He had spent two hours per day every day for three weeks in a hyperbaric chamber listening to music and watching Netflix in a desperate effort to heal his massive calf, which he’d torn in the qualifying final.
Neale deleted all the apps on his phone, entered the team bubble and became single-minded in doing whatever was required to heal.
His co-captain Harris Andrews had been a bit dubious Neale would make it, but then remembered the character of the man.
Chris Fagan hugs his star small forward, Charlie Cameron.Credit: Eddie Jim
“He’s a bit of a psycho in that sense – he wants what’s best for the team and to get himself right,” Andrews said.
Neale began grand final day as just the second player, alongside Sydney’s Braeden Campbell, to be the starting sub in two grand finals, having also been the sub in 2013.
He knew the plan was to insert him into the contest at half-time if the game was in the balance. But he was surprised how nervous he was when he ran to the middle for the second half. He knew things could go either way.
The scenario for the sub could not have been more perfect, however.
For the first time since 1909, and the first time all season for any team, scores were level at half-time.
The battle in the middle was relatively even, but the Cats weren’t hurting the Lions on the outside.
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Neale had bided his time. Despite having won two Brownlow Medals, a premiership, four All-Australians and five best and fairests, he left his ego at the door of Fagan’s office.
It took him six or seven minutes to pick up the pace of the game, but then he became the difference, the man who split the two teams in the second half.
He had 17 touches and kicked a massive goal from the 50-metre mark just before three-quarter-time to make back-to-back premierships very likely.
Lions great Simon Black, a Norm Smith and Brownlow medallist, and one of the game’s greatest midfielders, was left awestruck at what he had seen from Neale.
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“His ball-handling skills, his clean hands and his lateral movement to buy himself a bit of time in congested areas – it is as good as I have seen the way he moves in close,” Black said.
Neale blew the game apart at the start of the last quarter. In the first nine minutes he won four clearances, while all other players combined to win three.
“I knew he had a good hour in him,” Fagan said.
The big decision had worked.
Neale was rapt. He had turned a tie into a 47-point win, a premiership that will be remembered as Neale’s.
“It looks like a masterstroke now,” Neale said.
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