Nathan Buckley has lengthy been often known as a straight shooter and he didn’t miss his goal throughout commentary on Sunday.
At halftime of lowly Fremantle’s house conflict with premiership contender Brisbane, Buckley set his sights on Lions co-captain Lachie Neale.
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In a lowscoring affair, the underdog Dockers kicked 5 targets to 3 to take a shock 11-point lead into the principle break.
Buckley, who gained a Brownlow Medal with Collingwood again in 2003, was eager to focus on the match-up of Neale and 22-year-old Fremantle defender Hayden Young.
“I think the Fremantle midfielders have been on top from the start,” Buckley stated on Fox Footy.
“Most of their midfielders have got big numbers compared to the Lions.
“But it’s the Young-Neale match-up. You see here that Young runs off to try and win this ball … Lachie Neale has his hands on his hips.
“This is not what we’ve known of Lachie Neale, but he’s just not working as hard as we know of him.”
In a sport that places an enormous emphasis on effort, accusing a participant of failing to work arduous is without doubt one of the extra damning assessments a commentator could make.
Buckley’s shot at Neale comes per week after the Brisbane star was nicely overwhelmed in his match-up with Touk Miller within the Lions’ upset loss to the Gold Coast Suns.
Miller, who was in the end suspended for an incident with Dayne Zorko, took out the Marcus Ashcroft Medal for greatest on floor in his conflict with Neale, who gained his personal Brownlow Medal in 2020.
“I respect Lachie as a player,” Miller stated after that win. “He’s a Brownlow medallist and plays a really quality brand of football.
“But for me it was about bringing my weapons to the party.”
Leading into Sunday’s conflict towards the Lions, Freo defender Luke Ryan revealed that Neale ought to count on comparable remedy at Optus Stadium.
“I’m not sure who will get the job, but it’s going to be a team approach. You can’t just let (Neale) run around free,” Ryan stated.
‘I think it’ll be a crew job on him. I don’t know if it is going to be one individual. It’s going to be a crew focus. He’s going to be our goal participant I’m guessing.
“You can’t just let the good players run around free. You’ve got to watch him.”
Neale was taking part in his 240th recreation on Sunday, in comparison with Young’s 54th.
While Brisbane in the end snuck house with a three-point win, Young took the spoils on the day, ending with 29 disposals and 10 tackles.
Neale lifted his workrate within the last time period to tally 25 disposals, six marks and 6 tackles.
Every week after Young pulled off one other strong effort towards Patrick Dangerfield in Fremantle’s large upset of the Cats in Geelong, Buckley was filled with reward for the teen.
“Young’s role on (Neale) is definitely not a tag. It’s a starting point at stoppage,” he stated.
“Then Young has been getting after the ball and has been doing that extremely well to have the 15 touches (at halftime) and the impact that he has on the game.
“Young is the one working harder than any other.
“He’s doing it all. He’s had an exceptional first half.”
Neale himself conceded in a post-match interview that he had been taken unexpectedly in final week’s Q Clash and felt higher ready at this time, regardless of a poor begin.
“I watched a fair bit of (Young) on “Danger” final week,” he stated. “I didn’t expect Touk to come to me last week so I learned from that and did my homework.
“I thought it might be (James) Aish or Young. Youngy is a quality player.
“He’s a lot stronger than I thought and I learned a fair bit from that first quarter.
“I was pretty poor and felt like I built into that game and my last quarter was probably my best.”
Originally revealed as Nathan Buckley‘s alternative phrases for a fellow Brownlow medallist
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
