Lachie Neale found himself the target of a savage parting shot at Brisbane\u2019s best and fairest awards, as the club farewelled the player with a mixture of praise and footy banter.<\/p>\n
Neale\u2019s final official function with the Lions came just hours after coach, Chris Fagan, announced he would step down from the top job despite having a year remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no doubt Fagan will be exiting on a high note after leading the club to an historic premiership three-peat following the Lions\u2019 seven-point win against Fremantle.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Nightly’s newsletters.<\/p>\n
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the 65-year-old appeared to ride the wave and channel that victorious energy at the awards event on Thursday night, as he individually addressed all 23 players who starred in the big dance last weekend.<\/p>\n Neale was no exception, as Fagan offered a heartfelt message to send off the dual Brownlow medallist, before he leaves the club to join Collingwood at the start of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish you all the best with the rest of your life and whatever happens to you,\u201d Fagan said to Neale.<\/p>\n But it was Lions chairman, Andrew Wellington, who delivered the night\u2019s sharpest jab at the midfielder in a savage reference to Neale\u2019s impending move to the Pies.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to just acknowledge Lachie Neale, who we now know is going to the dark side,\u201d Wellington said.<\/p>\n \u201cTake a last look at Lachie because he\u2019s going tomorrow to have some teeth removed and a bit more ink.\u201d<\/p>\n The gag played on the long-running stereotype surrounding Collingwood supporters\u2019 missing teeth, before Wellington quickly made clear the club\u2019s respect for both Neale and the Pies.<\/p>\n \u201cI shouldn\u2019t joke, he\u2019s going to a club we genuinely have a lot of respect for and a great rivalry with,\u201d Wellington added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile of course we\u2019re sad to see Lachie go, you go with nothing but gratitude from us.<\/p>\n \u201cYou came to us at the end of 2018, a year in which we won five matches and finished 15th. You\u2019ve been a critical part of our resurgence of our club since then. Thank you and we wish you all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n Wellington\u2019s cheeky jab comes after Fagan told SEN Breakfast podcast there was \u201ca lot to like\u201d about Lachie Neale, despite the months-long saga that exploded after it was revealed the former co-captain was having an affair with his then-wife Jules\u2019 best friend, Tess Crosley.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt really sorry for him, something that he created himself, and he knows that, but still, we\u2019re all just human beings, and there\u2019s a lot to like about Lachie Neale,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just decided to support him. I sort of see the boys I coach as my sons in lots of ways.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in my family, I\u2019ll look after you even when you\u2019ve done the wrong thing \u2026 and try and make sure you learn from whatever situation you\u2019ve been in and become a better person as a result of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Neale found himself the target of a savage parting shot at Brisbane\u2019s best and fairest awards, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,43,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-912939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-afl","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912939","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=912939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}