John Worsfold says Joe Daniher’s output this year despite a limited pre-season is testament to his resilience and commitment.
A knee problem kept Daniher on a restricted program for much of the summer, but despite the build-up he’s booted 53 goals this season to lead the Coleman Medal race with four home and away matches remaining.
“We’ve obviously known he was a super talent,” Worsfold told The Footy Panel.
“I remember watching his first game and he probably didn’t have a massive impact but you could see the class and the quality and the talent that the kid had.
“He’s developed as good as any 200cm tall forward has in the history of the game I believe.
“He works hard, he’s got a great attitude.
“His pre-season was heavily interrupted but his attitude to making sure he was still going to do the work in different ways – he was really restricted from a lot of kicking and jumping but he managed to get his running loads in and it’s paid off for him.
“That’s a credit to the resilience but also the commitment that the kid’s got.”
Daniher will play an important role in the Bombers crunch match against Carlton on Saturday.
The Dons will be looking to atone for a loss to the Blues earlier in the season and despite their rivals sitting 17th on the ladder, Worsfold said the Bombers are aiming to produce their best performance of the season.
“There was some talk about us as a Club last year that we were going to be tired and limping towards the end of the season ... (but) we were playing some of our best footy, so we’re not going to fall into that trap,” he said.
“We have to go out and continue to challenge ourselves to play the elite level of footy that we believe will help us become a great team.
“We’re working towards that and we’ve seen it in patches throughout the year.
“Our challenge against Carlton is to play the best footy we’ve played all year at the contest, in terms of our ball movement and in terms of the way we defend.
"We’re aiming to continue to get better and put our best performance out on the park this week.”
