On the eve of what could be his first Brownlow Medal win, former Dockers star turned Lion Lachie Neale has detailed a couple of tough-love lessons he learnt from old coach Ross Lyon.

Neale enters tonight’s Brownlow count as second-favourite behind Patrick Dangerfield, with the midfielder thriving in his first season in Brisbane following a shift from Fremantle late last year.

Speaking on the Dyl & Friends podcast alongside GWS’ Dylan Buckley, Neale credited his former mentor Lyon for helping raise his standards and make him realise what was required to become an elite AFL player.

“I love Ross now - we have a great relationship now. But at the time, it felt a bit ‘love / hate’ i reckon,” Neale said.

“He was pretty hard on me, but he certainly made me a better player. The way that he interacted with me has helped my footy enormously.

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“At the start, there were a few moments where I thought, ‘Jeez, he doesn’t really like me here’. But he ended up playing me a bit, so he must have liked me.”

One of those ‘moments’ came at a training session in Neale’s first pre-season, after an impressive NAB Cup showing.

“I rock up to training the next week and we’re doing this ball movement drill into forward 50,” Neale said.

“So it’s my first pre-season heading into my first AFL season. I’ve tried to take on a couple of blokes, got tackled, fair enough, all good.

“Move on to the next part, go again, get tackled, and I just look up and see Ross and he’s got those eyes. I’m like, ‘he’s not too happy with me here’.

“So he rolls a ground ball in and I’ve picked it up, and I haven’t given a first give and I’ve tried to take whoever was chasing me on again and I’ve been tackled for the third time in about 15 seconds.

“And he’s just blown the whistle, called everyone in, and I’m thinking ‘this is definitely a spray for me here’.

“I walk up the front and he’s just gone, ‘Mate, I don’t know who you think you are. Do you think you’re Robert Harvey? You’ve got a long way to go before you do that... go run a 400’.

“I was almost in tears running the 400. I reckon I ran it in record pace.”

Camera Icon Lachie Neale and Ross Lyon chat in 2012. Credit: WA News

Neale said the coach wasn’t finished there, becoming irked by former development manager Simon Lloyd putting his arm around him for support.

“Ross goes ‘get away from him - he’s not a kid any more’,” Neale said.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to cry here’.

“He told me to take the pumpkin off my head and put it in my locker.”

Neale also talked about the time Lyon motivated him to prepare better after coming back in less-than-ideal shape one pre-season, with the coach saying he could become a “fat little forward pocket at Glenelg” if he didn’t raise his standards.