It wasn’t what Lachie Neale was hoping for in Perth on Sunday, but still he has taken a unique place in Brisbane Football Club history.

With 26 possessions against former club Fremantle in the Lions’ heart-breaking after-the-siren one-point loss, Neale has posted a club record for his first 10 games.

In fact it was a record he held even before he played his 10^th game. It was only a matter when a mark that will take some beating fell.

It landed at 331 possessions  - 51 ahead of former Dayne Beams, the player whose #9 jumper he now wears and the player he has effectively replaced in Brisbane midfield.

Neale has posted a staggeringly consistent weekly hauls of 29-43-43-40-24-28-29-30-39-26 to trail only Collingwood’s Adam Treloar (335) for possessions in the AFL through the first 10 rounds.

Beams started 33-20-35-21-31-29-32-20-38-29 when he joined the Lions in 2015.

Third on the club’s 10-game possession list, and most for the club by an AFL debutant, is Bradd Dalziell, who played 15 games with the club from 2008-09 before 28 games with West Coast 2010-13.

Twenty of 320 Brisbane players, including Neale, have had 200 possessions in their first 10 games with the club. They are:-

Neale became an immediate favorite with Lions fans when traded to Brisbane from Fremantle six hours before the deadline last November, with the club giving up selections #6-19-55 in the 2018 National Draft for Neale and selection #30.

While history will ultimately judge the merits of the deal, nobody at the Gabba will question the value of the dynamic midfielder, who shapes as the AFL recruit of the year.

And already his 145-game career is outstanding for a player taken by Fremantle with pick #58 in the 2011 National Draft, which was set up to be the primary source of young talent for the GWS Giants.

In seven and a half years Neale, said by many to be too small when first drafted from Glenelg, has gone from 58 in the pecking order among prospective young players across Australia to rank third in games played by 2011 draftees. And No.1 for possessions.

Among 69 first-time draftees in 2011, Neale’s 145 games sees him behind only Richmond’s Brandon Ellis (162 games) and Port Adelaide/Hawthorn forward Chad Wingard (153), and level with St.Kilda’s Jack Newnes (145).

Lachie Neale hits his first Lions milestone, a Player of the Round hat-trick! ✅✅✅ pic.twitter.com/1pjyFu9B8a

— Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) May 20, 2019

Completing the top 10 are Brisbane/West Coast utility Elliot Yeo (142), GWS/Essendon forward Devon Smith (138), Hawthorn/Fremantle midfielder Bradley Hill (137), GWS forward Toby Greene (132), GWS midfielder Stephen Coniglio (127), GWS/Collingwood midfielder Taylor Adams (125) and GWS utility Adam Tomlinson (125).

Neale tops the Class of 2011 for career possessions at 3866, ahead of Ellis (3561), Adams (3134) and Coniglio (3121).

Neale hasn’t just been an on-field revelation. He has also joined close mate and fellow Glenelg SANFL product Lincoln McCarthy in putting an end to what was a recurring nightmare for Lions fans – the 2011 Draft.

Until this year it had been the disaster in which Billy Longer, chosen at pick #8, Sam Docherty, pick #12 and Yeo, pick #30, quit the club to play elsewhere after a total of 49 games.

It didn’t help either that Patrick Wearden, the Lions’ other draftee at #47, never played a game.

But now the 2010 Draft has a big up side via Neale and McCarthy, who was pick #66 to Geelong.