New recruit, Devon Smith, will Don the number five jumper for the Essendon Football Club in 2018.
The jumper represents an enormous amount of history for the Club, with players such as James Hird, Terry Daniher and Brent Stanton wearing the number during their careers.
Terry Daniher also wore the number five for the red and black. He played for Essendon in the VFL and AFL, playing 294 games.
He played in the 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1990 Grand Finals, two of which he won.
Daniher is a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and the Wagga Wagga Sporting Hall of Fame.
Daniher presented Smith with the jumper, wishing him all the best for his playing career with the Bombers.
“Firstly (I’d like to) congratulate him and think it is wonderful that he has gotten another change,” Daniher said.
“He is super keen to get out and get into it
“I just wished him well, I said to him the Bombers are a real traditional Club and I can see some success not too far around the corner.
“It's a wonderful thing, all the players who have played after me, Brent had a great long career and James before that.
“It's not until you meet the guy that you're handing the Guernsey to, you get a bit chuffed and you can't wait to follow his journey and hope he does well.”
Smith said he wants to continue to build on the history of the number five jumper at Essendon.
“Terry Daniher has played 290 odd games, is a premiership captain and has more All-Australians than I’ve played games, so it’s pretty exciting,” Smith said.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling to look at the names on the back of your locker and see what they’ve done. I know many kids that used to run around thinking they were Hirdy with long sleeve jumper, and most recently Brent Stanton played 255 games, and in this day and age that’s a huge effort.
“There is responsibility that comes with it, but it’s also about me wearing the number five and what I can do in the jumper. I’m here to win games and hopefully win a premiership in it.”
Smith was traded to Essendon from GWS prior to the 2018 season, he has played 109 AFL games.
Past players to wear number five at Essendon:
Brent Stanton
James Hird
Terry Daniher
Gary Parkes
Gary Crouch
