Countdown to Round 1, 2026 — Day 6: Essendon Guernsey Number 6

Don TheStat
3 days ago
2 min read

Day 6 of the Countdown to Round 1, 2026 focuses on Essendon Guernsey Number 6, a jumper deeply tied to Premiership success and some of the club’s most famous surnames.

The first Essendon player to wear number 6 was Ernie Cameron, who wore it during the 1911 finals series, when numbered jumpers were first introduced. Cameron played 22 games across 1911 and 1912, including Essendon’s 1911 Premiership.

The number gained real prominence in the 1920s through Tom Fitzmaurice and George Rawle, both Premiership players in 1923 and 1924. Fitzmaurice was a three-time Crichton Medallist and a member of Essendon’s Team of the Century, despite standing out physically in the famously small “mosquito fleet”.

During the war years, Allan Hird wore number 6 for 102 games, including the 1942 Premiership, starting the Hird family legacy that would later define the club.

The 1960s belonged to Geoff Gosper, a 167-game servant who wore the jumper in Essendon’s 1962 and 1965 Premierships.

In the modern era, the number became synonymous with the Daniher family. Neale Daniher wore it from 1979 to 1985, before his brother Anthony Daniher took over following a transfer from Sydney. In 1990, Essendon history was made when four Daniher brothers played together in the same senior match. The family legacy continued when Joe Daniher wore #6 for 108 games from 2013 to 2020, kicking 191 goals.

More recently, Sean Wellman wore number 6 during the club’s 2000 Premiership, arriving from Adelaide as part of the Paul Salmon trade, followed by Angus Monfries and Joe Daniher, before the jumper was handed to Jye Caldwell in 2021.