Big Joe dodges just one subject

OF 21 questions, there was one Joe Daniher could not answer.

For more than 11 minutes at Bomberland, Essendon’s wantaway spearhead responded with honesty, candour and humility.

The where, what, when and why were covered, with Daniher keen to front the media to set the record straight at the start of a critical pre-season.

Standing next to coach John Worsfold, Daniher admitted moving from Essendon was “the best thing for me”.

It was only when the question inevitably arrived about what he would do next year, that Daniher deflected.

A restricted free agent at the end of next season, will he request a trade to Sydney or, as unlikely as it seems at the moment, recommit to Essendon?

“The first port of call has been my body,” Daniher said.

“The priority for now is getting my body to a position where I can train really hard and have that continuity. Following that will be playing and hopefully offering something on the field.

“There will be a lot of speculation and hypotheticals about what next year will look like, but the priority for me is getting out there and putting on a really good performance for this club.”

Recent history is littered with players who have had to return to their clubs five minutes after trying to leave in trade period. But it also littered with those same players following through on the same demand 12 months later.

Gary Ablett was made to stay another year at Gold Coast, but then left.

As long as he goes without re-signing at Essendon, Daniher faces innuendo and conjecture, but the laid-back forward is prepared for all that.

Daniher shone a light into the corners of a trade request that had been dark for months.

He denied his desire to leave Essendon for Sydney was due to any “fishbowl” view of Melbourne. Instead, two years of an injury that restricted him to 11 games since the end of 2017 was the driving factor.

“I’ve played AFL for what feels like a long time now,” Daniher said. “I’ve grown up in Melbourne and I’m fully aware of what it takes to be a professional footballer and what you give up. It was more around the last couple of years have been really difficult from an injury point of view and I felt a new start might help.”

THE FIRST PORT OF CALL HAS BEEN MY BODY JOE DANIHER