Chris Daniher

But maybe that endless search says more than we realised at the time, because he was always someone who believed there was a better patch out there, even when the odds said otherwise.

When it came to playing footy as a young man,

there was plenty of green grass.

At one of our amazing carnivals we have in the country called the Litona Cup in Leeton, it's a huge sporting day, which brought together the best footy teams from the district.

New York's playing in the under 15s.

Being from the Northern Riverina, one of the smaller competitions, we were up against the bigger towns, the stronger towns, Wagga, Griffith and the Roundrop.

Our team made it through to the grand final, which was a huge achievement in itself.

With the game on the line, Neil marked the ball at centre half forward and the siren went.

One of the opposition's boys yelled out, hey mate, if you kick that, we're getting you.

Neil simply went back and calmly slotted it from 40 metres to win the card of them.

And then let's just say there was chaos.

Or when the 17-year-old Neil, playing in the Hungarian seniors, he'd to turn the 1978 Northern Riverina grand final, kicking three goals in the last quarter, to bring the cup back to Hungary against Four Corners.

So our beautiful brother was showing signs very early on of the person he would become.

When you're one of 11 kids, it can't be all about you.

You're not special just because of where you sit in the family.

But over time, you can become someone special.

And Neil did.

He had that calmness, that composure, that sense of timing, that quiet confidence in himself.

He was never fazed by the noise around him.

He was such great fun to be around.