Former Docker Lachie Neale says he watched the Lions throughout the year and loved their ability to score.
Neale's manager told him the Lions had made inquiries about his future plans once his contract was up in 2020.
The more he watched the Lions, the more he liked what he saw as the idea of moving to Queensland became clear as he informed the club that he was happy to be traded.
Even though the deal was done on the final day of trade period, Brisbane and Fremantle reached an agreement which sent the midfielder to the Gabba on a five-year deal worth around $4 million.
โWatching from afar I was pretty impressed about the way they had gone about it, they play a really exciting brand of footy,โโ Neale told the Courier Mail.
โThe players seem like they are on the same page, playing for each other and the spirit on the field is very impressive.
โI had a look at the list and they have a lot of kids coming through in the 19-22 bracket, guys like Berry, Rayner is obviously exciting, they have a big group of young players who are going to be great players.
โTheir defensive game style improved a lot this year and that will only get better.
โAnd it is hard to score in the AFL and Brisbane are one side that can score, that was exciting for me too.โโ
News broke mid season of Neale's desire to go to Brisbane as other clubs started to make inquiries about the star midfielder.
Neale said he wouldn't have considered any other club.
โI met the staff and they were all really great people and supportive of myself and my partner, Jules, the people involved in the organisation got me across the line,โโ Neale said.
โOnce I met Brisbane I thought I didnโt really need to meet anyone else.โโ
But the question on everyone's mind is, what went wrong at Fremantle?
โI am not going to delve too much into the reasons behind it, I just want to say I am a really good fit at Brisbane and I am excited about joining them,โโ he said.
โI have no bad words about Fremantle, I couldnโt speak highly enough of them, they gave me the chance to live out my dream and I hope they do well.โโ
He grew up from Bordertown on the South Australia-Victoria border and always was attracted to the Queensland lifestyle.
โThat is really a feeling for me as well, it is pretty footy crazy over here and I have had my fair share of media attention lately,โโ he said.
โIt is important to me that once training and games are over you can be Lachie Neale the person instead of the footballer.โโ
