Knight toon honours AFL great’s legacy: the fight to end MND
Cartoonist Mark Knight commemorates AFL great Neale Daniher, who died this week having raised more than $100 million after founding FightMND following a Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
Neale Daniher passed away this week from Motor Neurone Disease* (MND) at the age of 65.
Daniher was a leader. He led on the field in junior and professional Australian rules football. He led as coach of the Melbourne football team. But his true leadership qualities came to the fore when he was diagnosed with MND in 2013. That is when he took on his greatest leadership role.
Daniher ignored the temptation to fall into self-pity having been diagnosed with what was considered a “death sentence” disease. Instead, he stood up and created an awareness and fundraising campaign to combat the “Beast” as he referred to MND.
He changed public awareness, raised over $100 million for research and inspired a generation when he lived a further 13 years after diagnosis, way beyond all medical expectations. He created the brand FightMND and every year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the King’s Birthday long weekend, they hold the “Big Freeze” fundraiser, where celebrities slide down into an icy pool to raise money. Lots of money. The Big Freeze blue beanies are a merchandising* success story too! Where did he gain such qualities, you may ask?
Daniher was born in 1961 in the NSW Central Riverina town of West Wyalong. The third of 11 children – and yes, you guessed correctly, he grew up in a good Catholic family – he attended St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Ungarie, then spent his high school years at St Patrick’s in Goulburn, before finally completing Year 12 at Assumption College in Kilmore.
Like a lot of country boys, he was a gifted cricketer and footballer, and played footy in the Northern Riverina Football League. With his three brothers, Anthony, Chris, and Terry, who all played football, competition was always present, so maybe that’s where his ability to stand out was first developed.
He was drafted to Essendon Football Club in 1979, where he played until 1990. He wanted to pursue coaching after that, and following assistant roles at Essendon and Freo, he cracked the big time and became coach of the Melbourne Demons. He had great success with the Dees, playing finals several times, and in 2000 reaching the AFL Grand Final, which they sadly lost to Essendon.
He resigned from Melbourne after the 2007 season and became the football operations manager for the West Coast Eagles. He was building his leadership credentials*, but the biggest step was to happen in 2013 with his diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease. He took it on like the tough half back flanker he was. Ran straight at it. He hit it hard. When he died this week, I felt I had to join the outpouring of emotion and tributes for Neale Daniher.
When drawing tribute cartoons, the idea is to pay respect and commemorate* the person with some of the achievements or character that the person displayed in life. Obviously his FightMND work was front of mind. And I wanted to draw Neale as he was in his later years, physically suffering the effects of MND.
Despite being wracked* by the disease, and forced into a wheelchair due to having lost the use of his limbs, Daniher’s smile stood out. His character shone through and broke free of the dysfunction* his motor neurons were experiencing. So I drew him with that characteristic MND smile.
The Big Freeze event, with the ice bath slide at the MCG, is the main fundraising day, and I had an idea to sum up the man with this much celebrated occasion. I love the concept of celebs going down the slide into the icy water, symbolic of sending the disease off into oblivion* by freezing it.
What if Neale Daniher’s last act was to push “the Beast” down the slide into oblivion?
So I sketched the MCG, packed to the rafters with fans. I drew Neale behind the slippery slide, but he is not sitting in his wheelchair, he is standing in front of it.
The symbolism* of him out of the wheelchair is to demonstrate that a cure is coming. He will rise and defeat this disease, maybe not on this day, but thanks to the FightMND campaign, that day will come. And what is Neale’s final act? With his arm outstretched, his hand gently pushes the horrified MND Beast down the slide and into the chilly waters of non-existence.
Daniher had a great saying: “When all is said and done, more is said than done”.
It refers to certain people who talk about what they’re going to do rather than actually doing it. That was not Neale Daniher. Vale, good sir.
POLL
GLOSSARY
- Motor Neurone Disease: MND is a life-shortening condition. The disease damages the nerves (motor neurons) that send messages from the brain to the muscles. When these nerves stop working, the muscles weaken over time, which can affect movement and mobility, speech, eating, drinking and breathing
- merchandising: making people aware of your products and increasing sales through advertising and special events
- credentials: the abilities and experience that make someone suitable for a particular job or activity, or proof of someone’s abilities and experience
- commemorate: to remember officially and give respect to a great person or even
- wracked: having suffered extreme pain, damage and suffering
- dysfunction: impairment, a problem or fault in a part or parts of the body or a machine
- oblivion: state of something that is not remembered or thought about any longer
- symbolism: use of symbols in art, literature, films, architecture and so on to represent ideas
EXTRA READING
World-record skydiving for MND
Scientist becomes world’s first full cyborg
QUICK QUIZ
- What is the name of the disease Daniher was suffering?
- How many siblings did Daniher have as a boy?
- How much money did Daniher help raise for MND research?
- What is the name of FightMND’s biggest annual fundraising event?
- What was Daniher’s name for MND?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Make a tribute?
Think about a person in your life, or community, who you think deserves a tribute cartoon. Use Mark’s ideas about creating a tribute to help you to create a tribute cartoon for your chosen person.
Time: allow at least 40 minutes for this activity
Curriculum Links: English
2. Extension
Think about Neale’s saying: “When all is said and done, more is said than done”. Change this saying to make it a call to action, a saying that will inspire people to do something to help fight MND, not just talk about it.
Time: allow at least 15 minutes for this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability
VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.
Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.
(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)