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FIFA World Cup 2026 poster“Extraordinary human being”: Watson and Lyon in awe of Neale Daniher
SEN • May 26th, 2026 9:17 am
Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have paid tribute to Neale Daniher following his passing on Monday.
Former Melbourne captain Lyon, who was coached by Daniher and stayed great mates over the years, was in awe of Neale’s ability to deal with adversity.
“He’s lived an extraordinary life, an extraordinary 13 years,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“We wake up for the first time this morning without Neale Daniher in our world, but he’ll never leave us.
“It's time to just take a deep breath, remember, and pay some heed to the words that Neale once said, that life's tough, it doesn't give you anything, so be positive, and get on with it.
“The one thing I always think about is, what would you do? If you get a death sentence, as only Neale could say, what would you do then?
“For me, I can't just talk for everyone, the natural response is, ‘well, I'm going to pull back from any public life, and I'm going to spend every single second I can with my family and if that's six months, 12 months, 18 months, whatever it is. I don't owe the world, I owe my family.
“Yet he he went the other way and said, ‘well I can do that, but what I will do is be the face of this and not only will I take it on, I'll go to the nth degree here’, which has changed the outlook on this. It gives people in the future a chance.
“This is not just a Melbourne or Australian influence, it’s a global influence that he's had.”
“Extraordinary human being”
Former Essendon captain Watson, who played alongside Daniher at the Bombers, was emotional when speaking of his old mate who fought the crippling MND until the very end.
“He was an extraordinary human being. He was so special,” Watson said.
“I remember I was at the MCG and I was standing here with a professor. I was just talking to him and he said, ‘you know, that bloke over there, he’s such a gift’. This professor specialised in MND.
“And I said, ‘what do you mean by that?’. And he said, ‘well, no one's ever lived long enough, we've never been able to put a face to MND in this country because no one's ever lived long enough’.
“He just became the face of MND and people learned about MND.”
Watson also spoke glowingly of Daniher’s authenticity and his remarkable inner strength that he so often called upon.
“The other thing that I think really touched people is that he was so authentic, he was a genuine person,” he added.
“We can all see through bullshit in our lives, we get fed so much now with people trying to spin things.
“He was just so direct and honest. When we heard him talk about that life isn't fair, and you get dealt a hand of cards, you've just got to do with it as best you possibly can. And that's what he did, he demonstrated that to us all time and time and time again, with humour as well.
“You and I (Lyon) have been in his company so many times and from somewhere he summons the courage and the strength. He'd be sitting off to the side, really struggling, and he had to have his airways cleared and all sorts of things with carers. Then he had to perform for whatever reason, we were doing something, we were filming something, and he would just summon this inner strength that was inspiring.
“You think about, we all have our own little ups and downs and problems, and often I just catch myself thinking - How would Neale deal with this?
“You can fight no matter what it is, no matter what you're confronted with - How would Neale deal with this? I often ask myself that same thing.
“If he's touched you and he's touched I, I wonder how many people have been able to gather some strength as a result of the example that he's been able to set, which is outside the MND thing. It's just that you can push through.”
Watson did want to point out just how good a footballer Daniher might have been if he had not been cut short by knee injuries during his playing days.
“He was dealt some really difficult things. He was a young bloke, and I’m not trying to make this any glossier than what it could be, but he could have been one of the greatest players, certainly in the history of the Essendon Football Club and one of the most revered figures.
“He was named captain at 21 years of age. He'd just won the best and fairest. Essendon were just on the rise under Kevin Sheedy. He wasn't stripped of the captaincy, but it had to be handed on to someone else. It was ended up being handed to his brother, and so his brother Terry becomes the premiership captain, one of the most revered figures in the history of the football club.
"That could have been him, it could easily have been him had he not been cut down so cruelly at a young age with knee injuries.”
Listen to their tribute below:
