Brisbane Lions superstar Lachie Neale has come under fire for touring Collingwood’s training facilities the day before a match, with reports suggesting his teammates are growing frustrated with the ongoing saga.
7NEWS reporter Tom Morris revealed Neale was shown through Magpies headquarters at the AIA Centre last Friday.
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As an unrestricted free agent, Neale is weighing up his future but the Magpies are in the box seat to land the two-time Brownlow medallist.
He also met St Kilda coach Ross Lyon last month he was in Melbourne, which came the day after the Lions played.
But the tour of Collingwood came the day before Brisbane’s loss to Carlton on Saturday night, and has sparked significant criticism from AFL greats Nick Riewoldt and Kane Cornes on The Agenda Setters.
“I have a big issue with it, and I need to say this, I’m a Lachie fan, I think he’s terrific, a superstar player, but I think now it’s become a little bit too much about Lachie,” Cornes said.
“I think to tour a club’s facilities, you don’t need to tour a club’s facilities. A pool’s a pool, right? And these players use these outside facilities as well to recover.
“He knows Collingwood’s facilities are pretty good. I think this is rubbing Brisbane’s nose in it a little bit.
“And if I was Chris Fagan, if I was Danny Daly, if I was senior teammates of Lachie’s, I’d be pretty upset about this, that it’s become a bit too much about Lachie.
“Last time it was with Ross (Lyon) … It was a big story the day after a game. Now it’s the day before.
“And this is a club that has been very, very good to Lachie. He’s been good to them.
“They were really supportive of his personal stuff at the early stages of this year. Chris Fagan has been so good to him.
“You are in rare air if you win three premierships in a row. My sole focus would be on how can I help this team go to immortal status and win three in a row to join ‘01, ‘02, ‘03 in that club. Not meeting with other clubs the day before a game.”
Caroline Wilson reported that some of Neale’s teammates were getting “a bit over him”.
“I can tell you that there are people at Brisbane who weren’t thrilled about it,” she said.
“I can also tell you that there are players at Brisbane who just, you know, are probably a little bit over Lachie Neale.
“They love him as a teammate, but there is no doubt there is not the relationship that there was.
“And I don’t think they were thrilled to learn on the team bus about the meeting with Ross Lyon a few weeks ago. And they probably won’t be thrilled to hear about this.
“I know that others at the club weren’t thrilled about it, whatever they say publicly.”
Wilson went onto to say that Neale’s actions were “selfish”.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit, look at me, look at me? I mean, as Kane said, you don’t need to see the Collingwood facilities,” she said.
“It’s probably really nice to be wooed by Craig McRae and Craig Kelly … it’s selfish. Sorry, but it is. It’s a selfish thing.”
Morris tried to argue that this is the modern game and players who are out of contract are well within their rights to secure their future in any way they want.
But Riewoldt wasn’t having it, emphasising Cornes’ point about going for a historic three-peat and potentially derailing that bid.
“You have to understand that when you are on a course, as Kane has just articulated so well, these things drive cracks into the group,” he said.
“You know how small the degrees are between winning and losing when it comes to the pointy end of the season.
“And so any, any, even if it’s only a perceived, you’re not quite all in. You’ve got one eye on the future. It festers within a football club.”
When Morris said that it shouldn’t matter what Neale is doing as long as he is playing well, Riewoldt responded: “It matters because the teammates don’t like it.”
