Joe Daniher reveals the truth about his Tom Harley meeting, 2019 trade request and Brisbane move
Joe Daniher has finally told his side of what happened in 2019, starting with his shock meeting with Sydney CEO Tom Harley and ending with requesting a trade to the Swans.
It was reported in August of 2019 by Sam McClure that Daniher caught up with Harley at his house in Sydney.
Then came the trade period and the Essendon star’s request to be traded to the Swans, one that appeared to make sense given the earlier meeting.
However, Daniher, speaking on new-teammate Mitch Robinson’s Rip Through It Podcast said that the meeting with Harley was strictly about off-field matters and the decision to request a trade came later.
“I had a personal relationship with Tom so I gave him a call to see if we could catch up and I wanted to talk about his growth from being a player, moving out of the industry, he was CEO of a football club in five or six years which is just absolutely crazy,” Daniher said.
“He was my mentor at the AIS (Academy). We caught up and had a brilliant discussion about how I could do things in life and what I needed to do to progress off-field and stuff like that.
“Someone obviously saw me with him and blew up about me going to Sydney and at that point I was like ‘I’m not going to go to Sydney’.
“There wasn’t even any chat of footy (at Harley’s house) … as the year kept unfolding I wasn’t getting too many wins with the body and the on-field stuff, so I started to think about a change, a change of environment, would that sort of help with the injury, help the mental state of performing and playing AFL, so it started to creep into my mind.
“Doing a little bit of reflecting, I had the choice to go to Sydney when I was younger and it was getting close to the end of the season and I was like ‘maybe that’s the best fit’, so I did a bit of research in my head and what that could sort of look like and if it was feasible and rang my manager at some stage real late in the year and said ‘I’m thinking of this’ and he was like ‘what’ and I was like ‘it’s not actually connected (to meeting Harley earlier in the year)’.
“He was like ‘just have a think about it’ and I had a think about it for a few more weeks and was like ‘yeah this feels like the right fit right now’ and went out and asked for it.”
The trade did not eventuate, with Essendon playing hard-ball with the Swans and knocking back their offer.
Daniher admits there were a few who weren’t happy with him returning to Tullamarine, but he wasn’t too fussed about the deal falling through.
“Essendon was fantastic and how we dealt with it was a really open discussion and they were like ‘it’s probably not going to happen’ and I was like ‘well, the old, you don’t get if you don’t ask’ so I asked ‘can we make this happen’ and they were like ‘if we get something that we think is fair, we’ll make it happen for you’ and I was like ‘alright perfect’,” he said.
“I was overseas at the time and they didn’t get something they thought was fair and let’s knuckle down for the season.
“As I touched on before it was unfortunate 2020, I couldn’t get out there and have a proper impact for the club, that would’ve been nice and it didn’t turn out to be a great year for us.
“I felt completely fine rolling back (into Essendon).
“Some people might not have been thrilled or happy, some teammates might not have been happy, but you can only do as well as you go in and train and I felt like I was putting in everything I could have and it’s unfortunate I wasn’t getting the benefit of that, I wasn’t getting visual support for the guys ‘I’m out here kicking goals for you guys I’m actually committed’.
“I was training reasonably hard to get out there, but it just wasn’t happening for me, which was a bit unlucky, but I was very lucky with the people at the Essendon Football Club at the time, our GM, I was very close with our CEO and still am Xavier Campbell.
“I’m very thankful there’s people at the Essendon Football Club I’ll be able to have a relationship with well and truly into the future.”
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Daniher once again made the decision to move in 2020, this time landing in Brisbane as a free agent.
He said conversations with coach Chris Fagan helped convince him to head further north than New South Wales.
“It was definitely not on the radar for a fair while. I had the opportunity to have a good couple of chats with (Fagan), he obviously worked with my uncle Neale (Daniher) for a long time,” he said.
“I knew that Neale had a lot of respect for (Fagan) and I hadn’t had much to do with Fagan. Having the chance to talk over the phone and have an in-depth discussion with him, it suddenly turned Brisbane into a place that was realistic and really comfortable for me and it just started to snowball from there.”
Daniher has completed a full pre-season for the Lions and admits his body is feeling as good as it has in years, following multiple seasons derailed by groin issues.
“I probably started to feel good three or four weeks after the (2020) season and got some training in and now I’m feeling pretty good,” he said.
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