Neale, now in his second year at Freo, had an interrupted pre-season and has battled injury for the majority of the 2013 season.
But thankfully Neale has been able to play four out of the past five WAFL games for Swan Districts and has confidence in his body heading into the second half of the season.
“It's been good to finally string a few games together after an interrupted start to the year,” he said.
“To be on the park and playing some footy for a couple of weeks in a row is nice.”
Neale’s form recently has been of a high standard and senior development and assistant coach Simon Lloyd said things were looking positive for the 20-year-old.
“His run is as good as it’s been for the whole year,” Lloyd said.
“On the weekend he showed some hard spread run which allowed him to join in chains.
“He had 12 handball receives and his sprint distances were at the high end.”
Working with development coach Ash Prescott, Neale said his focuses heading into this year were his defensive transition and offensive spread.
“I suppose my strengths have been inside ball winning ability and being able to find the ball around the ground,” he said.
“Spreading off my opponent offensively and also tracking back defensively have been two major focuses for me as well as just getting my work rate and run up.”
Neale now knows what he needs to concentrate on.
“The past few games have given me a lot of confidence to really attack the last part of the year leading into finals for both AFL and WAFL,” he said.
“My focus now is to play consistent football for as many weeks as I can and give myself the best opportunity to put my hand up for senior selection.
“If I get my opportunity, sometime this year, I’ll look to hold my spot by playing consistently.”
