Alex Neal-Bullen on connection with former coach Simon Goodwin and his fresh start at Adelaide
Alex Neal-Bullen might now be a ‘fully fledged Adelaide Crow’, but he still shares a special connection with his former coach. The new recruit opens up on the trade away from the Dees.
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An image in Adelaide’s gym at West Lakes reminds Alex Neal-Bullen of his road to becoming a Crow.
The picture is of former club captain Simon Goodwin during his esteemed 275-game career in the tricolours.
He was someone Neal-Bullen cheered on as a childhood Adelaide fan, the first person he met after getting drafted, one of his biggest backers, his premiership coach and a key figure in his off-season trade.
Goodwin was an assistant with the Demons when he collected Neal-Bullen from Tullamarine Airport as a fresh-faced 18-year-old in November 2014.
Neal-Bullen became an AFL regular during Goodwin’s debut season as senior coach in 2017.
Four years later, they were on the dais in Perth celebrating Melbourne’s drought-breaking grand final win.
Neal-Bullen planned to retire as a Demon until family circumstances brought him to his coach’s house on a day off late last season a heart-to-heart.
The hardworking half-forward and his wife Georgina wanted to head back to South Australia.
“Since literally my first 10 minutes jumping off a plane in Melbourne, Goody was one bloke who I trusted from the get-go,” Neal-Bullen tells this masthead.
“He picked me up, welcomed me into the footy club.
“Along our journey together, he became head coach, I became a regular in the 22, I became out of favour in the 22, I became a regular again and he was driving that ship with me, having challenging conversations, but also understanding what was best for me to reach my potential.
“It gave me the confidence to go to his house on a day off last year just to fill him in on how Georgina and I were feeling.
“I have a great relationship with him and was so thankful for his understanding and encouragement for me and Georgina to do what was best for our family.
“The special connection I have with him now is although I’m a fully fledged Adelaide Crow, his photo is still pinned up in the gym, so I still see him every day.
“When I chat to him, I let him know he’s still looking over my shoulder making sure I’m doing everything to the best of my ability.”
Neal-Bullen not only became a premiership winner and much-loved teammate at Melbourne, but a dad.
Georgina gave birth to their daughter, Zara, last February.
“It’s been incredible,” Neal-Bullen says.
“Coming home from a day’s work at the footy club, a ball of energy hits you.
“I’ve always been quite easygoing around a footy club and highly competitive.
“But coming home to that positive energy allows you to maintain that when you walk through the door, rather than put the bag on the ground and put the feet up.
“She had a little Melbourne guernsey and now an Adelaide Crows one.”
A desire for more family support around them prompted the couple, who met in high school at Sacred Heart College, to explore a move home.
Although disappointed to lose Neal-Bullen after 176 games across 10 seasons, the Demons described it as a decision he had to make given the sensitive nature of the circumstances.
Adelaide traded pick 28 for him in October.
“In the second half of last season, when I came home I could just see and feel that Georgina was a bit low on energy,” he says.
“We had a really open conversation about if there was an opportunity to go home, would we consider it.
“Melbourne treated me so well in that situation.
“Seeing my own parents and in-laws become grandparents, the energy and vibrancy that brings them, it puts the biggest smile on my face.
“I believe it’ll help me play great football for a longer period of time because you bring everyone along for the journey and can see how much they all enjoy being around each other.”
Among the reasons the Crows targeted Neal-Bullen were his professionalism and big-game experience.
They have been so impressed during his first two months, they are expected to add him to their leadership group.
Two qualities the club have admired in Neal-Bullen – his competitiveness and maturity – come from his family.
His grandmother, Cheryl Neal, was a trailblazing jockey as the second woman in Australia to get permission to race against men and first to win a race in Melbourne.
But her career was cut short when she fell from a horse at Nanango, 200km northwest of Brisbane, during a meet in May 1980, aged 32.
She was in a coma for eight months and had been in a wheelchair ever since, paralysed from the waist down.
Inspired by his grandmother, Neal-Bullen began a bachelor of education and disability studies at university after graduating from school.
“I got exposed to the impact you can have on people with a disability or learning disability,” he says.
“When I saw there was an opportunity to do that with younger people in a school environment, it was very rewarding.”
Neal-Bullen stopped studying that in Melbourne, but his grandmother remained a source of motivation today.
“She was highly competitive and I think I have some strong traits of that in how I play my football,” he says.
A former race walker and middle-distance runner at junior level, Neal-Bullen’s endurance is one of his biggest strengths.
Last season he ranked in the top five for distance covered during 13 matches, second only at the Demons to running machine Ed Langdon.
Neal-Bullen learnt early in his AFL career that he could use his endurance as a weapon, “rather than just running around like a headless chook”.
He won Adelaide’s 2km time trial when the club resumed training in November.
It was another instance of him making a strong early impression at his new club.
“I want to be a teammate who other Crows players know each week what they’re going to get out of me,” he says.
“They’re a competitive group and everyone’s very aligned with where we want to get to as a team.”
Adelaide has not made the finals since 2017 and is coming off a disappointing 15th-placed finish.
Neal-Bullen is the team’s only premiership player, but does not think about that title at all.
“I’m trying to help put us in a position to experience some success here,” he says.
“Maybe there’ll be times I need to be leant on for that.
“But I’ve had some great discussions with players across all age groups here about each other’s footy journey.
“I’m taking some learnings from theirs and maybe they’re taking some from mine.”
Neal-Bullen says it feels like yesterday that he had arrived in Melbourne meeting Goodwin and beginning his career.
He joined the Demons from Glenelg with close mate Billy Stretch, the son of former Melbourne star Steven Stretch.
It was Billy who gave him the nickname Nibbler, derived from repeating Neal-Bullen quickly.
Delisted by Melbourne at the end of 2019 after 47 matches, Stretch returned to the Tigers and won premierships the past two years before retiring at the end of last season.
“He’s one of the all-time best people I’ve met through sport,” he says.
“He’s no longer playing AFL but I almost feel responsibility to continue my career for blokes like Billy who weren’t able to play for 10 years.
“I can see how much he enjoys seeing me play at the highest level possible.
“Now I’m starting a new chapter at the Crows and I cannot wait to earn that first shot at it.”
Neal-Bullen is already envisaging running onto Adelaide Oval for the first time as a Crow.
“It’s a great atmosphere, a beautiful oval and to wear the tricolours on that oval is going to be very special,” he says.
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