Mark Robinson on Essendon Hall of Fame: Neale Daniher’s heartbreaking speech and the tears for living and lost treasures

Tim Watson was at pains to extol the leadership and resilience of his great mate Neale Daniher on a memorable night for the Essendon faithful.

Neale Daniher is pictured with brothers Terry, Anthony and Chris after being elevated to legend status at the 2022 Essendon Football Club Hall of Fame dinner.

It was a night to celebrate living treasures and lost treasures in what was Essendon’s most memorably important occasion since the 2000 premiership.

The Hall of Fame induction to legend status of Neale Daniher, Dr Bruce Reid, Dustin Fletcher and Gavin Wanganeen on Thursday was poignant, comedic, uplifting and emotional.

As always, Daniher’s heroics against Carlton in Round 2, 1981, weren’t ignored. As Lou Richards called it at the time: “Neale Daniher comes in for the kick to possibly win the game … he’s put it though and the Bomber have hit in the front.”

Footy’s back! Everything you need to know for 2022 is in the Herald Sun footy magazine. Click here for more details.

Neale Daniher with brothers Anthony, Chris and Terry after being elevated to legend status at the 2022 Essendon Football Club Hall of Fame dinner. Picture: Mark Stewart

Bombers chairman Paul Brasher spoke of that cherished final minutes at Princes Park and recalled, with tongue in cheek, that it was the match in which Blues captain Mike Fitzpatrick was penalised for time wasting.

“I have to say I don’t think we got a lot of sympathy from Mike when we had to deal with him as an AFL chairman … his lack of love for the Essendon football club.”

Boomtish! You’ve got to love footy clubs.

Attended by 600 people at Melbourne Showgrounds, it was the kind of night Essendon needed.

Indeed, it was the kind of night all football clubs need, the gathering of past champs and modern-day players for an audience craving its footy and its people.

The “moment” will be remembered as the photo of the Daniher brothers — Terry, Neale, Anthony and Chris standing together on stage — but the emotion was for 38-year club doctor Bruce Reid, who died in October, 2020, from cancer. He was 74.

Not that all the tears were saved for Reidy.

It is now nine years since Daniher was diagnosed with MND — a hellish disease that generally takes lives after three to four years.

Tim Watson was at pains to extol the leadership and resilience of his great mate who, Watson regaled, was made captain of the Bombers at 21.

“He just had this persona about him which Kevin Sheedy noticed and it’s why he (Sheedy) made him captain at a young age,” Watson said.

“No one expected him to be captain at that time, but it’s amazing, Kevin identified something in him as a leader and the way his life played out, obviously been made captain and then went into coaching, and post all of that time, when he got diagnosed with MND, he became a massive leader across the country.

“Kevin to his genius spotted something in a very early age and it became true. What he saw in Neale was displayed right throughout his life.”

Dr Bruce Reid, Kevin Sheedy and Mark Harvey in 2016. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Not everyone was thrilled with the captaincy elevation, however.

Brother Terry said: “I just couldn’t have him captain of me.

“I said, fair dinkum Kev, we’ve got to have a look at this, I can’t have my younger brother telling me what to do out on the footy field.”

Neale’s son Ben read his dad’s acceptance speech.

It was thoughtful and thankful and typically selfless. He spoke of Dr Reid, Wanganeen and Fletcher, telling one story of how a 17-year-old Fletcher caused ructions in the Daniher family.

Neale was assistant coach in 1993, Fletcher’s first of 23 seasons, and the conversation surrounded whether Fletcher would kick Anthony Daniher out of full-back.

“When word got back to my mother, Edna, we were considering a skinny teenager still at school as the new full-back, well, that was a very awkward Christmas,” Ben relayed.

At Essendon from 1978 to 1994, Daniher spoke of club presidents and footy people, and board members and physios and, of course, Sheedy and his teammates.

“All good football clubs have good people and Essendon was no exception,’’ Ben read from Neale’s speech.

“And thanks, Sheeds, I always thought you had my back. I’d like to thank three players for their support and friendship for all those years, and these are my three brothers.

“Terry my older brother was a trailblazer, he came to Melbourne first, he was an inspiration.

“To my younger brothers — firstly, Anthony, it was great to get you to the Bombers and blossom into an All Australian full-back and to Chris, you took Terry’s advice and worked your butt off.”

With that, Daniher said: “If you could indulge me I’d like to invite my three brothers to the stage for one final photograph.”

It was moment in time, not just for Neale and his brothers, but for Essendon and all of footy. The four Daniher brothers together, maybe in public for the final time.

It drew a standing ovation and a mixture of tears and smiles.

Chris cried as he departed the stage.

Neale Daniher’s son Ben reading his dad’s emotional speech. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I got quite emotional,” he said.

Anthony said: “We’re just so proud of him.’’

Their pride in their brother probably surpasses the sadness of what looms.

Terry said: “He’s going to fight, but it’s inevitable. But what do you? It was a pretty special (moment), it’s not too often we get together and times like this are very special.

“We realise the fight he’s got in front of him, you know, it’s been a busy period in our family … but you’ve got to get on with it, you can’t sook or sit back.

“He’s not looking for sympathy or anything like that, it’s not the way to go. We can learn a thing or two about how he’s conducted himself.”

Sister Nerolee playfully scoffed at why the seven sisters weren’t in a photo.

“They were missing the sisters,” she said, “but yeah, it was beautiful.”

Beautiful is word that sits large over both Daniher and Doc Reid.

In essence, Reid was a club doctor more than the team doctor for he treated the players and staff and all their families across almost four decades.

In tribute, former skipper James Hird spoke of the enormous impact Reid had on him and the players.

There on Thursday night were Adam Ramanauskas, Barry Young, Mark Harvey, Joe Misiti, Gary Foulds, Simon Madden and, for the first time since 2103, popular backman Dean Wallis had returned to the club.

It truly was a night for reflection and celebration.

Michael Long spoke of the love he and Reid shared love for Slim Dusty.

Paul Van Der Haar, who was one of the doctor’s favourites, spoke of their combined love of water skiing and their family holidays at Yarrawonga.

Harvey regaled Reid — a one-time reserves player at Hawthorn — for the way he used to joke about himself for being the best rover at Hawthorn until Leigh Matthews and Peter Crimmins arrived.

Long cried when he said of Reid: “You never forget great people.’’

Neale Daniher at Essendon training in 1989.

Gavin Wanganeen said being inducted as an Essendon is his greatest achievement.

Reid, who arrived at Essendon in 1982, was remembered for his professionalism, care and scallywag behaviour.

“Bruce wasn’t just a doctor, he was a story teller,” Hird said.

“It was great to come to the club and hang out with Reidy.”

The players loved him and loved taking the mickey out of him.

As did his family.

Reid’s son Woody accepted the Hall of Fame honour from the club and said: “Mum (Judy) is the unsung hero of our family, raising us five kids, allowing dad to invest more time his career, Essendon, Mad Mondays and footy trips.

“In his final weeks we asked him what this award meant to him.

“The first one was pride and the second thing, beyond any award, it was the care for the players and he felt that care was reciprocated.

“The reciprocation of care could also be menacing. Nothing made him smile more than when players and staff would banter with him and he gave as good as he got.

“Nearly every Mad Monday he would come home with his shirt ripped off and his shoelaces burnt to a crisp, but he had a smile from ear to ear.

“We would often sit at Yarrawonga and dad would be looking at his phone and laughing after receiving a text from past players.

“The message was usually along the lines of this: ‘Merry Xmas Doc, you are still a little effing old ugly prick. Love ya mate. From Dean Solomon’.’’

It was Sheedy who convinced Dr Reid to leave Richmond for Windy Hill.

On Thursday night, and not for the first time, an old mate said a grand goodbye.

Sheedy can sometimes be zany and bounce from conversation to conversation, but not this night. Sheedy was at his comical and authentic best.

Kevin Sheedy was at his authentic best on Thursday night. Picture: Alex Coppel.

One time, he said, he had a cancer on his leg, so he visited Doc Reid’s office.

“There was nothing worse than walking out of Bruce Reid’s surgery because there was always about eight people waiting,” Sheedy said.

“He said, ‘I think that cancer will be all right Kevin, but I’ve given you five repeat prescriptions for Viagra, you’ll be OK Kevin’. He had a great sense of humour.’’

To the Reid family, Sheedy finished with: “He was a beautiful person, the whole family is beautiful, and to Woody and everyone here, the greatest thing you can have is the video in your mind remembering the people that you love, in particular your own parents, and in this case it is Bruce Reid.’’

Reid’s wife, Judy, said she loved it when people got stuck into her husband.

“He always told us how good he was, that was him, and half of it was bulls**t,’’ she said with a smile.

Tears were a theme of the night.

When Wanganeen was called to the stage, he choked up and couldn’t speak for close to a minute.

The first Aboriginal player to win the Brownlow Medal, aged just 20, Wanganeen also played in two premierships — in 1993 at Essendon and 2004 with Port Adelaide.

The depth of his appreciation for what Essendon did for him, and most recently for his son, was clearly evident.

“This is so special to be named an Essendon legend, so special that it’s probably my greatest achievement,” he said.

Originally published as Mark Robinson on Essendon Hall of Fame: Neale Daniher’s heartbreaking speech and the tears for living and lost treasures