Trade talk: Making sense of Essendon’s interest in Lions star

Essendon met with Lachie Neale while Brad Scott was still at the club.

That is according to Channel 7’s Mitch Cleary who says the Bombers have been showing interest in the Brisbane Lions champion who is out of contract at season’s end.

While Collingwood remains the frontrunner, and with St Kilda set to meet with Neale on Friday night, there is another club in the mix.

“I’ve still got Collingwood as the favourites for Lachie Neale when he most likely leaves the Lions at the end of this season. He’ll meet with St Kilda and coach Ross Lyon and Lenny Hayes later this weekend,” Cleary said on Channel 7’s Agenda Setters.

“We can also tell you that Lachie Neale, in recent weeks, before Brad Scott was sacked from the Essendon footy club, met with the outgoing Essendon coach about a future at the Essendon footy club.

“And I understand there are conversations and dialogue still ongoing between the Neale camp and the Essendon footy club.

“As I said, still Collingwood in front, but it just points to where Essendon sits in the market right now, looking for a senior player with experience. He would walk in at Essendon as their only premiership player right now.

“And as Brad told us, on this desk, they’ve got $3 million to splash in their salary cap.”

Furthermore, Cleary said that Neale with meet with the Dons this weekend: "Lachie Neale will this weekend meet with Essendon officials as well as his catch-up with Ross Lyon."

With over 300 games to his name and at the age of 33, Neale would comfortably be Essendon’s oldest and most experienced player if he did make the move to The Hangar.

The lure of going to a struggling club is seen in the same mold as Luke Hodge’s tenure at the Lions which helped set up Brisbane’s success.

SEN’s Tom Morris made sense of the Bombers’ apparent interest in the two-time Brownlow Medallist and dual premiership gun.

“That is accurate around Essendon and their interest in Lachie Neale,” Morris added on SEN Breakfast.

“The real question is how interested is Neale in Essendon? My belief is that Neale is leaving all options open at the moment, including staying at Brisbane.

“Probably the least likely is going to Perth with West Coast or Freo. Collingwood in the mix, St Kilda in the mix.

“The relationship with Essendon stems from Neale’s open mind about being the Luke Hodge figure at Brisbane. So Neale goes to a club like Essendon, he spends three years there knowing he’s not going to win a flag, probably makes some really good money while he’s there and helps rebuild this club like Hodge rebuilt Brisbane. Then retires and they go on to win a flag.

“I think it’s an unlikely option but it’s not an impossible option.”

Kane Cornes added: “That makes sense to me. It’s going to be an interesting one to watch as Lachie decides his future over the coming weeks and months.”

Adelaide has also been linked to the 33-year-old South Australian native.

Neale’s St Kilda meeting “doesn’t make sense” to Cornes

The Saints are set to meet with Neale this weekend.

Cleary reported on Tuesday night that the veteran Lions midfielder will meet with Saints coach Ross Lyon as he continues to weigh up his future.

Lyon coached Neale at the Dockers for the first seven years of his career.

“It’s my understanding Neale is expected to sit down with Saints coach and his former Fremantle mentor, Ross Lyon, this weekend,” Cleary said on 7NEWS.

“Neale is in Victoria to play Geelong on Thursday night and right now his future is a hot topic.

“The Saints are clearly in the ‘win now’ mindset as they attempt to bolster their list.”

The Lions take on Geelong at GMHBA Stadium win Thursday night before Neale meets with Lyon and Saints footy boss Lenny Hayes on Friday night.

In response to St Kilda’s reported interest in the two-time Brownlow Medallist and dual premiership Lion, SEN’s Cornes and Morris assessed the situation.

Morris feels that Neale, who has also been linked to Collingwood and to a lesser extent Adelaide, is well within his rights to seek a move elsewhere if he wishes.

“Lachie Neale is canvassing his future himself alongside his management,” Morris said on SEN Breakfast.

“He has called officials from other clubs this season to just see what the go is, whether they’d be even interested in taking him.

“This doesn’t mean he’s definitely going but it’s all pointing that way. I said from the very start the three clubs to look for are St Kilda, Adelaide and Collingwood.

“Adelaide because they need a midfielder and he’s clearly got connections to South Australia.

“St Kilda because of his connection to Ross Lyon and he’s an unrestricted free agent so it will just cost them the cash that they pay him.

“And Collingwood because they’ve shown in the past that they don’t mind picking up older players as long as it doesn’t cost them anything at the trade table.

“That’s exactly how it’s playing out, and Lachie Neale is doing a lot of this heavy lifting himself. You can’t blame him, this is the modern day.”

But Cornes finds this a strange situation given the Lions are in hot pursuit of a premiership three-peat.

“Can you blame him?,” he asked.

“How would Brisbane be feeling about this? Lachie is handling it in a mature way and it’s not affecting his performance yet, but this is rare air in that they are chasing three in a row.

“Now information like this comes out before a big game down in Geelong that his mind potentially is on a meeting the following day with a rival club on where’s going to play next year.

“They’ve been pretty good to Lachie Neale, and he’s been great to them as well. Chasing three in a row, it doesn’t happen often. Three in a row and you are immortal.

“Now we're not even nearing the business end of the season and he’s got a scheduled meeting with another club. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me from Lachie’s point of view.

“It doesn’t often come out that meetings are scheduled prior to the event a day after a big prime-time Thursday night game when you are chasing three premierships in a row. That is rare.”

Lions coach Chris Fagan recently commented on reports linking Neale to a possible move to the Magpies.

Fagan said it would be a “head scratcher” if Neale ended up at a club in Melbourne.

“I can’t imagine what Chris Fagan’s thinking. If he thinks it’s a head-scratcher that Neale goes to Collingwood, how hard is he scratching his head if he goes to St Kilda?,” Cornes added.

“With everything that’s gone on (splitting from his wife Jules) - to have success you stay at Brisbane.

“If it’s to be with your family you go to Perth. I can absolutely understand why Chris Fagan thinks this is a head-scratching move.”

After the Saints meet with Neale, they’ll meet Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.