\u201cIt\u2019s obviously tough not having the kids here, but I\u2019m pretty lucky that Jules, their mother, allows me to come and go from Perth,\u201d Neale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get Piper over here a fair bit \u2026 I am very fortunate that Jules has been very flexible with that, and I am able to go back to Perth with the club\u2019s blessing whenever I want. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I have to miss a day of training or whatever they are happy for that to happen. I am managing that pretty well so far. It is only early in the year, but the footy season will just fly by, and it will be the off-season again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lions coach Chris Fagan said in January the club will not stand in Neale\u2019s way should he choose to move to Perth to play for West Coast or Fremantle for the 2027 AFL season.<\/p>\n
It has been widely reported Neale\u2019s first preference is to sign a contract extension with the Lions. <\/p>\n
According to The Age, Neale won\u2019t be making a decision until August. <\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly haven\u2019t thought [about] what I will do next year \u2013 that will come in 12 weeks,\u201d Neale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, I am just trying to make it work here in Brisbane and, for me, if it works well and everyone is happy \u2013 and the kids are the No.1 priority \u2013 and we think we can make it work playing here, I would love to stay, but we will wait and see how it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neale earlier this week admitted he \u201cfelt like I let a lot of people down\u201d in a rare interview. <\/p>\n
The 32-year-old on Thursday opened up about the recent turmoil in his private life. <\/p>\n
Speaking on Triple M<\/a>, he said: \u201cWhen it\u2019s your personal lives and your private matters, you probably don\u2019t think it\u2019s newsworthy.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a sense, I get it, I\u2019m the captain of a footy club and a public profile in a way, but it felt over the top.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty crazy there for a while, and it\u2019s great to have the footy back on, which has taken over the headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n Neale, who stood down as Lions captain, claimed his footy career acted as a welcome distraction during that turbulent time in his personal life \u2014 during which wife Jules and their two kids left Brisbane for her hometown of Perth.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in a way it was a form of therapy to just go and train and look after myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really drink at all or anything in that period, I felt like I really had to knuckle down and narrow my focus on my football and being there for my kids when I could.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a weird way, it helped my football. I was able to really concentrate on getting the most out of myself and making sure I was prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n The Brownlow medallist was also quick to acknowledge his shortcomings and accepted he had made mistakes.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I had let a lot of people down, so I wanted to redeem myself in a way, by the way I came back into the pre-season and games, in particular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like a year and a half wait for that [first game] during the pre-season, but I was glad to get back on the field. <\/p>\n \u201cI was itching to get back onto the field and do what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n Neale was replaced as Lions captain by three of his teammates \u2014 Harris Andrews, Josh Dunkley and Hugh McCluggage.<\/p>\n And while many speculated he stepped down because of the off-field headlines, he has denied that was the case.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke to Fages [coach Chris Fagan] 12 months before, so heading into the 2025 season, and I said I think this will be my last year doing it (the captaincy),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t really have any conversations through the year, and it felt like the right time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had enough leaders there [in the club] that it felt like the right time to hand that over anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n Neale also refused to rule out returning to Western Australia to play his footy in order to be closer to his children.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always thinking about it and what the future is going to look like,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in the back of my mind, but I brush it aside, we\u2019re only five weeks into the season, but I think in about three or four months from now, I\u2019ll tap into that.\u201d<\/p>\n Neale has played in all five of the Lions\u2019 AFL games at the start of this season \u2014 three wins and two losses.<\/p>\n After kicking off their campaign with back-to-back defeats, they are on a three-game winning run ahead of their clash with Melbourne on Sunday.<\/p>\n Read related topics:Brisbane<\/a>Perth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Neale has shared news that he has been making regular trips to Perth as he and wife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-386594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n