Neale drama not the Brownlow medallist’s finest moment

Lachie Neale should not be surprised at the backlash that followed his so-called exploratory approach to his old club Fremantle, an approach that went horribly public on Father’s Day as the Brisbane Lions were still licking their wounds from the previous night.

Setting aside those shameful comments from social-media bullies, Neale rightfully drew criticism for blindsiding the Lions in contemplating walking out on the final two years of a front-ended contract. This was a move that cannot be explained away simply on the trials of homesickness and COVID-19 when he had not even given his club the opportunity of a back-up plan.

The Lachie Neale drama blindsided the Lions.Credit:Getty Images

Nor can Neale and his team claim, as they did, that the prospect of a trade back to Fremantle was “blown out of proportion” when his Perth-based management representative Jason Dover spoke to the Dockers to gauge their interest, leaving Brisbane completely in the dark. The suggestion is that Fremantle’s chief executive Simon Garlick was given a rough estimate of what a four-year Neale contract might look like, an estimate that turned out to be well short of the mark anyway.

Botched figures aside, this is a story that reeks of a lack of professionalism on the part at least of Neale’s management and the player, while stressing he had not requested a trade, did not deny he had tacitly approved the meeting between Dover and the Dockers. And it was a story in vast contrast to Neale’s departure from Fremantle back in 2018. His contract at the Dockers then was significantly below his market value.

The fact the Dockers allowed that anomaly to go unaddressed, coupled with Neale’s concerns surrounding a lack of professionalism at the club, led to the star midfielder’s exit once that contract was done.

Non-invested observers generally supported that shock move to Brisbane. But this time was different. That Neale’s club learned via the media of the Fremantle talks, just as Fremantle had three years earlier, has caused some concern among the offices of Neale’s management group TLA.

Football clubs can be brutal places during the trade period but the AFL ecosystem cannot tolerate players and their managers showing a flippant disregard for long-term contracts. It’s all very well to say Brisbane, had Neale pursued this, should have worked for the best deal possible and potentially a win-win but that scenario would have done significant harm to that system.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has repeatedly said in the past that clubs must simply dig in and hold players to their contracts and prevent such a pattern of behaviour. Commentator Justin Leppitsch, reportedly soon to enter the world of club-list management, said clubs should be allowed their own retaliation and be allowed to trade players without their consent.

The suggestion is that Neale’s long-time manager and mentor Tim Lawrence, along with TLA’s boss Tom Petroro, intervened after Dover’s Fremantle chat became public to fix the situation but TLA should be embarrassed that this storm in a teacup was publicly stirred in the first place. This is no way to do business.

Brisbane, once they considered the options before them, appeared pretty relaxed by late on Monday after Neale had asked for some time to think about his future and by Wednesday were confident that the 2020 Brownlow medallist was going nowhere. But that was not the case when the Lions could not get hold of Neale on Sunday night after the story broke and it took until lunchtime the following day for him to front at the club.

To his credit, though, Neale did front up and was honest then about his situation. Over the following days he did apologise too for putting the club and its supporters through the drama. That his wife Jules was targeted is an unfortunate and cruel fact of a public life combined with cowardly trolls but this whole experience should be a cautionary tale for well-paid footballers and their managers.

And a lesson in life for Neale, whose character shone through in the end. The four-time best-and-fairest winner has rarely been questioned or criticised and like most star footballers has probably endured his fair share of yes men in recent years so the fact he was forced to face up to the consequences of a private approach that leaked out will do his character no harm.

Footballers have been asked by the game and its brutal pandemic demands to go beyond the extra yard in the past two years but by and large they remain among the luckiest of COVID-19’s victims.

The competition is just days away from asking those players to stand up again. Following some vague public waffle from McLachlan and the players’ union regarding mandatory vaccinations, the AFL says that behind the scenes it has been getting its ducks in a row across the clubs, across the AFLW and across its Indigenous playing community.

The AFL Commission on Monday week will ratify a stronger position on that apparently vexed issue and the fervent hope across the competition is that footballers will immediately take a strong stand here and do what their supporters are being required to do.

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