Brent Daniels (born 9 March 1999) is a professional

Australian rules footballer Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

playing for the

Greater Western Sydney Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He made his debut in round 16 of the 2018 season against the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

Perth Stadium Perth Stadium, currently known as Optus Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in A ...

. Daniels grew up in

Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508. Indigenous Peopl ...

and played junior football for Nyah-Nyah West United. He boarded at

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"(1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ty ...

with fellow footballers and friends Paddy Dow, Lochie O'Brien and Jarrod Brander. Daniels played

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and football for the school teams. He also played football for the

Bendigo Pioneers The Bendigo Pioneers is an Australian rules football team in the statewide Victorian under-18s league, the NAB League. Synopsis The Bendigo Pioneers is an Australian rules football team playing in NAB League since 1993 based in Bendigo, Victoria ...

in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

and for Vic Country in the

AFL Under 18 Championships The AFL Under-19 Championships (for sponsorship reasons, the NAB AFL Under-19 Championships) is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways ...

. Daniels missed the second half of the 2016 season with a knee injury. He tested at the 2017

AFL Draft Combine The AFL Draft Combine, formerly known as the AFL Draft Camp, is a gathering of prospective talent, where selected potential draftees display their athletic prowess and relevant Australian rules football skills. Over four days participants are re ...

and recorded the third-best time of 8.11 seconds in the agility test. Callum Twomey commented that Daniels's "mix of agility, endurance and pace ... stand out." He was drafted by the GWS Giants with pick 27 in the 2017 national draft, but suffered a

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

tear in December which was expected to sideline him for ten to twelve weeks. He spent a month in the

North East Australian Football League The North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) was an Australian rules football league in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The league was formed in November 2010, and its inaugural co ...

before his round 16 debut. Coach

Leon Cameron Leon Cameron (born 2 September 1972) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the former senior coach of the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) in the Australian Football League (AFL). His AFL playing career lasted from 1990 to 2003 an ...

said "He’s got great tackle pressure, chase pressure and we like that ... he can hit the scoreboard, he’s a very good front and square player". In the 2019 AFL Semi Final against the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

, Daniels kicked the match winning goal in the dying minutes of the game to give Greater Western Sydney a spot in the Preliminary Final against Collingwood. For the 2019 season Daniels was the 2nd shortest player in the AFL.

References

External links

* * Living people 1999 births People from Swan Hill Bendigo Pioneers players Greater Western Sydney Giants players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub