Lions coach Chris Fagan this week conceded players moving cubs is a \u201cfact of life\u201d<\/a> and said he simply wants to Bailey and Neale give their all while they\u2019re still in Lions colours in seemingly the biggest hint yet that they\u2019re facing the exit door. <\/p>\nBrisbane\u2019s two highest-rated players this season, Bailey has been linked with a move to Adelaide on a lucrative deal worth as much as $10 million over seven years, while Neale is being pursued by multiple clubs including Collingwood and St Kilda.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, Montagna says he thinks it\u2019s \u201creal\u201d that the premiership pair are on their way out of Brisbane. <\/p>\n
Though Montagna suggested Fagan should try and use it to fuel the club to more silverware.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Chris Fagan should actually be leaning in on this. I would like to see Chris Fagan use it as a fuel, almost use it as \u2018The Last Dance\u2019 scenario,\u201d the Saints great said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake, these are two of the best players in the competition. So it is going to be a challenge, whatever it looks like, going forward. <\/p>\n
De Goey chasing multi-year deal | 01:25<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know Chris Fagan is a coach that likes to have themes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just wonder whether they can lean in on the situation of two of their very best players moving on at the end of the year and say: \u2018Right, let\u2019s do it one more time. Let\u2019s make this The Last Dance\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not to say they can\u2019t win again, but there\u2019s no guarantees. It\u2019s going to become more challenging for the Brisbane Lions the longer this dynasty goes and particularly the more they lose some of their best players. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think they should embrace it internally, they don\u2019t have to do it externally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you go: \u2018Righto, here\u2019s our last crack with this group. Dayne Zorko is going to get another year older, probably got one more to go. Let\u2019s go and do it one more time and send these boys out. And we\u2019ve completed the dynasty\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Kilda Hall of Famer Leigh Montagna has called for Brisbane to embrace the potential departures of star duo Zac Bailey and Lachie Neale as a \u2018Last Dance\u2019 theme in the club\u2019s quest for a three-peat.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
It\u2019s believed Bailey, a restricted free agent in his prime at 26 years of age, could be leaving as much as $3.5 million on the table if he were to stay at Brisbane. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, reports have indicated that dual Brownlow medallist Neale, an unrestricted free agent who turns 34 next year, could secure a deal from Collingwood worth as much as $3 million over three years.<\/p>\n
It shows how much the AFL player market has boomed to make it harder than ever before for dynasty sides to stay together, compared to previous golden runs this century like at Hawthorn and Geelong<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a rather strange confluence of events,\u201d AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sort of get Zac Bailey\u2019s leaving at the peak of their powers and clearly the biggest contract on offer to him. But it\u2019s not a shabby contract to be had at the Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder as each generation moves through, the previous generations have gone: \u2018No, let\u2019s all stay and run it as far as we can\u2019. That looks like it\u2019s shifted since the Hawthorn days, for instance, to now. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Lachie\u2019s is a different circumstance. The weirdest part of this is he\u2019s looking at the biggest contracts of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether he\u2019s got three years left in him, he\u2019s going to get three years, and the first two are going to be the most lucrative of his career, wherever he goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawks in danger of losing key forward? | 03:59<\/p>\n
Montagna suggested Neale\u2019s looming payday reflects the \u201cfallacy about contracts\u201d and how it\u2019s all about \u201chow much a club is prepared to pay you\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like buying a house, how much someone wants the house is what it\u2019s worth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now there are clubs that want Lachie Neale. If you\u2019ve got money there, you might as well spend it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dual All-Australian also highlighted the huge gap in contract offers compared to his playing days a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Zac Bailey, I think it\u2019s continuing to evolve, because the money is getting bigger,\u201d Montagna continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was still playing or the Hawthorn days, it was a couple of thousand difference and you go: \u2018You know what, it\u2019s worth staying\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re talking about $500,000-a-year difference. That is significant over the length of contracts players are now getting. I can understand why there\u2019s more movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a blow for the Brisbane Lions. But they\u2019ve still got plenty of footy left this year to send them out on a good note and win that three-peat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda Hall of Famer Leigh Montagna says Brisbane should embrace the potential departures of star duo Zac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-770913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770913","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=770913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n