Lachie Neale has admitted that he moved to the Brisbane Lions despite considering Perth his home.
Neale had a year remaining on his contract with Fremantle when he asked for a trade to the Lions.
โI did feel that I owed Freo a lot, probably in my early years for taking a chance on me,โ Neale told Fairfax Media.
โBut I feel like Iโve given seven years of my absolute best and that probably cleared my conscience in a way. Thereโs no reason why I left Freo. It just felt like the right thing to do, to be honest.โ
The 25-year-old has joined a Brisbane side that look very promising with rising stars like Cam Rayner, Alex Witherden and Hugh McCluggage.
โI feel like the playing group is in a hurry to go places really quickly and they want to learn and grow as quickly as possible and achieve as much as we can in a really short amount of time and that was really appealing.โ
Neale credited Lions coach Chris Fagan with convincing him to move across the country.
โI think Fagesโ philosophy and the way he brings people together is really impressive and the whole club has sort of adopted that,โ he said.
โOnce I met with Brisbane, I felt like I didnโt need to meet with anyone else. I felt like this was the place to be.โ
