Essendon have emerged as a dark horse in the race for Brisbane star Lachie Neale.
The two-time premiership midfielder is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and is widely seen as a certainty to leave the Lions.
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Collingwood appear as the frontrunners for the two-time Brownlow medallist, but Adelaide and St Kilda have also made pitches to him, while West Coast or even his former club Fremantle could be options if he wanted to be closer to his kids and estranged wife.
But 7NEWS Melbourne’s chief footy reporter Mitch Cleary has revealed that Essendon — even before they sacked former coach Brad Scott earlier this season — have thrown their hat in the ring for the 33-year-old.
“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 Wednesday night’s edition of The 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.”
Scott revealed the Bombers’ war chest of money to The Agenda Setters in the aftermath of his sacking, but said the club hadn’t yet been ready to spend it to lure a big fish.
“And my understanding is one of the considerations for Lachie Neale is to play a Luke Hodge-type role at a club like Essendon: to walk in, to rebuild it and to set it up for future success,” Tom Morris added.
Kate McCarthy said Essendon would be a great fit for Neale, but that the Saints — where he could reunite with his former Fremantle coach, Ross Lyon — would benefit most.
“I think he can definitely go to a club and play a role like that,” McCarthy said.
“It’s clear his prowess on the field is still some of the best in the game to win the ball in and under.
“But I don’t know, I feel like from the clubs that we’ve spoken about there, I think the best fit for Lachie would be St Kilda because I think he can still play that Luke Hodge-style role where you go to a club and bring your experience, bring your leadership on-field to that group because they’re missing something really quite big within that midfield.
“They’ve got so many young players that are really improving this season. We’ve seen them grow and grow and grow, but Lachie Neale could add so much to that midfield at St Kilda.”
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