Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid has been sewing Terry Daniher together for years. As a player the needle and thread came out on a regular basis for some running repairs to the Bomber champion. But it is not too often that the ‘Doc’ has been called on while TD has been assistant coach at the club. That was until yesterday. Daniher is today sporting five stitches above his left eye. Just how did they get there – well that depends on whose story you want to believe.

Version One as told by Terry Daniher

Well we were doing a bit of a blocking drill and the ball was knocked loose. I saw it there and I swooped on it – you know how it is – we were training on the ‘G’ and you could smell the finals in the air and I just wanted to get involved. So I grabbed the footy and was dodging and weaving around … oh it must have been at least 15 players ….. and they couldn’t lay a finger on me. They were begging me to give the football back to them but I just kept baulking and blind turning out of trouble. It was vintage stuff. Eventually someone obviously decided the only way to stop me was to whack me and that is how I ended up with the stitches …. at least that is what I remember of it. I was a bit dazed so that might not be entirely accurate.

Version Two as told by an unnamed player

We were doing a blocking and drill and Terry had a shoulder pad on. He went to block a player front on and didn’t see Adam Ramanauskas coming in from the side. There was a clash of heads and Terry went down like a sack of spuds. The doctors helped him off the ground. It was only a scratch – I can’t believe he had stitches. Apparently he is having a fitness test later this week to see if he is well enough to participate in next week’s training drills.

So from all this what can Bomberland readers deduce? One thing for sure is that both stories have been a touch embellished. The truth lies somewhere in between. An independent observer did tell us that Daniher’s head did meet with that of Ramanauskas during a blocking drill.