Brisbane Lions captain Lachie Neale has reacted to the England cricket team snubbing a meeting with the AFL premiers after a disastrous start to their Ashes campaign.
Club officials reportedly reached out to Brendon McCullum's group about a potential day together following the second Test at the Gabba.
However, the potential meeting of two star-studded playing groups did not come to fruition and instead, the tourists headed up to Noosa for a brief getaway.
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Speaking on Nine's Today on Thursday morning, two-time flag winner Neale was quizzed about the surprise snub, which he believes was coach Chris Fagan's idea.
"Did they? I haven't heard about that," he said.
"It was probably Fages that organised it and maybe Stokesy [captain Ben Stokes] was a little bit upset with the past couple of weeks and they've given us the flick.
"It's been a cracking series and it was good to go and have a look at the Ashes here in Brisbane last week."
The mid-series break for England has raised a few eyebrows as they look to come back from 2-0 down and keep the series alive next week in Adelaide.
Players have been spotted on the beers and at the beach in the popular Sunshine Coast destination, while also playing along with some sledging from the locals.
Stokes was photographed alongside two men dressed in full cricket whites, holding up signs poking fun at the side's woes in the first two Tests.
As for the AFL champions, they are back at pre-season training as Neale prepares to lead his side to a potential third-straight premiership, emulating the early-2000s Lions.
"We certainly hope so," the 32-year-old said.
"There's a lot of water to go under the bridge before we can contemplate that too much.
"We're in December, so we've still got another nine or 10 months of hard work to get there, but hopefully [we can].
"We feel like we've added to the group, we lost a couple of key players through the trade period and free agency, but picked up a couple of absolute crackers.
"We're looking forward to the season, but it's still a few months away and we can't wait."
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