AFL Grand Final 2023: The mystery of Brisbane Lions star Joe Daniher

He was a Bombers father-son but the move north to the Brisbane Lions has helped Joe Daniher find his happy place and he might end up with a premiership medal.

He’s a man of mystery who really isn’t.

Following? Stay with us. Joe Daniher is an enigma when it comes to everything we’re used to from AFL footballers in 2023.

His social media presence is virtually zero, he doesn’t own a TV (we’ll get to that), he can take days to reply to text messages or phone calls and prefers to live in anonymity in a different state to the one his team is based.

“He marches to the beat of his own drum, there is no doubt about that,” Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann says. “It’s funny he’s different but he’s pretty popular among the players, they all like him.”

The no TV story stemmed from Daniher winning a brand new television for being best-on-ground and then in the post-game interview letting slip that he had no use for it.

“That is true, he doesn’t have one,” Swann explains. “He won a TV and then donated it to domestic violence as a fundraiser for them.”

Joe Daniher marks strongly against the Blues. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The star tall marches to the beat of his own drum, says Lions CEO Greg Swann. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

Daniher doesn’t live in Byron Bay as urban legend has it, although he’s only 20km up the road on the NSW coast in Ocean Shores, which is a 90-minute drive from Brisbane.

He commutes up to training and will crash in a hotel in Brisbane should the Lions schedule demand it, but prefers to be away from the big smoke as much as possible.

Hanging with his partner Adelle and their 12-month old daughter in their house overlooking the Pacific Ocean is his happy place.

The fact he’s also found a happy place on the football field is one of the great stories of the modern era (except if you’re an Essendon supporter).

Wind the clock back to 2017 and 23-year-old Daniher was the All-Australian full-forward after kicking 65 goals and winning Essendon’s best-and-fairest.

Over the next three years at the Bombers, he played just 15 games as his body fell apart.

In 2019, he was caught in a car in Sydney with Swans CEO Tom Harley who was dangling a fresh start in front of him but a request to move north didn’t eventuate.

Twelve months later when he was out-of-contract after another injury-ravaged season, playing just four games, Daniher left as a restricted free agent for Brisbane.

Daniher lives doesn’t even live in Queensland. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

“When he didn’t get to Sydney we kept an eye on him and said would you be interested in coming up here,” Swann recalls. “(Chris) Fages went and talked to him and it’s funny because we really took a punt given he had hardly played. I think it was eight games in two years.”

Brisbane’s medical team were renowned for their mysterious healing powers and they sprinkled their magic dust on the 201cm forward who played every game in his first season with the Lions.

Apart from a shoulder injury last year, it has been plain sailing for Daniher, particularly in regards to soft-tissue problems which had haunted him over the first half of his career.

It’s no surprise that one of his closest mates at the Lions is Linc McCarthy who shares a similar tale, injury-prone at Geelong and then comes to Brisbane and plays every week.

This season Daniher has gone to another level, thanks mainly to getting on top of his goal kicking yips which at different times throughout his career have been laughable.

He kicked 5.1 goals against Port Adelaide in the qualifying final and 2.1 against Carlton in the preliminary final to take his season’s tally to 58.36.

“That’s the one, that’s the miracle,” Swann says. “It hasn’t always been the way but at the moment he’s going all right.”

Ironically Daniher’s father, Anthony, made his only appearance in an AFL grand final for Essendon against Collingwood in 1990.

He played 233 games throughout his career, half of those at Sydney, before he joined his other brothers – Neale, Terry and Chris – at Windy Hill. The four of them played in only one game together for Essendon, Round 22 of 1990 against St Kilda.

Despite his rich football background, Joe wasn’t desperate to play AFL. There was more hype and pressure around his older brother, Darcy, who joined the Bombers in the 2007 draft.

Joe Daniher during his time at the Bombers with then coach John Worsfold. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos.)

He was four-and-a-half years older and smaller than Joe, more midfield than key position but his four seasons at Essendon were marred by groin problems which eventually forced him to retire in 2011 after just six games.

At this stage Joe was just a “project player” with the Calder Cannons. He was skinny, tall and not overly fussed if he made it or not.

However, his undoubted talent showed out when he was named in the TAC Cup team of the year despite only playing seven matches. The Bombers couldn’t wait to get their hands on him, drafting him as a father-son selection at No. 10 in the 2012 national draft.

A decade on and Daniher is following in his father’s footsteps, albeit wearing different colours, with experts unanimous about him being one of the key players who will shape the result of the Grand Final.

As Brownlow Medallist and Norm Smith Medallist Jimmy Bartel observed during the week, it depends which Joe turns up.

“When we see the good Daniher he is unstoppable,” Bartel said. “But the bad Joey Daniher, you can’t have contests where you just go through the motions. This is grand final day, it is going to be hot and you need everyone on board.

“When he is engaged, he is as dangerous as anyone.”

The good thing for Joe is he wouldn’t have seen those comments from Footy Classified … because they were on the television.

Originally published as AFL Grand Final 2023: The mystery of Brisbane Lions star Joe Daniher