Neale’s stunning 13-year road from Freo kid to ‘Hall of Fame’ Lion... and full-circle GF moment

Thirteen years ago, Lachie Neale sat on the interchange bench at the MCG waiting for his moment.

He was 20 years old and coming into the 23rd game of his AFL career. Still in its infancy, the South Australian youngster was wearing the purple of a Fremantle side playing in the first Grand Final in club history.

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When ruck Zac Clarke was substituted out in his place, Neale was sent into the furnace. Seven disposals and two marks followed, but a premiership did not.

Fremantle fell 15 points short against Hawthorn that afternoon and, one by one, the Dockers who shared the occasion with Neale have since disappeared from the AFL stage.

First it was Dockers legend Matthew Pavlich in 2016, and then it was Stephen Hill in 2021. David Mundy exited in a semi-final loss 12 months later, before Nat Fyfe - in a heartbreaking elimination final loss - and Michael Walters bowed out last year.

Now, only Neale remains.

On Saturday afternoon, he will run onto the same ground he did 13 years ago, this time trying to stop his former club from winning the premiership that eluded them both in 2013.

Now 33 and firmly entrenched among Brisbane's modern greats, Neale enters his latest Grand Final as a dual Brownlow medallist, a four-time All-Australian, premiership co-captain and one of the driving forces behind a Lions side chasing a third consecutive flag.

He is also potentially a tick over 120 minutes away from his final appearance in Brisbane colours, expected to exercise his free agency rights next month and join Collingwood.

First though, comes Fremantle.

Until Thursday evening at 6:22pm AEST, there was no guarantee Neale would be there to face them. The Lions veteran was initially handed a one-match suspension for an off-the-ball strike on Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan during last weekend's thrilling preliminary final win.

Brisbane unsuccessfully challenged the ban at the Tribunal on Tuesday before taking its case to the AFL Appeals Board two days later. This time, to the surprise of many, it succeeded.

The Appeals Board accepted Brisbane's argument that the Tribunal had erred in law by failing to give sufficient weight to Neale's exemplary disciplinary record across more than 310 games.

His suspension ultimately became a $10,000 fine, and Neale's full-circle Grand Final was back on.

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In some ways, it's fitting Neale had to fight to get there. For all the accolades accumulated across a decorated 15-year career, those closest to Brisbane believe one of the defining features of Neale's football has often been obscured by the Brownlow Medals, possession counts and stoppage craft.

"What he did in last year's grand final shows his toughness - I think his toughness is underrated," Lions legend Jonathan Brown told foxfooty.com.au.

"We saw it on the weekend with what happened at the first bounce (with Jai Newcombe). He threatened to fight his way through that, and hopefully he's going to be out there.

"He's going to be important with (Luke) Jackson in that centre square, they need all hands on deck in terms of their centre bounce squad." There was perhaps no better demonstration than 12 months ago.

A calf injury had ruled Neale out of Brisbane's qualifying final and left him rated a long shot of making the Grand Final.

Yet after just three weeks rehabilitating his soft issue injury, he made it. Starting as the substitute, Neale was unleashed at half-time and produced 17 disposals and an epic goal on the cusp of three-quarter time to help drive Brisbane to another premiership.

So incredible was his performance, the Glenelg product even forced his name into the Norm Smith Medal conversation, despite playing only having 44 per cent time on ground.

To Alastair Lynch, it was another example of the qualities that have transformed a pick No.58 from Glenelg into one of the defining midfielders of his generation.

"(He has gone from being) a very good player at Fremantle himself to becoming a Hall of Famer at Brisbane," Lynch told foxfooty.com.au's Courtney Walsh.

"It's pretty hard to get very good players out of clubs, especially clubs that aren't exactly flying, and he's made the choice to come all away across the country and start again. He is an amazing player.

"I think the work he puts in with his training - he's very similar to a Simon Black that I used to play with - he just doesn't fumble, doesn't fall over.

"He's been an incredible player, and he was probably half a chance for the Norm Smith Medal with just half a game of football last year. He has had an incredible impact on the footy club."

It often goes unmentioned just how much of a draft steal Neale was. Fremantle took the ball magnet with pick No.58 in the 2011 National Draft. By the time he requested a trade out of Western Australia seven years later, he had won two Doig Medals in three years, and established himself among the competition's most prolific ball-winners.

Brisbane knew it was acquiring a quality midfielder, but even they could hardly have forecast what followed.

Over the next seven years, Neale went on to win two Brownlow Medals, four best and fairests, and a quartet of All-Australian jackets.

Now at the very end of his eighth year, Saturday afternoon shapes as his last game in maroon, blue and gold.

It comes at the conclusion of a season where Neale has dealt with considerably more than football. A public separation from wife Jules earlier this year was followed by his decision to step away from Brisbane's co-captaincy, while speculation over his playing future has intensified as the season has progressed.

Jonathan Brown believes the way Neale has continued to perform amid that noise says something not only about the midfielder, but about the side he has helped shape.

"It's unbelievable (how he's dealt) with his personal life. Obviously the trade talk too; I think it's very underrated at the Brisbane Lions that there's a toughness to them," Brown told foxfooty.com.au.

"Dunkley and Neale as veterans lead that, and it just permeates the way through the younger part of the group. It's an underrated part of the Lions."

There is an obvious irony to where Neale's journey has led.

The young Docker who entered the 2013 Grand Final from the bench is now the last active AFL player from Fremantle's only previous side to reach the final Saturday in September. Every teammate he ran onto the MCG with that afternoon has finished.

Neale's trajectory would have been almost impossible to imagine when Ross Lyon finally sent the 20-year-old substitute onto the field 13 years ago.

Now, he returns to the same stage with history again within reach. Brisbane is trying to become just the seventh group in V/AFL history to win three consecutive premierships, and just the third since Melbourne from 1955-57.

The Lions famously did it from 2001-2003, before Hawthorn blitzed the league across 2013-15.

Fremantle, however, is trying to win its first with Neale - the last footballing link to the Dockers' previous attempt - trying to stop them.