Frawley was married to Anita, They had three daughters: Chelsea, Danielle, and Keeley. The incident occurred shortly after 1:30 pm when his car left the road and struck a tree on Old Melbourne Road between Ryans and Chapmans Roads. He was the only passenger and died at the scene of the crash. An examination of his brain nearly a year later found that Frawley had stage two
chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries; his wife Anita said she had "strongly suspected there was more going on with Danny than straightforward depression".
Tributes The
Trevor Barker Award, St Kilda's award for best and fairest player, proceeded two nights after Frawley's death and was filled with tributes to him, including speeches from teammates
Stewart Loewe and
Robert Harvey. The AFL announced that a moment of silence would be observed in Frawley's honour before both semifinals the following weekend (
Geelong–
West Coast and
Brisbane–
Greater Western Sydney), with all four teams also wearing black armbands. The
Melbourne Storm and
Canberra Raiders also observed a moment of silence for Frawley before their NRL qualifying final at AAMI Park. AFL CEO
Gillon McLachlan also revealed that it was being considered that the Golden Fist award, an award for best defender that Frawley had famously created on
Bounce, should become an official AFL honour. A Change.org petition about the matter had garnered 33,000 signatures in less than 48 hours. Both radio stations Frawley had worked at — Triple M and SEN — broadcast a special joint edition of
The Saturday Rub in Frawley's honour co-hosted by friends and colleagues
James Brayshaw,
Brian Taylor,
Damian Barrett and
Garry Lyon. A private but broadcast memorial was held for Frawley, followed by the hearse travelling to Moorabbin Oval for a lap of honour. In November 2020, St Kilda and the Victorian and federal governments announced the plans for a $16 million (AUD) Moorabbin Oval centre, including classroom spaces, consultation suites and breakout areas to be named the Danny Frawley Centre for Health and Wellbeing. The centre launched on 1 March 2022, with the attendees including St Kilda greats Loewe and
Nick Riewoldt, club CEO Matt Finnis, Frawley's broadcast colleagues Lyon and
Jason Dunstall, actor and former St Kilda #1 ticket holder
Eric Bana, AFL CEO
Gillon McLachlan, Victorian Tourism Minister
Martin Pakula and Senator
Jane Hume. Frawley's #2 was also retired by the club and hangs in the centre. In January 2021, it was announced that Frawley's nephew
James, who had joined St Kilda after a brief retirement at the end of the 2020 season with , would wear the #24 guernsey, which Danny had worn from 1985 to 1987 before switching to #2. In March 2021, St Kilda announced that their Round 2 game, beginning that season against
Melbourne, would be called "Spud's Game: Time 2 Talk" in partnership with
Movember to promote mental health. Prior to the match, the game was delayed by two minutes with Frawley's close friends Lyon, Loewe and
Tony Lockett paying tribute to Frawley in the middle of the ground and asking for those that were watching to check with their mates with both teams surrounding them and his family watching on. ==References==