Brisbane’s Lachie Neale has experienced a form slump of late.
While the star Lion is still averaging a strong 27 disposals and eight clearances a game in 2023, his output has dropped significantly across the last month.
Looking a little deeper at his statistics, David King revealed that Neale is the 284th ranked midfielder in the AFL across the last month as the 30-year-old struggles to break through tags.
As a result, King doesn’t feel Neale should be in All-Australian contention, discussing the Lion’s plight with Kane Cornes on SEN Breakfast.
King: “This is a guy that's been a three time All-Australian, he's been a five-time best and fairest winner and he's won a Brownlow – but he is off at the moment, Lachie Neale.
“He’s absolutely right off. His last four weeks, he's averaged 21 disposals which is 70th in the comp.
“He's had 18 score involvements, which is 123rd in the comp. In that same period, (Marcus) Bontempelli and (Christian) Petracca have had 41.
“He's winning clearances, he's won 30 clearances but nothing's coming off them. There's no damage, there's no breakaway anymore.
“Over the last four weeks, on the 100x rater – which just compares him per 100 minutes averaged out – he is the 284th ranked midfielder.”
Cornes: “Is he out of your All-Australian team?”
King: “Of course, he is out.
“How can you be close to 300th in the competition over the last month of football and be in the All-Australian team?”
Cornes: Well, this backs up my point now that and who would have thought (Will) Ashcroft would have been so important? But they're coming hard for Neale.
“(Touk) Miller's coming hard for Neale, (Hayden) Young is coming hard for Neale and the impact and the whole of the team is significant.
“I'm happy you put him in the gun.”
King: “So, it's over to him now.
“Bontempelli does it, Petracca does it, (Nat) Fyfe’s done it historically, (Patrick) Dangerfield’s done it (playing through a tag).
“You've just got to find a way to get through this and I don't know if he's carrying injury and I can't really factor that in, we've just got to judge what we see over the weekend.
“The challenge right now is if they're going to be what they need to be, they need Lachie back to his absolute best.”
Cornes: “I like it. Put that on the radar, put Lachie Neale in the gun.”
Neale will hope to recapture some of his best form when the Lions face the Crows at the Gabba on Saturday afternoon.