‘Face up to the words they say’: AFL superstar calls out trolls amid mental health fear for players

Two-time Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale fears for the mental health of players subjected to online abuse, including death threats.

Last Friday Neale, the Brisbane Lions co-captain, took to social media to tell people who attacked players from behind a keyboard to “grow the f**k up”, calling them a “stain on society”.

Neale reiterated his stance on Tuesday, saying he was OK with online criticism of on-field performances, but not on personal matters.

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“It’s become a bit of a habit these days, a lot of racial stuff, a lot of abuse of players with their families, kids … stuff that’s hard to cop,” he said.

“When players cop death threats from a game of footy, it gets a bit crazy.

“I’m pretty passionate about it because it can affect players and people in general with their mental health.

“People are able create accounts and not have any responsibility for their words.

“I’d love to see a world where people have to face up to the words they say.

“I don’t think any player has had someone walk up to them and say to their face the things people say online.

“I’m more than happy to cop criticism on performance and the team’s performance, but when it gets personal and attacks players’ families and themselves as people, some pretty nasty stuff gets said that they’d never say to your face – that’s the disappointing aspect.”

Neale was critical of the Lions’ display in their 52-point loss to Collingwood at the Gabba.

It was the defending premiers’ first loss of the season and ended a run of 10 successive wins that started in Round 24 last year.

“It exposed a couple of things in our game that are not quite at the level required at the moment,” said Neale, whose team takes on St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

“Hopefully it sharpens us up. We’ve known for the (opening) six weeks (of the season), that we’re not absolutely flying, but AFL footy’s tough.

“We’ll move on. We had a long weekend to sit there and stew on it, so hopefully we play with a bit more energy and fire against St Kilda.”

Neale said the Lions needed to improve their “contest and clearance” work.

“We’ve done it well in halves and patches, but as a midfield group in particular we haven’t got it done across four quarters for the whole year,” the star onballer said.

“It’s a little bit of method, and a little bit of hunger and appetite as well, so … that’s a big one.”

Neale said Brisbane’s defensive performances had also dropped off.

“With our shape, we’ve just been pulled apart a bit, so we’ve had a good look at that.” he said.

“If you can get turnovers from the middle of the ground to half-back, teams are able to slice and dice you pretty quickly if you’re not switched on defensively.”