{"id":365315,"date":"2024-02-04T23:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365315"},"modified":"2024-02-05T01:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T01:02:51","slug":"the-thing-missing-from-brownlow-stars-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=365315","title":{"rendered":"'The thing missing' from Brownlow star's career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lachie Neale<\/a> \ufeffmay have two Brownlow Medals to his name<\/a>, but the Brisbane Lions<\/a> superstar has declared his career is far from fulfilled.<\/p>\n

After being part of the Lions' heartbreaking grand final loss by just four points last year<\/a>, Neale, who was also crowned the game's best player in 2023\ufeff, is ready to take the next step.<\/p>\n

\ufeffPut simply, the 30-year-old yearns for a premiership medal around his neck.<\/p>\n

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"I feel like the thing missing in my career is a premiership\ufeff," Neale told Nine's Today<\/em> on Monday.<\/p>\n

"Losing the\ufeff grand final by such a small margin, I feel like I didn't have a great finals series myself.<\/p>\n

\"Lachie<\/p>\n

"I'm pretty motivated to play a little bit better if we can get back to finals this year. That's\ufeff my biggest motivation."<\/p>\n

Despite winning his second Brownlow Medal at the age of 30, after winning his first at 27, Neale recognises that his chances of winning a flag grow slimmer by the year.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Hopefully I can get one before I finish up, because that's coming a little bit\ufeff sooner than I would like," Neale said.<\/p>\n

"It won't be long and I'll have to hang up the boots, so hopefully I can get a premiership \ufeffor two before then."<\/p>\n

\"BRISBANE,<\/p>\n

The Lions, led by coach Chris Fagan<\/a>, have made the finals \ufeffevery year since 2019, reaching the grand final in 2023 after a string of heartbreaking preliminary final losses.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffTo get so close last year was disappointing in the end, but so exciting for us. We feel like we can only improve from here," Neale said.<\/p>\n

It's a good time to be a Brisbane fan too, says Neale, as the young list that was assembled five years ago\ufeff reaches maturity.<\/p>\n

"We've got a pretty young list and guys that are ready to go\ufeff, they've come back fit and strong," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

"We feel like we can go that next step if \ufeffwe get things together, improve a little bit and (have) a little bit of luck along the way.<\/p>\n

"The boys are excited to get back into it, it feels like it's come around very quick this year\ufeff."<\/p>\n

Neale's off-season has been far from relaxing, but it is just the way the veteran 254-gamer likes it.<\/p>\n

In fact, he even got to meet NFL legend Tom Brady during his Australian tour\ufeff in January, even receiving a pass from the quarterback.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/nickbbrown\/status\/1751548961008365838<\/a><\/p>\n

"I was pretty nervous for that actually, more nervous than probably the grand final\ufeff," Neale said.<\/p>\n

"I thought\ufeff 'there's going to be 2000 people in here that are going to see me drop this or fall on my face'. I was a little bit nervous but managed to hold onto it."<\/p>\n

And it wasn't just a pass that Neale took away from the experience.\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/brisbanelions\/status\/1753572330184507741<\/a><\/p>\n

"For me, just his training\ufeff habits were unbelievable. He treated every training like a game, which is something we talk about, but to hear that from the 'GOAT' was special," he said.<\/p>\n

"He wasn't the most talented player, but ended up being the greatest of all time.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Brisbane will look to go one step further in 2024. They take on Carlton in a preliminary final rematch in the AFL's new Opening Round fixture<\/a>, a week before the traditional round one kicks off.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lachie Neale \ufeffmay have two Brownlow Medals to his name, but the Brisbane Lions superstar has declared his career is far from fulfilled. After being […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365318,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365315\/revisions\/365318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/335165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}