DANIEL, Peter

Peter Daniel arrived at Essendon from Wandin in 1968 and made his debut in a Round 2 loss against North Melbourne. He finished that season with only five senior games but was also part of the Reserves premiership side that year.

He played every game in 1969 and was Essendon's third top goalkicker with 32 goals. He had two six-goal hauls that year; against St Kilda and South Melbourne.

Daniel played all but one game in 1970 and all but two in 1971 playing mainly at full-back where he turned in some top games with his fine marking ability.

He played only three games in his last season, 1974, after which he headed south to captain/coach North Launceston in Tasmania, where he remained from 1975 to 1982.

He had instant success in Tasmania, coaching the club to the premiership in his first year. This was the first of seven successive Grand Final appearances and five premierships, including four in a row from 1978 to 1981.

He was captain-coach of the NTFA representative side from 1976 to 1979 and of the 1980 Tasmanian state team in games against Queensland and South Australia, winning the latter.

One of his greatest achievements was coaching the Greater Northern League team to an unexpected victory against the VFA in 1981.

In 1983, Daniel became coach of Subiaco in Western Australia but was sacked after only eleven games. He returned to Tasmania and coached several teams before finally retiring as a coach. He became an inaugural member of the Football Tasmania board (now AFL Tasmania) from its formation in 2000, serving as the Chairman of the Development Authority.

Apart from football, he had a long career as a teacher, including Principal of Summerdale Primary School in Tasmania, which is the largest Primary School in the State

Peter Daniel's daughter, Zoë, was a reporter and broadcaster with the ABC for 27 years before being elected to Federal Parliament as the Independent member for Goldstein in 2022.