Lachie Neale was a small kid who grew up in Narracourt, a town on the Limestone Coast in South Australia. He lived with his mother Amanda on a farm, with his Dad nearby. His grandfather owned the local pub. 

He played every sport under the sun and had a very healthy imagination. There was a room in the house where he would imagine two full AFL teams going head-to-head and would invent the plays, the goals, the scores, the outcomes in his head. He even had a glory wall of posters and photos of players he looked up to.

“Ever since I can remember I’ve loved footy,” Neale said.

This weekend he’ll play his 150th AFL game.

His family shared his passion for sport and father Robbie had enjoyed some success playing in Adelaide for Woodsville.

“He said to me that his desire for farm life and what not brought him back to country footy,” Neale said.

As a young teenager in Narracourt, a career in footy seemed like a long shot. 

“I was always a bit smaller than most of my friends,” he said.

“All the girls were taller than me… I was so small.”

He travelled to Adelaide in Year 10 to take up a scholarship offer by St Peters and enjoyed a long-awaited growth spurt.

It was during this time he believed he had what it took to one day be on an AFL list.

“I sort of thought, ‘oh well, they must think I go alright,’” he said.

But as a bottomer ager playing for Glenelg in Under 18’s he suffered a blow when he was dropped from the team, just before finals.

He still had another year to go before his draft year, but some doubt had crept in. 

“Even early days because I got dropped and stuff it was going to be a bit of a stretch,” he said.

He had finished Year 12 early so had an extra year up his sleeve before he could be drafted. He put a strong pre-season behind him and became one of Glenelg’s Under 18’s strongest players the following year.

He was then a late call up to the South Australian state team and played at National Championships.

But the game that secured a spot on an AFL list was the Under 18 Grand Final between Glenelg and Port Adelaide. He knew the Fremantle recruiters were watching so produced a best-on-ground effort with 40 disposals for the afternoon.

“It all happened really quick,” he said.

“I had a pretty good year but I played really good in that Grand Final.”

Neale was drafted to the Dockers with Pick No. 58 in 2011 and told journalists earlier this week his 18-year-old self would have laughed if someone told him he would go on to play 150 AFL games.

And what a 150 games it’s been – he’s played in an AFL Grand Final; won Doig Medals at Fremantle as their best and fairest player; has been awarded the Geoff Christian Medal twice as the best player in the Western Derby and despite all this, Neale says he’s still got room for improvement.

His hunt for always wanting to get better has endeared him to his Senior Coach Chris Fagan. Post-footy he would like to follow Fages down the coaching path.

He was a big reason for his move to Brisbane. Neale wanted to learn from Fagan, who never played AFL but has more than 25 years’ worth of experience in coaching and football administration.

“Fages, he’s obviously been assistant coaching, coaching and he’s coached the coaches. He was Alastair Clarkson’s right-hand man for a long time and when I spoke to him about my ambitions for coaching and stuff he was pretty keen to help me out and get me on the right path as well,” Neale said.

“Even through pre-season I spent a bit of time with Fages and he’s pulled me into his office and explained why he’s done a few things. It’s really interesting.”

Neale has finished his Level 1 and 2 in Coaching and during his time in Fremantle he spent some time with the Dockers’ AFLW team.

“It’s really satisfying when you felt like you’ve helped contribute to someone’s growth,” he said.