Lion target: Lachie Neale.Credit:AAP
Brisbane have agreed to a deal with Gold Coast that should secure Lachie Neale without having to involve Dayne Beams and Collingwood.
It is an important movement in terms of the eight-club mega deal and leaves Brisbane in a stronger bargaining position over Beams.
Under the deal just reached, Gold Coast will trade pick 19 and their future second and third-round picks in exchange for Brisbane's first-round pick in 2019.
The Lions in turn have more or less agreed with Fremantle to trade picks six and 19 for Neale.
That pick six is set to pass through Fremantle, Melbourne and finally Gold Coast, enabling the moves of Jesse Hogan (Melbourne to Fremantle) and Steven May (Gold Coast to Melbourne).
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Brisbane have been demanding two 2018 first-round picks from Collingwood for Beams – a demand the Magpies have been unable to meet.
The Pies have offered up pick 18 and potentially could offer their future first-round pick, with the proviso that the Lions send them some picks back.
One of the consequences of the Lions-Suns pick swaps is that the Lions will land Neale without having to gain pick 18 from the Magpies as part of the Beams deal.
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on Boots for Kids. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victorias cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books – five sports books and two true crime books.
