New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s understood Jules has moved back to Perth with the couple\u2019s two children.<\/p>\n
Neale, a dual premiership player, six-time club best and fairest and four-time All-Australian, is off-contract at season\u2019s end and eligible to move clubs as a free agent, sparking speculation he could return to later this year.<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale trains with the Lions at Springfield on Thursday morning. Picture: Lachie MillardSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Fagan said he was unaware of Neale\u2019s plans beyond this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope he does (stay at the Lions), but he\u2019s an unrestricted free agent,\u201d Fagan said on Thursday. \u201cSo he can make a call on what he needs to do and he probably needs the next six or seven months to see what the next right step is.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I say, I hope he stays and plays with us. But if he chooses to move back to Perth because he needs to be closer to his children, then he\u2019ll do that with our blessing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to hold anyone to ransom. We\u2019ll just go along with the flow on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fagan said the Lions would \u201cwrap our arms\u201d around both Neale and his family during a \u201creally difficult time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lincoln McCarthy, Lachie Neale and Cam Rayner at Lions training. Picture: Lachie MillardSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, sad for Jules, sad for Lachie, sad for the children, sad that it\u2019s become such a public thing,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut our job as a footy club, as we do with all of our players, is that they all make mistakes from time to time because they\u2019re human. Everybody standing here has probably made one at some point in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is just to wrap our arms around him and his family and help them where we can. Outside of that, it\u2019s a private issue. That\u2019s where we stand with it.<\/p>\n
Fagan said Neale \u201cwasn\u2019t forced by anyone\u201d to hold a press conference last week and address the separation about his marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was pretty brave what he did last week. He stood up and owned it. Not many people have to do that in the community.<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale and Chris Fagan after the AFL Grand Final. Picture: Darrian Traynor\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHis marriage has hit an obstacle. But he elected to do that (address reporters).<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that showed really good emotional intelligence and a real sense of responsibility, so I admire him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While insisting Brisbane was yet to settle on its 2026 leadership structure, Fagan said Harris Andrews was \u201cmore than capable\u201d of leading the Lions on his own, while Hugh McCluggage and Josh Dunkley \u201creally stand out\u201d as other options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane coach Chris Fagan says his club is \u201cnot going to hold anyone to ransom\u201d, insisting if Lachie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[212773,638,64,63,689,55,639,3423,3237,3244,170319,51342,212771,667,2105,40742,12138,12098,25875,212772,71117,212774,677,46,668,111758,85,28462,3439],"class_list":["post-399815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-address-reporters","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-chris-fagan","tag-dual-premiership-player","tag-family-reasons","tag-footy-call-looms","tag-footy-club","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-harris-andrews","tag-hugh-mccluggage","tag-josh-dunkley","tag-lachie-neale","tag-leadership-structure","tag-lincoln-mccarthy","tag-lions-training","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-press-conference","tag-real-sense","tag-sports","tag-trade-speculation","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399815","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=399815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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