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NEALE DANIHER

WHEN ALL IS
SAID & DONE

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ABOUT NEALE

Neale Daniher AO is a Co-founder of FightMND, a charity that has raised and invested over $115 million into medical research to find a cure for motor neurone disease (MND). He is a former AFL player, coach and administrator who has transformed personal adversity into a powerful movement for change.

From 1979 to 1990, Neale played for Essendon Football Club, earning recognition as one of its most iconic figures. At the age of 20, he was named the Club’s youngest ever captain, a testament to his leadership and dedication. Part of the famous Daniher football dynasty – four brothers from the bush who played a combined 752 VFL/AFL games – Neale’s promising career was cut short by injuries. But the resilience he developed through facing those challenges proved invaluable later in life. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at both Essendon and Melbourne Football Clubs, reflecting his immense contribution to the sport. Following his playing career, Neale transitioned into coaching, leading the Melbourne Football Club as a Senior Coach from 1998 to 2007, applying his team-first philosophy to inspire players and fans alike. These experiences laid the foundation for his extraordinary ability to galvanise the community in the fight against MND.

Diagnosed with MND in 2013, Neale has faced the disease with extraordinary courage and positivity. As the face and voice of FightMND, he has remained a public figure despite his declining health, using his platform to advocate for awareness and action. The annual Big Freeze event at the MCG, where celebrities slide into freezing water to raise funds, embodies Neale’s ethos of turning hardship into a cause for celebration and hope.

Neale was named the 2025 Australian of the Year in recognition of leadership, courage and relentless drive. For Neale, this recognition isn’t just for him. It belongs to the entire MND community, his family and everyone who has joined him in the fight against the Beast.

Under Neale’s leadership, FightMND is one of the world’s largest independent funders of MND research, investing in both care and cure initiatives. His legacy is one of unwavering determination, community spirit and a refusal to let adversity define him. Neale Daniher’s story – marked by resilience, leadership and a profound ability to inspire – continues to make an indelible impact on the fight against MND, offering hope to those facing the disease and ensuring that no one faces it alone.

‘A wise man said, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” I understand the wisdom of this – right now, I don’t have much “forwards” left.’

NEALE DANIHER

ABOUT THE BOOK

WHEN ALL IS SAID & DONE

Neale Daniher sat down to pen a letter to the grandchildren he’ll never get to know. And then he kept on writing …

In 2013, the AFL legend was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease – a cruel and incurable disease. He knew he had a choice. He could spend his remaining time on earth focussed on himself, or he could seize the opportunity to make a better future for others.

Neale is no stranger to challenge. He grew up on a farm in remote NSW, the third of eleven children. He battled injury during his football career with Essendon in the VFL/ AFL, then jumped on the coaching rollercoaster, leading Melbourne for a decade. As general manager of football operations, he was part of West Coast Eagles’ cultural rebuild.

From the hard-won wisdom of life on the land and the love of his family, to the triumphs and gutting lows of elite football, Neale has learnt to make the most of the cards he’s been dealt – to always live with purpose and to appreciate what he has.

True to form, Neale chose to stare down the disease he calls ‘The Beast’, and in 2014 he co-founded FightMND, an organisation that has since invested over $50 million into research and care initiatives. In 2015, he became the public face of the foundation’s biggest fundraising event, The Big Freeze.

When all is Said and Done is a book of stories and wisdom from a man who has always held his beliefs to the Bunsen burner of life. Neale is unflinchingly honest, sharing a timely reminder that, even though life doesn’t promise to be fair, we all have the power to choose how to make every day count.

Contents

Foreword by Pat Cunningham
1. Hold your beliefs to the Bunsen burner
2. Life doesn’t promise to be fair
3. Know where you come from
4. Watch and learn
5. At some stage, you’ve got to make a break
6. Grow through what you go through
7. Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create
8. Sometimes being smart is admitting you don’t know
something
9. All you can do is barrack for the coin to land on heads most
of the time
10. It’s often in the darkest skies we see the brightest stars
11. Keep both hands on the wheel
12. Life’s great rewards are hidden in humanity’s messy glory

13. Stuff it, do it anyway
14. When it’s your turn to go, you’ve got to go
15. Passion might ignite the flame, but purpose keeps it burning
16. Don’t be too hard-arsed
17. The seed is in the dirt, it just hasn’t shot yet
18. One finger can’t lift a pebble
19. Save the little white lies for Grandma’s cake
20. Trust is the oil that greases the engine to get things done
21. Don’t let the bastards win both ways
22. Pass it on
23. Success is never final, failure never fatal
24. Play on
25. When you’re dying, everyone thinks you’re a great bloke
Letter to my grandkids

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