“And that’s how Neale fights his battle with the beast MND,and I think a lot of people relate to Neale within this football club.”

Gawn said there had been a response from the players to the Daniher quotation at half-time,which followed a second term in which the Bulldogs booted six goals to one. “There’s always a response. You’ve got to limit how much you speak about him.”

Gawn said Daniher had spoken to the players at six consecutive Queen’s Birthday games against Collingwood,the match that has become the traditional MND research fundraiser.

Gawn revealed,too,that he had received a message fromthe family of the late Colin Sylvia,the ex-teammate at Melbourne and later Fremantle player who died in a car accident in 2018,and also cited the late Jim Stynes as a personal factor.

“It’s not just Neale,I look at my jumper every week because this has got Jim’s number on it. So what does Jim say? Jim says whatever it takes. So I’m going out there to play a game of football,let’s give whatever it takes.

“I get a text from Colin Sylvia’s family this week,saying Colin would be proud.”

Gawn tied the spirit of Daniher to the selfless culture that he and the Demons say has been introduced since the pre-season.

“Neale’s spirit – you can talk the talk ... we talk about our selfless culture,Clayton’s[Clayton Oliver] given to the team,Clayton wants to be a team player ... everyone seems to park their ego,in the biggest stage of them all,to win a flag.

“Neale’s an incredible person.”

Gawn said the deaths and illness to key Melbourne people had strengthened bonds to past players and now the current group,which has broken the club’s 57-year premiership drought.

“There’s been tragedy at this football club for years. You’ve got Troy Broadbridge,you’ve got Jim Stynes,you’ve got Dean Bailey,you’ve got Colin Sylvia[all deceased],you’ve got Neale Daniher who’s going through an illness,you’ve got Sean Wight[deceased]. There’s illnesses,there’s deaths.”

Gawn said he was “forever in debt” to Dean Bailey,the first coach he played under who died of cancer in 2013. “He drafted a tall lanky kid who probably shouldn’t have been drafted and gave me a debut as well.”

Gawn credited his young ruck partner Luke Jackson for helping turn the tide in the third quarter in the ruck and saidcoach Simon Goodwin had been calm at half-time,as the Demons made changes to their approach.

“Western Bulldogs,the way they play – they were switching a bit more,they hadn’t been switching. We adjusted and worked on their switch a little bit more. And our mids weren’t working hard enough at all.

“Goody was cool,calm head,was super. Then we chucked Jacko in the ruck the majority of the third quarter,he seemed like he had a bit of spring compared to Stef Martin. Me and Stef are sort of workhorses,where Jacko’s got a bit of spring,that sort of changed it a little bit.”

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