Inside story: How Brisbane pulled off the Lachie Neale trade that changed the AFL landscape
The Lions were hunting a superstar. But they had no idea a two-time best and fairest winner was about to hit the market. This is how Lachie Neale became the Lion king and the impact the move had on the rest of the competition.
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It was something about Lions coach Chris Fagan that stuck with Lachie Neale during a late-August meeting in 2018.
The Fremantle clearance monster had not-so-secretly flown to Brisbane to meet with the Lions hierarchy to assess the lay of the land and a potential 4000km move to the other side of the country.
The Lions had been working hard behind the scenes to lure the dual best and fairest player to the Sunshine State as they looked to add some experience to their young roster.
The question at the time was, why leave the Dockers for Brisbane?
Rewind a few months and it all stemmed from a conversation between Neale’s manager Tim Lawrence and Lions list manager Dom Ambrogio.
“There’d been discussions around Brisbane with me, not necessarily involving Lachie, because it was midway through the season,” Lawrence recalled.
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“I had some chats with Dom Ambrogio, the list manager at the Lions, about other bits and pieces.
“Brisbane were clearly in a rebuilding phase. (Fagan) had gone there and Dave Noble was there.
“I was chatting with Dom and asked what players they were looking for and he said midfielders.
“I tossed up the idea of Lachie Neale and the phone went quiet for a few seconds before Dom said ‘well yeah, that could work’.
“At that time, it was just a thought in mind. Lachie was neither yes or no so we just kept in touch.”
Ambrogio wasted no time in telling the Brisbane hierarchy of a potential poach of one of the game’s best young talents.
Lions boss Greg Swann said the recruitment committee were almost blown away by the prospect of nabbing Neale to the club.
“He (Ambrogio) came to that group and said ‘look, we’re a chance to get Lachie Neale’ and we just looked at each other and thought ‘geez, that’s pretty good’,” Swann said.
“He was already a dual best and fairest winner and a good player.
“He was just a real professional. He was a great trainer, a leader.
“He just seemed like a really good bloke.
“We’ve had a real emphasis on that – you can’t have enough good people at your club and we thought he would not only add to the playing stocks but the off-field stocks as well.”
QUEENSLAND GETAWAY
The Lions were keen to show Neale what life was like in the Sunshine State.
So in late August the Fremantle star, his partner Julie and manager all flew to Brisbane to meet with the club’s heavy hitters.
Among them included Fagan, Lions boss Greg Swann and football manager David Noble.
They were wined and dined, taken out for coffee and driven around potential Brisbane suburbs to live in.
Neale has admitted the lack of fanfare and limelight in Brisbane on the little-known AFL star became more and more appealing as time went on.
Lawrence revealed it wasn’t the only selling point.
“After Fages met Lachie that weekend, he said to me ‘he’s a coach-in-waiting and I want to try and help him’,” Lawrence said.
“There was another kind of sell.
“We spent a couple of days with the club.
“We went out to dinner with some of the key figures at the football club.
“(Lions head of personal excellence and wellbeing) Andrew Crowell took us for a drive around different parts of Brisbane and potential suburbs to live in.”
DRAFT NO. 6
It will probably go down in draft history as one of the best deals a club has managed to pull in the AFL draft.
But it was no easy feat or done-deal as Swann recalled.
“We had to pray for him,” he said.
“We had pick No. 6 that year, which was a good pick, but we just thought we needed a ready-made A-grade player to come so effectively we thought that was a fair trade.
“For what we needed at the time, we thought it was a no-brainer.”
And this is how it transpired.
The Lions gave up pick No. 6 for Neale, which eventually went to Fremantle.
They then passed it on to Melbourne to get Jesse Hogan.
Melbourne gave it to the Suns so the Demons could get Steven May and Gold Coast drafted Ben King with it.
Brisbane’s ability to poach one of the in-form youngsters suddenly sparked some enthusiasm into a club that had been struggling at the time.
And the move proved to be the perfect escape from footy for Neale, who has been open about the lack of limelight on AFL players in Brisbane.
“It’s an interesting metaphor but moving to Queensland, he had more sunlight to grow,” Lawrence said.
“For me, as his manager, I saw that we could get more out of a change.
“More opportunities to develop his game.”
FUTURE LION KING
The Brownlow Medal favourite and Queensland’s best footballer in 2020 is truly one of a kind.
“He probably has gone to another level and that’s a great credit to Fages (Lions coach Chris Fagan) and the coaching staff,” Swann said.
“He has got better since he’s got here and we think even this year, he’s got better again.
“He’s become a very dependable and consistent player.”
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Despite almost certain to be topping the Brownlow Medal count and buoyed by the possibility of playing in the first AFL Grand Final at the Gabba on October 24, Neale will still be yearning for improvement to help the club and coaching staff that so impressed him in 2018.
“He might win a premiership this year,” Lawrence said.
“He might win a Brownlow this year.
“He might not win either.
“But I can tell you we’ll have a conversation at the end of the year about what he needs to do to get better. He continuously wants to evolve.”