Lachie Neale will stamp an indelible mark on the AFL record books tomorrow night as the biggest 250-game possession winner in history.

With 6777 possessions from 249 games, the 30-year-old Lions co-captain already has the field covered ahead of his 250^th game against Melbourne at the MCG.

With a game in hand he is 31 possessions ahead of fellow dual Brownlow Medallist Robert Harvey, whose 250-game possession count of 6746 for St.Kilda heads the current 250-game list.

Greg Williams, yet another dual Brownlow Medallist, is third at 6721 from Dane Swan (6716), Scott Pendlebury (6608), ex-Sydney champion Josh Kennedy (6571), Terry Wallace (6455), Joel Selwood (6406), Sam Mitchell (6401) and ex-Fitzroy champion Garry Wilson (6363).

With 187 Brownlow Medal votes – and potentially three against North Melbourne last week and more against Melbourne in his 250^th – Neale is currently fourth on the 250-game vote list behind Patrick Dangerfield (209), Chris Judd (201) and Dustin Martin (197).

Counting only half of votes received in 1976-77, when two umpires each awarded 3-2-1 votes in each game, and averaging votes in years where precise game-by-game votes are not available, the top 10 vote-getters at 250 games is completed by Gary Ablett Jnr (184), Selwood (183), Swan (180), Mitchell (177), Gary Dempsey (176.8) and Nathan Buckley (173).

Nat Fyfe, who had 187 votes from 218 games to the end of last season, will move into this elite group when he reaches 250 games.

In an elite competition like the AFL, in which statistics can sometimes be misleading, the Neale numbers are irrefutable.

Still with plenty of good football left, he is 44^th for possessions all-time since the AFL started keeping statistics in 1965, and #1 across the competition since his debut in 2011.

With 101 games of 30 possessions or more, including 13 40-possession games and a personal best of 53, he is 7^th all-time for 30-possession games since 1965 behind Ablett (124), Mitchell (121), Robert Harvey (118), Pendlebury (115), Swan (108) and the Western Bulldogs’ Jack Macrae (104).

His 187 Brownlow votes, 13^th in corrected Brownlow Medal votes all-time, has been bettered by only Dangerfield (246) and Martin (206) since his debut.

But even more compelling is his Brownlow record since joining the Lions. It is off the charts.

In 99 eligible games (non finals) in the Lions #9 jumper he has polled 124 votes at 1.25 votes per game – 26-31-8-28-31 year-by year - to win the game’s highest individual honour in 2020 and 2023, finish equal 3^rd in 2019 and 2^nd by a solitary vote in 2022.

The Western Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli’s 104 votes at 0.99vpg is next best over the past five years, with Melbourne’s Christian Petracca (93 votes at 0.88vpg), Carlton’s Patrick Cripps (93 votes at 0.93vpg) and Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver (88 votes at 0.83vpg) completing he top five.

That Dangerfield (66 votes at 0.79vpg) is 10^th with barely half of the Neale total is confirmation of the Brisbane ball-magnet’s domination.

They are astonishing numbers for anyone and even more so for a player who is officially listed at 178cm – tiny in comparison to the likes of Cripps (195cm) and Bontempelli (193cm) – and was something of an afterthought in his draft year.

Originally drafted by Fremantle at #58 in 2011, the Glenelg (SANFL) junior was overlooked by every opposition club – 12 times by GWS, four times by Brisbane, StKilda and the Western Bulldogs and three times by local clubs Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

Even the Dockers ignored him twice to take Tom Sheridan at #16 and Alex Forster at #29 -  Sheridan played 81 games for Fremantle and two for GWS, and Forster played one game for Fremantle.

Brisbane preferred #8 Billy Longer, #12 Sam Docherty, #30 Elliot Yeo and #47 Patrick Wearden for a combined 49 games for the Lions and 381 games for opposition clubs. Wearden never played at AFL level, while Yeo, now at West Coast, and Docherty, on the injured list at Carlton, are still playing.

But what the Lions missed out on originally with Neale they made up for on 17 October 2018 when they pulled off a stunning trade for the 135-game Fremantle veteran, who had finished 6^th-1^st-2^nd-1^st in the Docker’s best & fairest from 2015-18 wearing jumper #27.

After a long stalemate in negotiations Brisbane gave up picks #6, #19 and #55 in the 2017 Draft for pick #30 and Neale, who was contracted to Fremantle until the end of 2019.

It was a major change of scenery in a football journey that began when he was born  Lachlan Oliver Neale on 24 May 1993 in Narracorte, a small town on the Limestone Coast of South Australia, about 335km south-east of Adelaide and 100km north of Mt.Gambier, which has hosted AFL matches during Gather Round the last two years.

His family lived briefly on a farm in Langkoop, near Apsley, a small town just east of the SA border, before settling in the nearby farming town of Kybybolite.

Nicknamed "Cowboy" after ex-St.Kilda great Kevin ‘Cowboy’ Neale, he played basketball, soccer, cricket and football as a youngster, beginning his football career in 2004 as a 10-year-old.

A Port Adelaide supporter in his early years, he attended prestigious St.Peter’s College in Adelaide on scholarship and played in Glenelg Under-18 premiership side as a bottom-ager in 2010.

In 2011 he played seven senior games in his first season and further pushed his draft claims when he won the best afield medal in the Under-18 grand final with 40 possessions in a losing side.

He didn’t just roll into AFL football after a brutal early assessment from then St.Kilda coach Ross Lyon in 2012, who said he did not have long-term AFL potential unless he reduced his weight and increased his work-rate. But he learned quickly, and in his 23^rd AFL game in his second season was the starting substitute in the Dockers’ 2013 grand final loss to Hawthorn.

Fast forward 11 years, 226 games and 16 more finals and Neale is still chasing the only thing that has eluded him – an AFL premiership.

It’s all that matters, now, as the Lions set themselves for a Demons side that beat both Adelaide clubs in Adelaide in their last two outings for a four-game winning streak that sees them second on a distorted AFL ladder after an opening round loss to Sydney in Sydney.

But historically at least Neale has one omen on his side – he has a perfect 4-0 record in milestones games – wins with Fremantle in his 50^th and 100^th games and with Brisbane in his 150^th and 200^th, when he also picked up three Brownlow votes.