Neale Daniher

Neale is Australian Rules royalty, one of the famous four Daniher brothers who played 752 VFL/AFL games between them. After his playing career at Essendon was cut short by injury in 1990, Neale moved into an assistant coaching role at Fremantle, then spent ten years as senior coach of Melbourne Football Club. From the end of 2007, he was general manager of football operations at the West Coast Eagles until he resigned due to ill health in September 2013. Neale is now vice chairman of the Cure for MND Foundation, which he co-founded in 2014. He has dedicated the rest of his life to educating australians, raising money and seeking out a cure for this silent killer. The foundation has raised almost $14 million in two years, and has been instrumental in bringing clinical trials to Australia. Neale was originally awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for his tireless work in co-founding FightMND in 2016, in 2021 he was elevated to Officer of the Order of Australia. The Big Freeze highlights the former Dons Captain's unflagging determination to find a cure for motor neurone disease, having raised $50 million for treatment research since 2014. An 81-gamer with the Bombers from 1979-1990 and club Hall of Fame inductee, Neale has been a key figure in leading the FightMND campaign in helping educate the public and driving fundraising initiatives for curing MND.