Jai Arrow to toss coin in poignant King’s Birthday clash honouring Neale Daniher

NRL star Jai Arrow, who recently retired after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, will toss the coin in Monday’s special King’s Birthday clash and tribute to MND ambassador and former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher.

Collingwood confirmed on Wednesday that the 30-year-old Arrow had agreed to toss the coin before the game, which is expected to draw upwards of 90,000 people at the MCG – and tens of thousands of blue beanies – in a tribute to Daniher who died last month.

Arrow, who played for South Sydney, is involved with Fight MND, the organisation that Daniher founded after his diagnosis 13 years ago, which has raised millions of dollars for research into the crippling disease for which there is no cure.

Arrow is not expected to address the players from either team before the match.

Arrow’s diagnosis and public acknowledgement of the disease has added to the enormous groundswell from the AFL community around Daniher, bringing Australia’s other major winter code into the cause of combating MND.

On the day his diagnosis was made public on May 20, Arrow vowed to confront it head on, just as he did in a decade-long career in which he played in a grand final, won a State of Origin series and as recently as last year was the Rabbitohs’ player of the season.

“I wanted to do this to let people know I am OK and I am ready to fight. Nothing is going to take me out easy,” he said in an interview with Nine which showed his speech has already been significantly affected.

“I want to do everything I can. Any trial, any medication that will maintain me for as long as possible.

“I want to inspire as well. I want to inspire other people who have been diagnosed.”

Noted for his toughness, his unyielding defence and his work ethic, Arrow played 178 NRL games for the Broncos, Gold Coast and Souths between 2016 and 2025.

He was knocked out in the first half of the Rabbitohs’ 2021 grand final against Penrith.

Arrow also appeared 12 times for Queensland between 2018 and 2023.

More to come