![\"Shannon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/r0_0_800_600_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg\" "\\"Shannon")
Shannon Neale (left) is determined to offset Harris Andrews’ (right) impact in the grand final. Photo: Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\nShannon Neale (left) is determined to offset Harris Andrews’ (right) impact in the grand final. Photo: Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\n
Geelong forward Shannon Neale has ditched the defensive mindset in his bid to limit Brisbane star Harris Andrews’ influence in the AFL grand final.<\/p>\n
Feeling as though he’d let his team down in their previous encounter, in a round-15 loss at home, Neale shifted his tactics against Andrews in the qualifying final.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old enjoyed some success focusing more on his own game and the Cats reversed the result to take a direct path to the season decider.<\/p>\n
But intercept king Andrews was one of the best-afield in the first battle and Neale is hell-bent on making further amends in Saturday’s grand final.<\/p>\n
“I walked away a bit disappointed in my performance around how I played on him (in round 15),” Neale told AAP.<\/p>\n
“I was a bit upset … I walked away kicking the dirt a bit about letting my teammates down.<\/p>\n
“We couldn’t get it forward not because I was letting him intercept, but he was intercepting.<\/p>\n
“I hate letting my teammates down and I hate being the one that doesn’t necessarily cost us the game, but someone that didn’t stand up when they needed to.”<\/p>\n
![\"Neale](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/r0_0_1280_720_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg\" "\\"Neale")
Neale has been a star in attack for Geelong this season, with 43 goals. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
Lions captain Andrews wasn’t allowed to have the same impact in the qualifying final as Geelong powered to a commanding 38-point victory.<\/p>\n
Neale didn’t have a huge night offensively, tallying just six disposals and one goal, but played his role for the team.<\/p>\n
“I got rid of a defence mindset on him and just tried to play my own game,” Neale said.<\/p>\n
“I’ll try to do that again this week and hopefully our best footy stands up against theirs.”<\/p>\n
While there is proof that plan can be effective, Neale knows putting it into practice is another matter.<\/p>\n
“Harris has been a quality defender for such a long period of time and he reads the ball so well,” Neale said.<\/p>\n
“He’s got ultra-long arms and he’s really strong. It’s hard to out-smart someone as good as him.”<\/p>\n
Neale has put his stamp on the competition with 43 goals this season alongside Coleman Medal winner Jeremy Cameron (88).<\/p>\n
The tally includes just two goals in two finals outings so far, but limiting Andrews’ impact could be worth more than a bag for Geelong.<\/p>\n
Neale said the Cats were expecting a tough battle with Brisbane, who recovered from their qualifying final loss with strong performances in cut-throat encounters with Gold Coast and Collingwood.<\/p>\n
“We talk about getting our game style going and when we’re doing that to the best of our ability we have full confidence that it can beat anyone,” Neale said.<\/p>\n
“We’ll take a bit of confidence out of the qualifying final but it’s a new game, new week and they’ve got some good momentum.<\/p>\n
“They’ve come off the back of two strong wins and it’s a grand final, so you’re going to have a challenge.<\/p>\n
“But we’re ready to go and everyone’s really excited to be here.”<\/p>\n
Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n
More from National Sport News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shannon Neale (left) is determined to offset Harris Andrews’ (right) impact in the grand final. Photo: Joel Carrett\/AAP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-161668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}