Fagan reveals Daniher would have retired if Brisbane won the 2023 flag

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has revealed that Joe Daniher would have retired last year if the club had won the 2023 premiership.

The 30-year-old forward has called time on his career just days after helping the Lions win the 2024 flag and with a year to run on his contract.

But his time in the game would have been cut even shorter if the Lions were successful against Collingwood 12 months ago.

At Brisbane’s Merrett-Murray Medal best and fairest count, Fagan said that Daniher would have stepped away last year if the Lions beat the Pies.

He got that chance after they smashed Sydney by 60 points at the MCG on Saturday.

“Last year after the Grand Final Joey gave me a call and said, ‘Can we have a meeting?’,” Fagan said on Thursday night.

“So I caught up with him and he said to me, ‘You know, if we had have won this week I was going to retire’. I thought, ‘Oh geez, I hope he’s not going to retire’.

“But he said, ‘I’m going to play for one more year and I hope we can win a premiership’.

“I’m so pleased that that’s happened Joey, that you’ve got to go out on the back of winning a premiership.

“You’ve given us so many wonderful moments and crazy moments and head-scratching moments, but we’ll never forget you mate, you’ve been so good for our footy club.”

In response to Daniher’s premature retirement, Garry Lyon felt that although it is a shame to see him go, he has praised the former Bomber for going through with decision.

“A 30-year-old premiership centre half-forward who has proven himself to be a big game player announces his retirement while he’s still got plenty of juice left in the tank - that’s a big story,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.

“He is gone and he’s a different footballer, we don’t see many of them these days. When there’s so much money on offer and you’re still playing great footy and you’re at a powerful football club.

“I can’t remember a similar situation. Shane Crawford’s exit, for me, was one of the great exits. Perfect timing, great servant, but he was almost done as a footy player.

“This is the point I’m saying, Joe is not almost done. He was almost a Norm Smith Medallist last year and was magnificent again this year.

“He he ain’t done, but he’s going. I’m disappointed for Brisbane and for footy because we love watching him, but I love it for him. I love that there is someone different in the footy world.

“Our producer’s good mates with the Daniher family, and he tells us stories about Joe, how he’s different, so we know it’s not apocryphal, we know it’s absolutely real.

“But then to have the strength of your convictions to actually go, ‘No, I'm going through with this.”

SEN regular and Channel 9 journalist Tom Morris also revealed that some of Daniher’s Lions teammates were aware that the 2024 Grand Final would be his last game.

“Five to 10 senior Brisbane Lions players knew for a fact that the Grand Final would be his last game,” Morris added.

“The whole group didn’t know, but it didn’t come as a shock to the rest of them either.

“The club still tried to talk him around this week. ‘Are you sure? Would you like to go again next year?’.

“In the end, he just said, ‘I can’t be here if I’m not fully invested and I won’t be fully invested, and I’ll go out on a high’.”

Daniher’s last kick in the AFL was a goal in a winning Grand Final. He was quickly mobbed by nearby teammates after slamming through the close-range goal in the fourth quarter.

He bows out of footy after 204 games (108 for Essendon, 96 for Brisbane) and 395 goals (191 for Essendon, 204 for Brisbane).

He won a best and fairest at the Bombers and was a six-time leading goal kicker (four at Essendon, two at Brisbane) across 12 seasons at the elite level.