Lachie Neale has confirmed he won't be seeking a trade back to Fremantle this off-season and will see out his contract at Brisbane.
It was reported earlier this week that Neale would return to Perth with he and his wife expecting their first child soon and wanting to be closer to her family and friends for support.
However, Neale today moved to squash those rumours via the Brisbane Lions website.
Lachie Neale has spoken on his future at the club... #Uncaged https://t.co/UsdGrCXRFC
— Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) September 9, 2021
Neale said that while he and his wife had discussed the possibility of returning to Perth, but the discussions were very preliminary in their nature.
"As a lot of people know now my wife's heavily pregnant, Neale said.
"She's from WA and has a lot of family and a support network in WA but behind the scenes we had a couple of conversations about how that looked going forward and obviously with the Covid situation the last couple of years for her to see her family and friends as it has for a lot of people.
"I've got a great support network in Perth as well so we were half considering the prospect of getting back at some stage but after sitting down and talking through it with our family and friends and with the club and with my management team it became pretty clear after a couple of days that this is where the best place for us to be is, at Brisbane.
Neale said that he is 100% invested in the Lions and their path to success. He added that he believes he and his wife can build the appropriate support networks in Brisbane where Neale is contracted to until the end of 2023.
"I'm committed and staying at the footy club," Neale stated.
"It's been a whirlwind few days and everything's sort of got a little bit out of hand, but I'm fully committed to the club and came in and told Fages (Chris Fagan) today that that's the case.
"We believe we can get the support network around us that we need moving forward. It's challenging times for everyone, with Covid, we're no different.
"It probably got played out a little bit sooner and earlier than what we thought. We hadn't put that amount of thought into it and it was blown out of proportion a little bit and now we've made that decision we're really happy and can't wait to get stuck into next year.
Neale went on to say that while the last few days had been rather hectic since the rumours started, he and his wife had been able to avoid engaging in the media speculation too much.
"It has been a little bit rough some of the stuff in the media. And there's always going to be social media attached but I feel like we've done a great job at avoiding that stuff,: said Neale.
"It probably has taken its toll a little bit, I'm pretty weary and tired at the moment but now super excited about what the future holds for both of us. We have a beautiful baby girl due in four weeks to look forward to.
"I've got unfinished business here. I want to be holding up a cup in a Lions jersey and that's what I'll be working towards in the next couple of years."