The Joe Daniher experience: Unpacking how you need to take the good with the bad with the star Lion
He’s easy to spot on the field, not just because of his height but his ability to do both the ridiculous and miraculous at the same time. CALLUM DICK unpacks the full Joe Daniher experience.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
In Brisbane they call it the Joe Daniher Experience.
When your towering 200cm talisman is equal parts capable of missing from directly in front as he is splitting the sticks from 60m out on the boundary line, it can make for a wild ride.
But Lions fans have learned to take the good with the bad and for the most part, the Joe Daniher Experience has delivered more thrills than spills in its four-season stint at the Gabba.
He is the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Like Dustin Martin and Lance Franklin, whose famously private lives outside of football vexed some and were lauded by others, Daniher’s relative anonymity has only added to the intrigue.
What little the footy public learns of Smokin’ Joe always leaves us wanting more.
He plays in Queensland but lives in Northern New South Wales. He doesn’t own a TV. His Instagram account is set to private with a profile picture that looks to be at least a decade old.
1 thing you don't know about Joe - in celebration of his big 200 this weekend 💥 pic.twitter.com/EMQroVPVpK
— Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) August 22, 2024
Earlier this season when he missed training, the club said he was sick. In fact, he was at the hospital with his partner who was giving birth. Only a select few knew.
In a social media clip this week, Daniher’s teammates were asked to share something about him that people would not know.
It was telling that their responses – from keeping a coffee machine in the back of his car to being an animated movie aficionado – could not be sleuthed as fact or fiction.
Daniher’s unplugged lifestyle might seem crazy to many in the modern world but his laid-back approach has even rubbed off on teammates.
Midfielder Deven Robertson gets coffee with him most days. Robertson became an instant Instagram star last season when his jersey was ripped from his back in the round 23 clash against Collingwood.
His following ballooned from 11,000 to 30,000 overnight and is now in the mid-80s. But he has not posted anything in 14 weeks. Why?
“Joe is a bit of a role model for me, the way he goes about it and how reserved and laid-back he is,” Robertson told this masthead.
“I love his outlook on life.
“I’ve tried to start deleting my social media now. I felt like it got a bit consuming there for a little bit.”
Earlier this year, Chris Fagan revealed he coached Daniher with a light touch because “Joey plays better when Joey is happy”.
“I try not to get too upset about some of the things Joey does. I tend to have a bit of a laugh with him about some of the things – that’s a better way to deal with it with him.”
Fagan’s philosophy has been criticised by sections of the media this week, who have juggled apportioning blame for the one-point loss to Collingwood on Daniher’s set-shot miss from directly in front, while also conceding he was among the best on ground.
It was the quintessential Joe Daniher Experience.
“He divides opinions I suppose, Joey, but what I do know about him is he’s got a good heart and he always puts the team first,” Fagan said.
“When he makes some of those mistakes that everybody comments on, it’s usually coming from a good place.
“Every now and then he gets it wrong, as do a lot of players. He seems to pay a larger price for that than some.
“A backline player can try and pull off a kick that’s a bit risky and make a mistake and we never criticise those guys (whereas) Joey could take a shot at goal when maybe he should have passed it and we’re all over him like a tonne of bricks.”
Like all of Brisbane’s free agent acquisitions, Fagan played a pivotal role in luring the spearhead to the Lions.
As a wantaway Bomber he was eager to leave the limelight and heavy burden of the Daniher name behind him.
Seemingly destined for Sydney at the end of 2019 after meeting with the Swans’ hierarchy, that trade never eventuated and Brisbane became the major beneficiary the following year.
From 2018-20, Daniher featured just 15 times as injuries cruelled his final years at The Hanger.
But in Brisbane he has flourished, playing 91 of a possible 97 games. He has already kicked more goals in four seasons at the Lions than he did in eight at the Bombers.
Fagan’s philosophy appears to be working.
His 49 goals this season are good for equal-fifth in the Coleman Medal race with one round still to go. He is the No. 3 ranked key forward according to Champion Data, behind only Jesse Hogan and Harry McKay.
Only Jeremy Cameron averages more disposals per game and only Charlie Curnow more score involvements.
In a funny twist of fate, Daniher will run out for game 200 on Saturday night against the club he was born to play for. How different would the Bombers’ season look if they still had Daniher as the focal point of the attack?
Despite the way in which it ended, Daniher said playing for the club he grew up supporting was “a dream come true” and being able to play against the Bombers in his 200th game was special.
“I grew up a Bombers fan, part of the Bombers family,” Daniher said on Friday.
“I loved my time there. Unfortunately it was a really challenging period for the football club that we had to navigate our way through and along with that I had some challenging injuries to work through ... but I look back now and I’m very grateful for the memories.”
“The Essendon Football Club means a lot to me. To see their growth in the last 12 months has been really exciting.
“Hep (Dyson Heppell) finishing up - just a tremendous career - he’s done so much for that football club and sacrificed so much of his career for that place, and Zach Merrett has done the same.
“Hopefully, when I’m retired I can look back and see the Bombers going really well. But for now it’s hopefully seeing the Lions get the win on the weekend.”
At times he looks lackadaisical and it can rub people the wrong way. When he misses simple set shots, he smiles. And when he roosts a goal on the run from 50, barely offers a grin.
But when the modern game is so much about what happens between the ears, Daniher’s even-keeled approach might be the best one.
For all the criticism that has been levelled at the polarising power forward over the journey, he has made a habit of standing tall when his team needed him the most.
Only once in the past nine finals’ series has a key forward kicked 10 or more goals – and that was Daniher in 2023.
If the Lions had gone on to win the flag, he would have been in contention to win the Norm Smith Medal such was his impact with three goals from 16 disposals.
As Fagan put it on Thursday: “At the Lions, in his career here so far, we’ve seen a lot of good stuff from Joe and he’s helped us win a lot of games.”
All week the football world has debated the good, bad and ugly when it comes to Joe Daniher.
So what does the man himself think?
Of the criticism from Matthew Lloyd? Unlikely to have heard it. The praise from his coach to media on Thursday? Doubtful it reached him.
Last time Daniher faced Essendon, he kicked six goals. He is very chance to do it again – or not.
That is the beauty of the Joe Daniher Experience.
Strap in.
Originally published as The Joe Daniher experience: Unpacking how you need to take the good with the bad with the star Lion
AFL Finals: Hinkley says ‘why not us’ as Port plot to stun Swans
The last time these two sides met, the Power won by 112 points. Port have won the last eight clashes, but with a place on the last Saturday in September on the line, will that end? Follow live.
Brayshaw gutted after massive MMM shake-up
Radio station Triple M has undergone a major shake-up, with one of the moves devastating broadcaster James Brayshaw.