Lachie Neale, Brownlow medallist and Kybybolite hometown hero
He came up scrapping for the footy with his dad in the sheep yards, as the smallest player in A-grade. Lachie Neale’s journey from Kyby to the Brownlow has his tiny town full of pride.
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You need to veer right when you reach Cooee Road if you want to make it to Kybybolite Oval. But before you reach that intersection you will pass the old Kybybolite train station. The tracks are overgrown with weeds, the old station sign so faded that it’s almost impossible to read. It’s been decades since a train rumbled over this railway line.
The town of Kybybolite is a speck on the map in the state’s South-East between two other specks, Hynam and Frances. Its official population is around 105. It has no shops. The school closed in 1998. Most worryingly, it has no pub.
But let’s not focus on what it doesn’t have. What Kybybolite does have is a thriving footy club. A footy club that produced Lachie Neale – the 2020 Brownlow Medallist.
Lee Curnow played for Kybybolite for 25 years. He has coached the team as well. He has a good-natured laugh at all those trying out the word Kybybolite for the first time. There is no doubt it’s something of a mouthful.
“There have never been so many people trying to pronounce the word Kybybolite as there has been this week,’’ he says. For the uninitiated it’s something like ki-be-bo-lite. Can we just call it Kyby?
“That’s definitely the cheat’s way.’’ Curnow agrees.
The origins of the name Kybybolite word are unclear. It’s an Indigenous name. The general consensus is that it means two of something. But of what, that’s not so clear.
As of this week it has one Brownlow medallist. And that is a source of joy and pride to the Kyby Tigers.
Speak to the people who know Neale best from his early days and a few things become clear. He never went far without a ball. Be it a footy, basketball, cricket ball or soccer ball.
And he was a persistent little bugger.
Neale wasn’t one whose greatness seemed destined since birth.
His early school days were spent at Naracoorte South Primary School. In the school’s foyer hangs one of Neale’s Brisbane jumpers. His earlier Fremantle purple guernsey hangs in the gym. His Year 7 footy coach Paul McCarthy says there was nothing particularly exceptional about Neale as a young footy player – except that he was always the smallest kid in the team.
“In terms of footy he was no different to any other kid,’’ he says. McCarthy says what he does remember is Neale’s efforts as a cross-country runner.
“He was a gutsy runner, just a really gritty runner.’’
The Lachie Neale clan gathered in Brisbane this week. His father Robbie and his partner Deb, his mother Amanda and her partner Brett all made the trek north. The disappointment of losing Saturday night’s preliminary final against Geelong, balanced by Neale’s capture of football’s greatest individual prize.
Robbie remembers a kid who was “always competitive”. Robbie Neale lives in Robe these days but in the early days Lachie lived on the farm at Apsley, just over the border in Victoria.
“Kick to kick wasn’t enough, it had to be a competition. It had to be who could kick goals,’’ Robbie says.
Robbie and Lachie would find a spot to defend. It could be one end of the sheep yards to the other. And they would belt the ball at each other trying to score.
Robbie reckons that training could be why Lachie is so good at swooping on loose balls these days, all that anticipation of reading awkwardly bouncing footballs off rough farm tracks.
Robbie also wasn’t the type of dad who took it easy on his son.
“When he was very little absolutely I would let him win but once he started to get a bit good at it, I would have to dig a bit deeper in some of these combats,’’ he says.
“He just got better and better at stopping that so I would have to kick harder and harder.’’
Lachie Neale made his first steps in footy at the front oval at Naracoorte South and then at Kybybolite. From Kybybolite Oval you can just about see the farm where Lachie lived with his mother Amanda and partner Brett from the age of 10. Amanda remained in Brisbane for the Lions’ best and fairest count on Thursday night and according to Brett was a very happy mother on Sunday night.
“I think his mother had that Brownlow on longer than he did,’’ he says.
Brett remembers a kid obsessed with footy. A Port Adelaide fan, he would play out his own version of the season in the farm house.
“He would play everyone in the minor round and he would have a scorecard and play the whole season out and he would be in the finals and then he would play the grand final,’’ he says. “He would be jumping around over the bloody couches and kicking goals from one end of the passage to the other.’’
There’s an undeniable pride in footy in the country. Everyone has a list of players from around here that has made it to the big time. Neale is the most obvious but other names follow. Neale’s teammate Lincoln McCarthy is from Bordertown. The Crows’ have Darcy Fogarty from nearby Lucindale. Sydney has another Lucindale product in Will Gould. Neale played junior footy at Kyby with former Melbourne captain Jack Trengove.
Agronomist Tom Cooper played a couple of A-grade games at Kyby with Neale. There is some dispute over whether Neale was 16 or 18 when he first played senior footy, but Cooper says even though the Brownlow medallist was the smallest player out there he was never intimidated.
“He would have very much been a lightweight but he seemed to play above his size,’’ he says. “Not that we knew we had a Brownlow medallist on our hands but straight away you could tell he was going to be a pretty good player.’’
Naracoorte Seeds manager Dylan Brodie played in those junior teams with Neale and Trengove,
“I’m really proud that he has come from out little area of the world,’’ he says.
And that is a common feeling, The Kyby Tigers are fundamentally a proud community club. Neale’s success is their success as well.
Painter Mark Slotegraaf was a few years ahead of Neale at Kyby, but they played senior footy together.
“For a bloke like Lachie to come from out here, where you have a paddock of horses out beyond the footy oval, it’s something pretty special,’’ he says. “Watching him on Sunday night sort of gives you shivers, knowing he has come from such a small, little country town like Kyby.’’
Slotegraaf, like many others, also hopes the example of Neale will encourage others to follow their footy dreams.
At his old primary school, the Neale lesson is being learned. Seven-year-old Matilda Lush thinks she is the only Lions’ fan in school and says Neale is her favourite player and is excited she plays on the same oval where the Brownlow medallist started.
Twelve-year-old Harry Clark is Freo fan but is still thrilled by Neale’s achievements with the Lions.
“I can say to people that I went to the same school as Lachie Neale.’’
And that’s a pretty good boast.
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Originally published as Lachie Neale, Brownlow medallist and Kybybolite hometown hero