In brief
- Neale Daniher, former AFL player and motor neurone disease campaigner, has died at 65.
- A former Australian of the Year, Daniher established the FightMND charity to fund research into the disease.
Over the first 52 years of his life, Neale Daniher became well-known and admired as a very good, if injury-prone, VFL/AFL footballer who played with his three brothers at Essendon and as a coach at Melbourne.
Over the final 13 years, he became far better known and far more admired for his tireless, selfless and passionate campaign to raise awareness of the disease that killed him.
Daniher died on Monday, aged 65, from motor neurone disease, an illness he mockingly called "The Beast" and one he defied with good humour and great dignity while ever he could.
"From day one, Neale was a fighter. His determination was unmatched — choosing every day to find opportunity where others might see only challenge, and taking the fight to the Beast with everything he had," the Daniher family said in a statement.
Daniher was named Australian of the Year in 2025, an award that had never been "so unanimously agreed to by every single Australian", according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
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"With the passing of Neale Daniher, we all grieve for the great Australian," Albanese said in parliament on Monday.
"Neale fought what he called The Beast with the courage, optimism, and passion that brought hope and inspiration into the lives of everyone affected by MND."
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has confirmed Daniher will be honoured with a state memorial service.
Daniher's colleagues and competitors across the AFL have also shared emotional tributes.
Daniher coached Melbourne in 223 games across 10 seasons, after playing 82 games for Essendon in a career ravaged by injuries.
"I think he was 21 when he was appointed Essendon captain, he was a superstar on the rise and then multiple knee injuries ... so his courage and determination shone through there, didn't it?" St Kilda coach Ross Lyon told the Australian Associated Press.
"And then he went in and picked up a struggling Melbourne football club off its knees, from the bottom of the ladder to a prelim and grand finals."
Lyon said Daniher was "just incredibly selfless" and "a great family man".
"He made a mark in everything that he did — he wanted to make everyone's lives better."
From the time he was diagnosed in 2013, Daniher knew what would happen. MND sufferers generally only live for three to five years after diagnosis.
But he refused to believe it couldn't be cured, launching a campaign to raise both awareness of the disease and money to find a cure.
"The disease will get me, I know," Daniher said in one of scores of appearances at Aussie rules events.
"But why I do it is that two or three people will die today while I'm talking to you and two or three will die tomorrow and two or three died yesterday.
"And what drives me is it's curable. This is curable. I can't accept that right now there's no treatment or cure. It mightn't help me, but what can I do that might make it better for others?"
Adopting a commonplace term in Aussie rules, Daniher declared he would "play on".
"In football, if you play on, something happens. If you go back, don't play on, nothing happens.
"So we're the same. We'll play on, and we'll keep playing on."
AFL fans to support FightMND
Daniher and his supporters established the charity FightMND to raise what he hoped would amount to a few million dollars for their cause. It has raised many multiples of that.
Even after losing his ability to speak, Daniher still attended the annual AFL fixture between Melbourne and Collingwood with his daughter, Bec, by his side.
This year's match between Collingwood and Melbourne will mark the 12th Big Freeze event, a fundraiser for FightMND.
Former Demons player and AFL commentator Garry Lyon said it's an opportunity for supporters to fill the MCG "to the absolute top" and pay their respects.
"This is why he [Daniher] sacrificed his life, to raise money for this," Lyon said on Fox Footy.
Lyon, who spent the final two seasons of his playing career under Daniher at the Melbourne Demons, fondly recalled a tough-as-nails coach.
"He was a hard-arse ... he was a mean, nasty man, which is exactly what we needed because we'd become a bit soft and we'd been on the bottom of the ladder," Lyon said.
"That resonated with me. I loved it. A few of the young boys probably took a bit of time to come through with it.
"But we went from easily the worst team in the competition — that was his first message to us — to a preliminary final in his first year.
"It was pretty special. He was just ready to coach."
Todd Viney, who was skipper for two years under Daniher, said "The Reverend" had an aura about him when he first arrived at the Demons.
"He made his mark on the club immediately, taking us to a preliminary final in his first year and a grand final two years later," said Viney, now North Melbourne's football manager.
"Even after he left Melbourne, he remained a revered figure among his former players.
"He was such a positive role model for so many of us - not just footy but life and the challenges it throws at you."
From farm to footy field
Neale Daniher was born on 15 February 1961, the second of four sons, and one of 11 children, of Jim and Edna Daniher, wheat and sheep farmers near Ungarie in central NSW.
He began his education at St Joseph's Catholic School at Ungarie, then went to St Patrick's College, Goulburn, before moving to the legendary footballer-producing school, Assumption College at Kilmore in Victoria.
During his school days Daniher played for Ungarie in the Northern Riverina League and later at Assumption, playing his first game for Essendon in 1979 at the age of 18.
In its biographical notes on Daniher, the AFL records, somewhat prophetically, that he was "possibly the most naturally gifted, and certainly the unluckiest, of the Daniher brothers".
Daniher certainly possessed great skills, but a knee reconstruction in his third season with the Bombers, and two more after that, restricted him to 82 games in his 11 seasons with the club.
Daniher nevertheless accomplished an AFL/VFL first when he and brothers Terry, Anthony and Chris all started for Essendon in the round 22 match of 1990 against St Kilda at Moorabbin.
The four Daniher brothers also played State of Origin together for NSW.
Following his enforced retirement as a player, Daniher had a short stint as assistant coach at Fremantle before he was appointed senior coach at Melbourne, where he guided the club through 223 matches, including the 2000 grand final, which they lost to an all-conquering Essendon.
After departing Melbourne, Daniher became football operations manager at West Coast, remaining in that role until 2013.
It is, however, for his fight for MND sufferers that he will be remembered.
And for his defiantly accurate prediction: "I'm going to be hard to kill."
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