AFL’s Neale double standard is good for the game
OPINION: Lachie Neale hit a bloke in the guts off the ball and still gets to play in the AFL grand final. That’s a good thing.
The Brisbane Lions′ dual Brownlow medallist – now one of the game’s more controversial figures – was overtly given special treatment to get on the field. Also good for the game.
Lachie Neale has been cleared to play in the grand final. Getty Images
I’m not saying he’s not an idiot. As a former co-captain with 320 games under his belt, his decision to whack Jack Ginnivan off the ball and put himself at risk of missing out on an almost impossibly rare chance to make three-peat history was inexplicable.
Several things are true: Ginnivan had been giving it to Lions forward Eric Hipwood; a good leader stands up for his teammates when they’re treated badly; Ginnivan can be quite whackable at times.
But if the 204-centimetre forward who put on an extra eight kilograms this season needs defending from the 185-centimetre (per the AFL website), 77-kilogram Ginnivan by the even shorter Neale, something odd is going on.
Stupidest of all, Neale’s “strike to the guts” came amid an explicit crackdown by the AFL on the ugly practice.
Since AFL executive general manager of football Greg Swann, Neale’s former boss at the Lions, announced “guys punching guys in the guts” would cop a one-week ban, nine players have been suspended.
Fremantle fans will no doubt argue that consistency is key and Neale – who had three previous fines for striking but no suspensions before the prelim – should have suffered the same fate.
But that’s dead wrong for two reasons. And neither of those are that I’m a lifelong Lions fan and desperately want us to win.
Missing a home and away match just isn’t the same thing as missing the “historic opportunity” of a grand final, as Neale’s lawyer, Adrian Anderson, argued at the tribunal on Thursday night.
Plus, the last Saturday in September is the showpiece of our great game. It should show the sport at its absolute peak (although everyone knows the prelims are usually better) and that includes having the best players from both teams on the field.
The AFL has shown over and over again – cough, the fixture, cough – that its priority is spectacle and commercial appeal over a strict focus on fairness.
Lachie Neale speaks to the media during a press conference at Melbourne Airport. Getty Images
If the league is going to prioritise game-day experience to allow Lions fans to (hopefully) sing Take Me Home, Country Roads and give Freo access to the “Wharfie Time” button, then why not also get one of the league’s biggest stars out on the park?
I don’t often find myself saying this but Nathan Brown hit the nail on the head.
“I think this is good for footy,” Brown said on Nine’s The Footy Show Grand Final Telethon.
“He is the best player in the game over the last few years. We want the big name players [in the grand final].”
It’s not the first time a big star has escaped grand final suspension by the skin of Warwick Capper’s shorts, and it probably won’t be the last. And that’s also good.
Footy is a tough, contact sport played right on the edge. That extra one per cent of fury at the contest can be the difference between a win and a loss.
Playing more than 300 games at the highest level without a single suspension is “extremely rare”, as the tribunal itself noted in its original decision.
Lachie Neale of the Lions is tackled by Jai Newcombe of the Hawks. Getty
“Of the 13,366 players to have ever played VFL or AFL, only 65 have played 320 or more games,” the finding noted, despite ultimately suspending Neale.
“That is less than half a per cent, and only 25 of them have done so without a suspension.”
I’m not calling for a “get out of jail free” card but that level of performance and good behaviour should be recognised.
The AFL ditched the “good bloke clause” – basically any sort of off-field character reference being taken into account – after Neale’s teammate Charlie Cameron benefited from it in 2024.
Some would jokingly argue that may actually have helped Neale after his off-season, off-field behaviour, but the important thing is that the “exceptional and compelling circumstances” provision that saved him remained, and should stay.
After last year’s calf injury saga, there’s something very familiar about a week of furious media spotlight on Neale’s availability for the grand final. Let’s hope he and his teammates can brush it off as they did last year.
In fact, maybe the AFL should appeal the appeal. I know that’s not how it works but just imagine if the league banned him for half a game so he could relive his almost Norm Smith Medal-worthy second-half performance from 2025.
