Neale Daniher has been taking on the challenge of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) with the same vigour his father, Jim, showed in growing Australian rules football in NSW.
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The former Melbourne Demons coach and Essendon footballer is headed to Ungarie for a few days to catch up with his parents and the timing couldn’t be better, after the first all-NSW AFL final between the GWS Giants and Sydney Swans.
“Well he’d be quietly chuffed about that. He used to not only put a lot of energy into our local Ungarie club, but also Riverina teams and New South Wales juniors, where we’d get flogged every year by the Vics and by the Western Australians,” Daniher said with a grin.
”Now here we are and NSW has got two top teams so I think he’d be chuffed with that.”
Daniher, in his mission to raise awareness and funds to try to find a cure for MND, is as aware now as he ever was of the importance of the greater football community.
“From the top of the AFL down to the country league where I come from, Northern Riverina, both football and netball, it’s a real glue for the community,” he said.
Daniher stopped in Wagga on the way to Ungarie so that he could thank the Wagga and District Junior football and netball clubs for supporting an initiative with Sportsman’s Warehouse, after players all bought and wore blue socks for a number of games.
He also paid tribute to Barellan’s Jamieson family for their work in raising awareness at a Farrer League game this year.
“I’m really appreciative – we say every cent counts, every dollar counts – and we’re very grateful for all of their efforts,” he said.
Football communities are crucial in Daniher’s ambition to help fund and find a cure for MND. Every effort is made to raise money to aid research into the disease.
“MND is a killer. It kills two people every day. Two or three get diagnosed every day and right now, there’s not a lot of hope… and there’s plenty of MND sufferers in this area,” he said.
“It’s a bit of an anonymous disease, an expensive disease especially for families. Unfortunately for people getting diagnosed there used to be no hope. They say, ‘there’s nothing we can do for you’. We want to change that.”
As well as the Big Freeze, there’s the Daniher’s Drive – a four-day drive through Victoria in October, to raise awareness and money.
This year’s is already sold out. Daniher said he’d love to bring it to the Riverina next year.
- Go to www.curemnd.org.au to donate, find out more, or register your interest in next year’s Daniher’s Drive
