Six weeks later, the Lions have their man and Neale is getting stuck into pre-season training while living with fellow recruit and close mate Lincoln McCarthy while he and new wife Julie look for their own place to buy. “Being in Perth, it’s a bit of a footy bubble and coming over here, I don’t think I’ve been noticed on the streets once or stopped for a chat,'' he said. ''Little things like that are quite nice. “I was a country boy so I don’t really need that sort of limelight. “Probably when I was a bit younger I would’ve been happy to absorb some of that but now it just felt right to come over and try to help this group out and see how far we can get.” Neale’s country upbringing began in the small South Australian town of Naracoorte, 300 kilometres south-east of Adelaide, where he played football for local side Kybybolite.

In 2013, in just his 23rd game, Neale became the first footballer from the area to play in an AFL grand final since Carlton’s Andrew McKay, who grew up playing for Lucindale. But for Neale, there was never any genuine consideration given to returning home to South Australia. Despite interest from the Crows, a move to Adelaide didn’t symbolise anything significant for Neale. “To be honest, I don’t really see Adelaide as home, I probably see Perth more as home now," he said. “I don’t have any family in Adelaide so if I was to move there, it would be a three-and-half-hour drive home. I would probably see my family just as much as I would here in Brisbane or in Melbourne.”

While Neale not seeing Adelaide as home is interesting in itself, what resonates more strongly is his admission that he does see Perth as home. It makes it even more surprising that a two-time best-and-fairest winner, and Fremantle’s best player behind Nat Fyfe, would leave the club with a year remaining on his contract. Lachie Neale is an important catch for the Lions. Credit:AAP And not only that, but by his own admission, Neale would have been handed a near-identical contract by Fremantle to stay than the one he’s signed at Brisbane. “I did feel that I owed Freo a lot, probably in my early years for taking a chance on me,” Neale said.

“But I feel like I’ve given seven years of my absolute best and that probably cleared my conscience in a way. “There’s no reason why I left Freo. It just felt like the right thing to do, to be honest. “In the end we thought a fresh start would be good.” The “we” was a crucial part of the decision. While Neale may have felt like he was leaving his home state, his then fiancee and now wife Julie actually was. Having built her own hairdressing salon business from scratch, the decision to pack up and move across the country was arguably more difficult for Julie than it was for Lachie.

And it’s not something Neale takes for granted. “She’s sort of left everything behind. She’s still there at the moment and she owns a business and she’s still got that.” Neale and his teammates receive instruction at training. Credit:Michael Gosman But for the newly married couple, it was the people at Brisbane who drew them across from the west. Neale personally references Fagan, head of football David Noble and CEO Greg Swann, and comes back to the initial walk with the coach.

“I think Fages’ philosophy and the way he brings people together is really impressive and the whole club has sort of adopted that. “I feel like the playing group is in a hurry to go places really quickly and they want to learn and grow as quickly as possible and achieve as much as we can in a really short amount of time and that was really appealing. “Once I met with Brisbane, I felt like I didn’t need to meet with anyone else. I felt like this was the place to be.” Unfortunately for Neale and the Lions, one man that won’t be there to share the journey is recently departed captain Dayne Beams. Neale and Fagan were together watching the final minutes of the trade period when Beams was sent back to Collingwood at his request.

The Lions haven’t wasted any time in moving on from Beams, however, with Neale handed his No.9 jumper earlier this month. And while it’s hard to ignore how strong Brisbane’s midfield would have been with Beams, Neale and now captain Dayne Zorko, the boom recruit doesn’t think the absence of Beams will make his job more difficult. “I don’t think so. It would’ve been nice to play with him - he’s a great player and has been for a long time - but I look at the other midfielders who are here, and it’s really exciting.” The excitement is hard to ignore. A quick look at the young Lions midfielders on the list and you see names such as Jarrod Berry, Hugh McCluggage, Cam Rayner and Alex Witherden, just to name a few.

Add a 25-year-old star midfielder, the inside grunt of Jarryd Lyons and a new key defender in Marcus Adams and the Brisbane Lions, who have won just 17 games in the past four seasons, could turn things around quickly. To use Neale’s words, the Lions look “in a hurry to go places”.