What a weird journey that only Joe Daniher could achieve:

Gets drafted as a Father/Son to Essendon in 2012 as one of the best young key forward prospects of the 21st Century.

Debuted in 2013 as Essendon got kicked out of the finals due to the supplements saga.

Led Essendon’s goalkicking in 2014 as a second-year player, a year that ended when they blew a 33-point lead to North Melbourne in the Elimination Final.

Continued to improve in 2015 and 2016 and led the goalkicking again, despite the club imploding around him as the supplements saga reached its climax and the 34 players were suspended and the Bombers won the 2016 wooden spoon.

Joe makes an All-Australian team in 2017, he also wins Mark of the Year that year and the Essendon Best & Fairest, confirming him as arguably the best young key forward in the league.

Joe proceeds to miss the best part of the next 3 years due to injuries, playing a grand total of 15 games in 3 years, in which time he requested a trade to Sydney (Where he could’ve gone under Father/Son in 2012) but Essendon said no, a decision that the Swans later suffered for, especially in September 2024.

In that time, Joe made sporadic appearances in big games, such as ANZAC Day 2019, when he pulled this off:

Eventually, Joe goes to Brisbane as a free agent after 2020, in which time he moves up to the northern New South Wales town of Ocean Shores despite playing in Queensland, living some 2 hours away from Brisbane because he rotates on a different axis to the rest of us and decided to live far enough away from both Tweed Heads and Byron Bay.

After a decade in the league he finally wins a final in 2022, kicking the winning goal against Richmond, then goes on to play in a losing Grand Final in 2023 in which he was one of the best players on the ground, kicking the last goal of the game to give Brisbane a huge sniff with 2 minutes to go… alas, Collingwood held on and Joe went on another year.

Then in 2024;

– He reaches 200 games, which looked highly unlikely when he left Essendon at the end of 2020.

– Wins a Semi Final off his own boot in the last 2 minutes with 2 of the most ice-cold kicks ever seen, to complete the greatest Finals comeback of the 21st Century as Brisbane won from 44 points down against GWS in Sydney.

– Finally plays in a winning Grand Final a fortnight later, against a Sydney team that he could’ve been playing for in 2020, kicking the last goal of the Grand Final for the second year running, in which he could easily have been in Norm Smith Medal contention with some better kicking in the 1st Half.

And in true Joe style, he decides he’s finally had enough of football and promptly vanishes from sight days after a premiership, retiring after 204 games at the age of 30.

And in all that time, Essendon still didn’t win a final.

Goodbye sweet Joe, thank you for so many random great moments of brilliance…

And inexplicable stupidity, like giving away a certain goal as the siren sounded.

And the best part of all, he went out on TOP.