\u2018My second dad\u2019: Heartfelt tributes flow for \u2018extraordinary Australian\u2019 Daniher<\/a><\/p>\nMost significant in the eyes of Lyon was Daniher\u2019s courage to become a \u201cpublic figure\u201d leading the charge against MND while suffering. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would you do if you were faced with the same challenge? \u2026 How would you go? I know what I\u2019d do – I\u2019d disappear, selfishly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd all he\u2019s done is fronted up and become a much more public figure than he probably ever thought he would be, at a time when he deserved to just step away from the spotlight of the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis legacy is profound, but that\u2019s the thing that gets me.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL Legend Neale Daniher dies aged 65 | 05:40<\/p>\n
Lyon re-told a famous Daniher anecdote from shortly after he was hired as Melbourne coach in 1997. <\/p>\n
The Demons had finished last on the ladder<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, 1997, Melbourne comes last \u2026 and his first meeting would have been around September (1997), and he got us in a room and just said: \u2018You look like you\u2019ve all had your dogs run over! We\u2019re clearly the worst team in the competition!\u2019\u201d Lyon began. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had this stupid laugh on his face. Everyone knows that (we were the worst team). (He said) \u2018We\u2019re going to get to work, we\u2019re going to work harder than anyone has, so October 16th is when we start training\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we said: \u2018We start the day after the Melbourne Cup, that\u2019s when we start preseason\u2019. And he said \u2018nup\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe famously said to me – I\u2019d played six games and five games, I\u2019d had a back surgery – and he said: \u2018Listen, if you\u2019re going to break down, let\u2019s break you down properly, son\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I did the full preseason, and he got me through another year, and then I did break down properly. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a hard-arse, Gerard. When he got there, he was mean – he was a mean, nasty man, which is exactly what we needed, because we\u2019d become a bit soft, we\u2019d been on the bottom of the ladder. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat resonated with me; I loved it. There were a few of the young boys who probably took a bit of time to come through with it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe went from easily the worst team in the competition to a prelim final in his first year, which was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
After finishing 4-18 in 1997, Melbourne went 14-8 in \u201898, winning two finals before falling five goals short of North Melbourne in the preliminary final. <\/p>\n
Daniher led the Demons to two more finals campaigns, including a grand final appearance in 2000 – when Lyon was back at the club in a part-time support role. <\/p>\n
Daniher is set to be honoured with a state funeral in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demons great and former captain Garry Lyon remembered the late Neale Daniher on Monday night, telling a memorable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,15909,338332,321690,53995,10145,32923,181200,3231,338333,338334,58109,11315,71040,338331,85,338335,150014,138792],"class_list":["post-693552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben","tag-extraordinary-australian","tag-finals-campaigns","tag-football-player","tag-garry-lyon","tag-grand-final-appearance","tag-hilarious-reveal","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-melbourne-footy-club-whatsapp","tag-memorable-story","tag-motor-neurone-disease","tag-playing-career","tag-prelim-final","tag-public-figure","tag-sports","tag-support-role","tag-tributes-flow","tag-worst-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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