Neale the common thread in Fremantle and Brisbane's eerie shared history

Thu, 3 Sept, 8:10 pm, Final score, Dockers 40, Hawks 72 Fri, 4 Sept, 7:40 pm, Final score, Cats 107, Blues 74 107 →74 Sat, 5 Sept, 3:15 pm, Final score, Swans 141, Lions 88 141 →88 Sat, 5 Sept, 7:35 pm, Final score, Crows 90, Bulldogs 68 90 →68 Fri, 11 Sept, 8:10 pm, Final score, Dockers 120, Cats 106 120 →106 Sat, 12 Sept, 7:35 pm, Final score, Lions 144, Crows 91 144 →91 Fri, 18 Sept, 7:40 pm, Final score, Swans 71, Dockers 83 71 →83 Sat, 19 Sept, 5:15 pm, Final score, Hawks 122, Lions 131 122 →131 Sat, 26 Sept, 2:30 pm, Game not started, Dockers versus Lions - →- analysis As Fremantle and Brisbane meet in AFL grand final their most common thread is Lachie Neale When Fremantle coach Ross Lyon activated his sub in the fourth quarter of the 2013 grand final against Hawthorn, he scarcely could have believed the impact that player was going to have. On the odd occasion, the sub would come in and make a serious impact, acting as a spark plug, while on other days, their impact would be negligible. Fremantle's sub that day came on to replace ruckman Zac Clarke and picked up seven disposals, but it was ultimately in vain as an experienced Hawthorn side held the Dockers at bay. Fremantle's sub that day was Lachie Neale. Neale, then 20, would not have believed that he would have to wait 13 years to see the Dockers in another grand final. He also would not have believed he'd be playing against them in Brisbane colours, looking for a third straight premiership. It is funny how time works. Fremantle and the Brisbane Lions both entered the AFL in the mid 90s as the league was undergoing an expansion boom into states outside of Victoria. Brisbane's entry occurred as the Bears back in 1987 alongside Fremantle's WA rivals West Coast, and while the Eagles found themselves in a grand final within four years and holding the premiership cup within five, the Bears struggled. The Lions were eventually formed in 1996 when the Bears merged with the Fitzroy Lions, another club that had been haemorrhaging money for years. West Coast's success saw the AFL expand further into WA with Fremantle chosen as the state's second team with its inaugural season played in 1995. It is somewhat poetic that the Dockers and Lions are playing against each other in this year's grand final when you consider how closely they are tied together right at the inception of both clubs. Fremantle's first ever win in the AFL came against the Fitzroy Lions in round 3, 1995, while Fitzroy's last ever AFL win came against Fremantle in round 8, 1996. Fitzroy's last ever AFL game? You guessed it, against Fremantle in Perth in round 22 of the 1996 season. Over the three decades that have followed, both Fremantle and Brisbane have had periods of dominance, but never really at the same time until recent years. Leigh Matthews's arrival as Brisbane's coach at the end of 1999 immediately turned the Lions into a force to be reckoned with. Matthews masterminded Brisbane to three straight premierships and four straight grand final appearances between 2001 and 2004 before his departure and the aging of that era of Brisbane players left the club in AFL purgatory for the best part of 15 years. Fremantle had to wait until its ninth season in the AFL to make a finals appearance, and then had to wait another three seasons before it won a final. Since 2000, Brisbane has made the finals on 14 occasions, while Fremantle has registered 10 post-season trips, yet Brisbane has five premierships to Fremantle's zero. And tying them together through the last 13 years has been Neale, once the best midfielder for both clubs. Neale was drafted 58th overall by Fremantle in the 2011 draft. He was Fremantle's fourth selection that night. The three players selected before him — Tom Sheridan, Hayden Crozier and Alex Forster — played a combined 226 games. The grand final will be Neale's 321st appearance. His arrival coincided with Fremantle's first real period of contention under Lyon in the early 2010s. In Neale's first four seasons, Fremantle won the third-most home and away games in the AFL behind Hawthorn and Sydney. In that period, the Hawks won three premierships and played in four grand finals, while the Swans played in two grand finals and won one. Fremantle came away with the one unsuccessful grand final appearance. While Fremantle was knocking on the door of its first premiership, Brisbane was going through one of the worst periods of its existence. By 2012, Neale's debut season, just two of Brisbane's triple premiership-winning players — Simon Black and Jonathan Brown — remained on its list. Memories of Brisbane being one of the AFL's most feared sides were disappearing fast and players on the list originally from outside Queensland wanted to be anywhere but at the club. Even Brisbane's logo on its jumper had changed, going from the traditional Fitzroy passant lion to a lion with a front-facing head, infamously nicknamed 'The Paddle Pop Lion'. Fremantle won the first minor premiership in club history in 2015, with Neale becoming one of its most indispensable players, but the Dockers were again denied by Hawthorn, this time in a home preliminary final. The Dockers cratered spectacularly the following season, dropping from first to third-last, and would not make it back to the finals for another seven seasons. In dire need of some stability, Brisbane turned to one of the figureheads behind Hawthorn's triple premiership dynasty, Chris Fagan, to be its head coach. The Lions struggled in Fagan's first two seasons in charge, but Neale had seen the vision and requested a trade to the then-cellar dwellers. Had Fremantle known what he was about to become, they'd have asked for double what they received in return for him from Brisbane. Neale's move to Brisbane put him up in lights on Broadway. The All-Australian jackets, the Brownlow Medal wins and eventually premierships all arrived, leaving him with a resume that undoubtedly has him in the conversation as one of the best players of his generation. His departure from Fremantle, which looked like someone getting the last life raft out of a sinking ship, proved to be a pivotal moment in the Dockers' trajectory to the grand final as well. The following year's draft proved to be a watershed moment for Fremantle, as it supercharged its rebuild with the selections of Hayden Young and Caleb Serong. Having seen Brisbane supplement its young core with shrewd recruitment of seasoned players such as Neale, Charlie Cameron, Josh Dunkley and others, Fremantle has done the same, adding Luke Jackson and Shai Bolton. For both clubs, the addition of star talent from rival clubs has resulted in an immediate uptick in on-field fortunes. All of it leads us here, to two teams inextricably linked from their inceptions and still connected by one man. Now that he has been freed to play, don't be surprised if that one man, Lachie Neale, has a big say in who holds the premiership cup.