AFL star Lachie Neale breaks his silence on fallout from marriage-ending affair

AFL star Lachie Neale has addressed his off-season cheating scandal for the first time, during an appearance on Triple M's The Rush Hour with Dobbo & Elliott.

The Brisbane Lions player stepped down from his role as captain in January amid the fallout from the affair.

"When it's your personal lives and your private matters, you probably don't think it's newsworthy," Neale told Ben "Dobbo" Dobbin.

"In a sense, I sort of get it - captain of the footy club and a public profile in a way - but it felt over the top.

"It was pretty crazy there for a while but hopefully everyone's moving on and it's great to have the footy back on, which has taken over the headlines I think and hopefully everyone can move on."

He described the wait for the AFL season to kick off as a long one, wanting the pre-season to be over.

That's likely because it was in December when Jules first publicly claimed she had been "betrayed", in light of rumours about the couple's marriage.

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"I want to make it very clear that I am not 'working through' anything," Jules wrote on a social media post at the time.

"I have been betrayed in the most unimaginable way. All I can do now is to to heal and do what's best for my children."

Then came the allegation that the betrayal was an affair with her former best friend Tess Crosley, who was married to Lachie's mate Ben Crosley.

Tess has since deleted photos showing her celebrating Brisbane's AFL grand final victory with Lachie and Jules, as well as her husband, with Tess and Lachie's knees touching.

"Take these down, you idiot, you're embarrassing yourself," Jules later wrote under the photos.

In January while stepping down from his captaincy with the club, Lachie apologised publicly without any explicit confirmation of anything untoward.

"While I won't go into specifics I can say that I have let my family down, and I apologise for my actions which have hurt those closest to me," he said.

"For that, I am deeply sorry."

Lachie then added that he had to "accept" the consequences of his actions, but was focused on rebuilding trust with his estranged wife for the sake of their children.

During the chat with Dobbo, Lachie labelled the start of the year a "challenging few months" but said he had "great support around me" and was focused on "being the best dad I can be now" to the couple's two kids.

He also revealed he distanced himself from alcohol to help hone in on his footy, making sport his focus.

"In a way, it was a form of therapy to go and train and look after myself," he said.

"I didn't really drink at all or anything in that period, I felt like I really had to knuckle down and narrow my focus on my football and being there for my kids when I could.

"In a weird way, it helped my football. I was able to concentrate on getting the most out of myself and making sure I was prepared.

"I felt like I had let a lot of people down, so I wanted to redeem myself by the way I came back into the pre-season and games, in particular."

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