Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin confirms ‘cheeky text' to Joe Daniher as comeback rumours swirl
7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary exclusively revealed the Demons approached Daniher as they look to fix their forward woes.
'Melbourne and coach Simon Goodwin are attempting to convince Joe Daniher to return to the AFL next season, less than 12 months after he called it quits,' Cleary told 7NEWS on Monday night.
'The 31-year-old has spent recent months in Europe and lives in northern New South Wales, but it hasn't stopped Goodwin and the Dees making a pitch.
'Goodwin was an assistant coach at the Bombers for two years with Daniher, while Dees forward Jake Melksham — currently in the form of his life — previously called him a teammate.
'It is still seen as unlikely, however the approach highlights how keen the Demons are to bolster their key forward stocks.'
Goodwin confirmed he touched base with Daniher, but said the 31-year-old was happy in retirement.
'I might have sent him a cheeky text message just to check in with big Joe,' Goodwin said on Fox Footy's AFL 360.
'I obviously coached Joe at Essendon in my early days as a coach and sent him a message just to make sure he was enjoying retirement as much as I thought he would.
'The answer was pretty clear - he is enjoying it. It (the pursuit) was pretty short-lived.'
The coach added that they will leave 'no stone unturned' in making their list better in the off-season.
'Whether that be through the draft, through trade, through developing our players on our current list in terms of how we look and how we play,' he said.
'So we're going to leave no stone unturned in how we go about getting better and Joe was a sneaky text but he laughed it off pretty quick.'
A notoriously private and unique character, Daniher famously shocked the footy world by calling time on his career in the aftermath of his second club's premiership success last year.
The enigmatic, match-winning left-footer had arguably the best season of his career in 2024, but walked away from the lucrative contract he still had at the Lions to retire.
Daniher, who was drafted to Essendon as a father-son selection in 2012, was critical to the Lions' success in 2024, and almost dragged them over the line against Collingwood in the previous year's decider.
He left the game with 395 goals from 204 games across his time at Brisbane and Essendon.
'I retire knowing I gave my absolute all to the Brisbane Lions and Essendon, and I am extremely proud of what I achieved individually and as a team,' Daniher said last October, less than a week after the flag.
'I am tremendously grateful for the opportunities given to me by both Brisbane and Essendon and I want to thank both clubs and their incredible fans for their support.
'It's been an incredible journey here at the Brisbane Lions to go from a club that was really struggling at the bottom of the ladder to winning a premiership.
'As I finish up my career, I do so with the club in a great position on and off the field and I can't wait to see the Brisbane Lions experience more success in the future.
'I am beyond excited by the squad we have at the Lions and especially the young talent we have coming through that are the future stars of this club.
'I want to thank everyone that has played a part in my AFL career and helping me become the player and person I am today.'
Following his retirement, Lions coach Chris Fagan revealed that it was after the 2023 grand final that Daniher first told the coach of his desire to walk away.
In a meeting after that loss to the Magpies, Daniher told Fagan that had the Lions won that game, he would have hung the boots up there and then.
'Last year after the grand final, Joey gave me a call and said, 'Can we have a meeting?' So I caught up with him,' Fagan said at Brisbane's best and fairest last year.
'And he said to me, 'You know, if we had have won this week, I was going to retire'.
'I thought, 'Geez, I hope he's not going to retire (now)'.
'But he said, 'But 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.'
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