{"id":902285,"date":"2026-09-23T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T08:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902285\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T08:06:15","slug":"afl-grand-final-2026-news-lachie-neale-ban-appeal-press-conference-updates-brisbane-lions-vs-fremantle-dockers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902285\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL grand final 2026 news: Lachie Neale ban, appeal, press conference, updates; Brisbane Lions vs Fremantle Dockers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lachie Neale<\/a> delivered a brief statement to a huge throng of reporters after touching down in Melbourne on Wednesday ahead of the AFL<\/a> grand final.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, as you guys will be aware, the club and myself have decided to appeal the tribunal\u2019s decision<\/a>,\u201d the Brisbane Lions<\/a> star said in a 17-second airport appearance in front of the cameras.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lachie Neale speaks to media.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, very hopeful that that\u2019s successful but, regardless of the result, I will be here to support the boys and the club this week, so it\u2019s a big week for the club. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neale then walked away and did not take questions from journalists.<\/p>\n

Brisbane star Neale has been suspended for one game after striking Hawthorn\u2019s Jack Ginnivan in the preliminary final.<\/a><\/p>\n

The appeal hearing is set to start at 4pm AEST on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Dayne Zorko spoke immediately after his long-time teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like an interrogation here, Jesus! Good on you\u2019s!\u201d Zorko joked with the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a lot, but yeah, he seems to be fine. I sat next to him on the plane, and he\u2019s just taking it in his stride. He just gave his statement then, so yeah, it\u2019s over to that. We just solider on and do what we do\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYou work so hard to get to this position, right? He\u2019s disappointed, but we\u2019ll appeal it and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zorko was asked whether Neale\u2019s actions warranted a ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want my opinion mate,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lachie Neale at the airport.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t give you my honest opinion on it all. He has an impeccable record, you would like to think that would hold a fair bit of weight. Maybe it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t get carried away about it just being a Lachie Neale team. We\u2019re the Brisbane Lions, we\u2019ve got a lot of players on our list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after Neale\u2019s suspension, the bookmakers have listed the Lions as favourites to beat the Fremantle Dockers<\/a> and complete a premiership three-peat at the MCG on Saturday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a few finals last year without him as well. We\u2019ll let that run its course. We\u2019re not going to get distracted by that,\u201d Zorko said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not our business to get distracted by it. We\u2019d love him to be out there and hope he\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, if he\u2019s not, our next man up mentality is going to come into play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Neale delivered a brief statement to a huge throng of reporters after touching down in Melbourne on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-902285","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\/902285","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=902285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}