Neale has behaved selfishly, but he’s worth the angst. He owes the Lions one last hurrah

September 26, 2026 — 5:00am

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Back in 2009 when Jason Akermanis’ football brilliance was waning along with his team behaviour at the Western Bulldogs, Leigh Matthews described his former Brisbane Lions three-time premiership player as a distraction he only tolerated at the football club as long as he was playing well.

Few similarities exist between the personal styles of the great “Aker” and the even more highly decorated Lachie Neale, but what links the two – beyond Brownlows and multiple Lions best and fairests – is the extraordinary disturbance factor both inflicted upon their football club. In a year when both were striving for a third-straight premiership.

While the narcissistic Akermanis tended to run off at the mouth and expose in-house issues, the distractions the single-minded Neale has inflicted upon Brisbane have been many and varied, punctuating the club’s fortunes since his battle in the lead-up to last year’s grand final to overcome a serious calf injury.

It will reach its full circle at the MCG on Saturday after the champion midfielder takes his place in his fourth consecutive grand final, having been sensationally cleared to play on Thursday by the AFL appeals board after punching Jack Ginnivan in the stomach.

The Lachie Neale off-field soap opera broke in December and became a massive issue for the club as Neale’s wife, Jules, and her friend, Tess Crosley, led the commentary on social media while Brisbane bosses Sam Graham, Danny Daly and coach Chris Fagan worked to manage the fallout.

Three years earlier, at least one high-profile former Lion urged coach Chris Fagan not to make the self-absorbed Neale captain alongside Harris Andrews. But Fagan went with Neale anyway, arguing – correctly, as it turned out – that leadership would only improve the player and his prodigious talent.The marriage break-up, much talked-of infidelity and ongoing melodramatic undercurrents made that co-captaincy role untenable.

Although the club constantly denied........

© The Sydney Morning Herald