daniher, Neale at Melbourne Meldrum, Paul 183 Mercuri, Mark 246, 251, 297 Merrett, Roger 79, 86, 123, 125, 142, 148, 149, 172, 196, 200, 294 Mickan, Mark 268–9 Millane, Darren 226, 229 Miller, Brad 311, 320, 328 Miller, Greg 48, 52, 109 Miller, Jim 26 Miller, Peter 40 Misiti, Joe 246, 251 Mitchell, Barry 217 Molan, Luke 310, 317 Molloy, Jarrod 316 Moncrief, Michael 47 Monkhorst, Damian 226 Mooney, Cameron 267–8 Moorcroft, Gary 317 Moore, Peter 93, 159 Morgan, Jim 79 Morris, Russell 217 Morwood, Paul 109, 139, 140, 141, 144 Morwood, Tony 109, 140, 199, 200

Motlop, Daniel 335 Murphy, John 60, 63, 70 Murphy, Robert 289 Murray, Peter 66 Neagle, Merv 68, 86, 101, 102, 125–6, 129, 142, 148, 161, 178, 210, 293 Neale, Kevin ‘Cowboy’ 108 Neesham, Gerard 264–5, 283 Neitz, David 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 288, 299, 300, 302, 303, 304, 306, 310, 311, 312, 318, 321, 326, 327, 329, 330 Newman, John 86 Newport, Stephen 279 Nicholson, Alistair 300, 317 Nicholson, Rod 53 Northern Jets 2 Northern Riverina League 16, 17, 24, 33, 39, 80, 106, 126, 188 Northey, John 165, 169, 177, 195, 265 O’Brien, Darren 279 O’Connor, Ryan 266 O’Donnell, Gary 202 210, 212, 215, 258 O’Donnell, Simon 78 O’Neill, Terry 51, 52, 54, 61 Obst, Andrew 279 Osborne, Richard 221 Ottens, Brad 280 Pagan, Denis 46–7, 241, 246, 250, 255, 294, 336 Parkin, David 54, 68, 87, 88, 169, 230, 260 Pavlich, Matthew 289 Peek, Tony 50, 66, 68 Perkin, Steve 50 Phillips, Brenton 195 Phillips, John 318 Picken, Billy 56, 179 Pickett, Byron 327 Pirak, Oberon 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 89 Pitura, John 56, 57, 59, 61, 66 Pleming, Bill 43 Porter, Ashley 57 Poulter, Geoff 85, 95

Powell, Stephen 301, 303, 304, 306 Powell, Tim 219 Power, Peter 115, 227 Prentice, Jim 40, 45, 107 Priest, Doug 261, 293 Primmer, Wayne 67, 68, 70 Prior, Tom 68 Pyman, Robert 279 Quade, Rick 40–2, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 57, 59, 60, 64–5, 67, 101, 109, 112–13, 131, 136, 139, 141, 142, 144, 146, 156, 254 Quinlan, Bernie 124, 129, 145, 148, 149 Quinn, John 295 Raines, Geoff 159, 181, 193, 195 Ramanauskas, Adam 298 Rantall, John 44, 46, 55, 69, 131 Ratten, Brett 258, 336 Read, Phil 319 Reid, Bruce 130, 158, 221, 237 Reynolds, Dick 161 Reynolds, Ian 130 Rhys-Jones, David 139, 217 Ricciuto, Mark 258 Rice, John 65–6, 73, 91, 147, 167 Richards, Lou 50, 55, 67, 68, 70, 89, 90, 101, 117, 121, 125, 126, 146, 149, 155, 167, 194, 235 Richardson, Matthew 265 Richmond, Graeme 103, 201, 219, 231 Ricketson, Matthew 137, 154 Ridley, Clarence 80 Ridley, Todd 247 Rigoni, Guy 280, 300, 317, 326 Rioli, Maurice 149 Rivers, Jared 317, 320, 325, 329 Roach, Michael 98, 133 Roberts, Brian ‘Whale’ 65 Roberts, John 141 Roberts, Mark 219, 255

INDEX

Robertson, Colin 151 Robertson, Max 52 Robertson, Russell 284, 306, 310, 312, 326–7 Robins, Stephen 67, 86 Rocca, Anthony 316 Roger, Barry 142 Rogers, Aaron 311 Roos, Paul 245 Round, Barry 48, 53, 129, 131, 139–40, 141, 156, 158, 165, 169 Rowling, Harry 34 Rowlings, Lachlan 291 Royal, Brian 299, 307, 308 Russell, Scott 226 St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School 26–7, 28, 151 St Patrick’s College, Goulburn 29–30, 58, 73–4, 75 Salmon, Paul 143, 55, 157, 169, 172, 174, 181, 182, 219, 222, 226, 256, 259 Sanson, Harry 37–8, 39–40 Sawyers, Rowan 160 Schimmelbusch, Wayne 195 Schultz, Graeme 121 Schwab, Alan 78, 201, 240 Schwab, Cameron 277, 278, 287 Schwab, Peter 278 Schwarz, David 280–1, 282, 283, 284, 288, 300, 303, 310, 311–12, 318 Schwass, Wayne 271 Scott, Brett 114, 200 Sebastian, Sister Mary 27–8, 245 Serafini, Laurie 62, 78 Sewell, Greg 142, 162 Seymour, Brad 253 Shanahan, Jamie 266, 279, 284, 287, 300 Shaw, Robert 132, 294 Shaw, Tony 226, 227 Sheahan, Mike 99, 124, 132, 193, 241, 271–2 Sheedy, Kevin appointed coach 103 coaches 400th game 274

and Daniher family 103, 116, 117, 124, 132, 142, 162, 167, 168, 171, 184, 233, 242, 253, 269, 274, 340 discontent under (1988) 200–1, 202, 203 facing the sack 294 first flag 1984 161 getting four Danihers into same team 8, 175, 187, 191, 203–4, 209, 213, 222–4 Grand Final 1990 227, 228 jacket wave 257 on his time at the club 152 phoney selections 239–40 replaced by Knights 334 Richmond player 56, 103 Swans approach 177–8, 241 Sheehy, Bernie 135 Sidebottom, Gary 96 Simmonds, Troy 302 Simonovic, Peter 147, 205 Slattery, Geoff 122 Smith, Damian 172, 178 Smith, Greg 38–9, 144 Smith, Michael 52, 55 Smith, Nicholas 317 Smith, Norm 55, 277–8 Smithers, Patrick 239 Somerville, Peter 240, 259 South Melbourne 38, 40, 41, 42 Anthony tied to 105, 108, 109–10, 112–13 chase Fields 59–60, 61, 62 finals 1977 54–7 lose Neale with Terry 62–6, 73, 80 relocates to Sydney 131, 139–40 results of recruiting game 70–1, 80, 89, 90 Terry signs with 42, 44–5 Terry trade bait 61, 62 Spalding, Earl 260 Sporn, Kieran 211, 227, 231 Spry, Gary 86 Starcevic, Craig 228, 231, 232 Stevens, Mark 305 Stevens, Nick 319

359

Stewart, Ian 44, 45, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 62, 65, 88–9, 114, 120, 121, 131, 140 Stidwell, Norman 16–17 Stoneham, Alan 95, 123 Stoneham, Barry 219 Stubbs, Colin 62, 64, 68, 80, 103 Stynes, Jim 219, 230, 240, 282, 283, 284, 286, 289, 299, 307, 331, 332 Sumich, Peter 224, 225, 235, 248 Sydney Swans 114 crowd entertainment 182 Edelsten 177, 178, 182 financial problems 157 internal fighting 156 night premiership 139 1986 finals series 183–4 raid on Foschini and Morwood 140–1 release Chris 188, 189 without a Daniher 70–1 see also South Melbourne Sylvia, Colin 319 Symons, Michael 251 Szondy, Gabriel 310, 318 Tarrant, Chris 316 Taylor, Brian 202 Teal Cup 38–9, 79, 80, 107–8, 111, 188 Teasdale, Graham 46, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54–5, 56, 64, 66, 131 Temora Football Club 291–2 Templeton, Kelvin 88 Thomas, Grant 129, 328, 336 Thomas, Ron 183–4 Thompson, Mark 143, 161, 168, 195, 212, 215, 237, 249, 258, 294 Thompson, Scott 309 Tingay, Stephen 282, 284, 287 Todd, John 163, 200 Toleman, John 59, 60, 61 Toohey, Bernard 177 Tuck, Michael 87, 94, 223 Tuddenham, Des 57, 59, 60, 62, 64–5, 88

360

THE DANIHERS

Tullibigeal Football Club 7, 16, 19, 20, 40 Turner, Professor Ian 2 Turvey Park Football Club 107, 110, 252, 253, 259, 261, 267, 294 Ungarie 1–7, 23, 24, 31, 159, 162, 339 Ungarie Football Club (Magpies) 4–5, 11, 12, 13, 15–17, 18, 19, 25, 26–7, 32–3, 34–5, 37–8, 39, 40, 41, 80–1, 106, 188, 189, 190, 220–1, 237, 305, 339–40 Van Der Haar, Paul 68, 70, 76, 85, 86, 90, 92, 96, 99–100, 102, 103, 118, 125, 132, 136, 137, 142, 145, 148, 160, 161, 172, 181, 195, 196, 200, 201, 211, 212, 215, 226, 227, 235, 237, 53, 336–7 Vardy, Peter 311, 12, 317 Vernon, Daryl 143 Viney, Todd 282, 284, 286, 287, 289, 299, 307

Wade, Doug 119 Wagga Tigers 251–4, 259, 260, 267–8, 292, 293, 294, 295 Walker, Tristen 316 Wallace, Terry 122, 136 Wallis, Dean 198, 211, 259, 297, 306 Walls, Robert 92, 148, 265, 282, 286 Walsh, Kevin 161, 173, 202 Walsh, Mike 188 Walsh, Peter 302 Walters, Robert 91 Wanganeen, Gavin 247 Ward, Daniel 302, 306, 318 Ward, Ned 26 Ward, Noel 37 Watson, Anthony 252 Watson, Tim 70, 85, 101, 102, 103, 118, 123, 125, 126, 128–9, 132, 145, 148, 149, 151, 160, 161, 173, 181, 195, 201, 207, 212, 226, 241, 249, 256, 258, 301 Watt, George 40 Weidemann, Wayne 292 Weightman, Dale 118, 119, 166, 218, 219

West, Scott 304 Weston, Paul 143, 149, 160, 161, 162, 168, 178, 294 Wheadon, David 241, 271 Wheildon, Darren 244 White, Jeff 279, 284, 285, 300, 306, 326, 328 Whitten, Ted 162, 201–2, 208, 218, 219, 220, 230, 231, 239 Williams, Darren 160, 181, 211 Williams, Greg 177, 258 Williams, Mark 96, 159 Wilson, Gary 67 Woewodin, Shane 285, 286, 300, 301, 302, 304, 306–7, 309–10, 312, 313–15, 316, 317, 338 Wood, Bryan 143, 150, 174, 250 Woods, Vi 49, 52, 113 Wright, Steve 178, 217 Yeates, Mark 231 Yze, Adem 284, 300, 303, 310 Zantuck, Shane 57