Essendon's Joe Daniher during his dominant phase for the Bombers in the VFL. Credit:Mal Fairclough The teenager had committed to the club almost two years earlier, having faced a choice between the Bombers and Sydney, where his father played the first 115 games of his career. Daniher's debut will mean the first 11 players picked in last year's draft will have seen senior action this year, with the 201-centimetre forward considered by some to have been the most talented player in the pool. While his father was a fixture in the Bombers' full-back line for eight years, Daniher is a natural forward, whose ability to mark the ball at its highest point has caught eyes in the first half of the VFL season, as well as his instinctive physicality.



Daniher will become the sixth member of one of Essendon's most beloved families to represent the club, and the first since his older brother Darcy played six games. His uncle Terry captained the Bombers to back-to-back premierships in 1984-85, during a 313-game career, while another uncle, Chris, played 124 games and in the 1993 flag.

The highly-talented Neale Daniher played 82 games in a career interrupted by several knee injuries while Anthony played 118 games for the Bombers after being traded from Sydney at the end of 1986. Essendon coach James Hird said on Thursday morning that the club was seriously considering the key forward for Friday's MCG blockbuster against arch rival Carlton. "It's a big game and he's a young player and there is a chance he will play, but there's a chance he won't play," Hird said. "We need to sit down and go through the side and it's really only five days since we played (against Sydney) and we need to work out who is sore who is not sore, who's ready to play, and who is not," he said. "(There's) no doubt at all he is ready to play. He is definitely ready, it's just whether there is a player who is ahead of him that deserves a chance more, so we'll make that decision later."

One player that won't be in the side on Friday night is Courtenay Dempsey. The Bombers are taking no risks with the rebounding defender after the seriousness of the internal damage he suffered against Sydney emerged on Wednesday. Speaking to the club's website, Dempsey said he felt like he was drowning after a nasty knock to his rib area caused him to cough up blood on the ground. "I dropped to my knees, started spewing up blood and tried to take in some air," he said. "It felt like I was drowning because all the blood in my oesophagus area. "Trying to breath in with all the blood there was a scary moment and I actually thought at that stage that I was going to die because it felt like I was drowning."