Lachie Neale has joined the AFL’s “0.25% Club”, becoming just the 32^nd player in history to win five club championship awards.

Neale’s third win in the Merrett/Murray Medal last Friday night, which came on top of two equivalent awards at Fremantle, enhances the Lions’ standing as the Kings of the 0.25% Club.

No less than eight Lions – or 25% of the 0.25% Club – are in what is an ultra-exclusive club.

Legendary Fitzroy Brownlow Medallist Kevin Murray, who shares with South Melbourne triple Brownlow Medallist Bob Skilton the distinction of having won a record nine club best & fairest awards, is the joint #1 ticket-holder.

Six other Lions have won five premierships - former Brisbane captain Michael Voss, current Brisbane captain Dayne Zorko and ex-Fitzroy stars Garry Wilson, Paul Roos, Alan Ruthven and John Murphy.

Neale, one of only four players to have won multiple B&F awards at multiple clubs, completes the Lions’ playing representation in the 0.25% Club.

But if an all-star team was chosen from members of the ‘0.25% Club’ then the coach would have to be Lions triple premiership coach Leigh Matthews, who, with eight B&F wins as a player at Hawthorn, is third on the B&F list behind Murray and Skilton.

It is an extraordinary domination of a group that includes some of the very best of 13,026 AFL players.

Western Bulldogs have the next biggest representation with five, followed by the Sydney/South Melbourne (3) and Collingwood (3). Hawthorn, Essendon and Richmond have two, and St.Kilda, Fremantle, Carlton, North Melbourne and Essendon have one.

Like Neale, Gary Ablett Jnr, a two-time Geelong B&F winner before he won the top award at the Gold Coast four times, and Chris Judd, a two-time B&F winner at West Coast and a three-time winner at Carlton, qualify for the 0.25% Club via their efforts for two clubs.

Neale, 29, qualified for 0.25% Club membership in his 11^th AFL season, with a 55% win ratio from 220 games, including 16 finals and one grand final.

Sixteen players were quicker to five B&F wins, while Neale is 20^th-youngest and 20^th for games played, has the 15^th best win percentage, and ranks 10^th for finals.

Essendon triple Brownlow Medallist Dick Reynolds was quickest in seasons (seven) and games (111), and the youngest at 24 years 102 days, while another Essendon champion, Bill Hutchison had the best win ratio at 71.30% and had played most finals – 25. This included nine grand finals (including a draw) and four premierships.

Murray won his fifth B&F in his eighth season, one season behind Reynolds and equal with Skilton, South Melbourne Peter Bedford and Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley, who began his career with the Brisbane Bears, finishing runner-up to Michael McLean in the 1993 B&F. Ruthven, Wilson and Zorko were 10 seasons for his fifth B&F, Murphy 11, Voss 12 and Roos 13.

Ruthven was fourth-quickest in games at 133, one game behind Murray, while Voss had the best win ratio of the Lions group at the time of his fifth B&F win at 60.2%, topped with three premierships. Only Hutchison and Richmond great Kevin Bartlett had more premierships at four.

Voss twice won a B&F in a premiership, with only Bartlett (3) having had more. 

The three other players who like Neale have won multiple B&F awards at multiple clubs are Terry Wallace (Hawthorn and Western Bulldogs), Chris Judd (West Coast and Carlton) and Gary Ablett Jnr (Geelong and Gold Coast).

The full list of players who have won five or more club B&F awards is:-

9 – Kevin Murray (Fitz)
9 – Bob Skilton (Syd)

8 – Leigh Matthews (Haw)

7 – Dick Reynolds (Ess)
7 – Bill Hutchison (Ess)
7 – Gary Dempsey (WB/NM)
7 – Scott West (WB)

6 – Nathan Buckley (Coll)
6 – John Murphy (Fitz/Syd)
6 – Matthew Pavlich (Frem)
6 – Gary Ablett Jnr (Geel/GC)
6 – Nick Riewoldt (StK)

5 – Michael Voss (Bris)
5 – Dayne Zorko (Bris)
5 – Lachie Neale (Frem/Bris)
5 – Scott Pendlebury (Coll)
5 – Len Thompson (Coll)
5 – John Nicholls (Carl)
5 – James Hird (Ess)
5 – Alan Ruthven (Fitz)
5 – Garry Wilson (Fitz)
5 – Paul Roos (Fitz)
5 – Brent Harvey (NM)
5 – Sam Mitchell (Haw)
5 – Jack Dyer (Rich)
5 – Kevin Bartlett (Rich)
5 – Peter Bedford (Syd)
5 – Herbie Matthews (Syd)
5 – Norm Ware (WB)
5 – Ted Whitten Snr (WB)
5 – John Schulz (WB)
5 – Chris Judd (WC/Carl)