Demons premiership star Alex Neal Bullen on Melbourne’s team built on late draft pick success

In a 2020 trade period that saw the Demons desperate to move him on it would have taken a single expression of interest for his club to give him up for a throwaway late pick.

And yet the phone never rang.

This week after a star turn in Melbourne’s glorious SCG victory over Sydney he is the public face of the Demons’ masterful list transformation.

Yet another late selection (pick 40) who is transforming himself from a low-profile role player to something so much more.

The star power on show from the club’s top-five selections Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Angus Brayshaw camouflages the welter of mid to late-draft success stories.

From Tom Sparrow (pick 27), to Bayley Fritsch (29), Trent Rivers (pick 32), James Jordon (33), Harrison Petty (pick 37), Neal-Bullen (pick 40), the Demons have picked the eyes out of the draft.

And yet for Neal-Bullen footy’s scrap heap might have beckoned if he hadn’t had another season on his contract.

His resurgence speaks volumes of his own capacity to turn his career around as well as the improvement in Melbourne’s culture, development program and coaching to generate elite players from mid-30s picks.

In a year where Neal-Bullen married wife Georgie, signed a new three-year deal to 2026 and found out the couple had a baby due in February, that sliding doors moment remains vivid in his memory.

“In 2020 in the Covid year I was on the table,” he said of that period where the Demons had finished 2019 with a 5-17 record and 2020 out of the finals yet again.

“Luckily, no one called my management team. I understand the industry, but it was certainly challenging hearing your head coach and list manager say, “Look, you are probably not in our plans moving forward. It’s an opportunity we will definitely support you (moving) so you can prolong your career”.

“The one thing I will say is as soon as the trade period finished, Goody called me and said, “I am all in with you to be a part of this team, and for me that is gold.

“I was 25 and hearing that from your coach, whatever has happened and it’s a business decision but it’s all in. And from there I have continued to work hard but also align that with consistency in my fundamentals and also my impact in games.

“I still have challenging conversations with Goody around my game, but it’s what makes us a great team.”

Twelve months on from that aborted trade Neal-Bullen was a premiership player after a sensational 24-possession, 10-score assist Grand Final after a consistently excellent finals series.

But to outside observers and even teammates Neal-Bullen was still that gut-running role player who covered for teammates as a high half forward big on commitment and short on flashy moments.

Fellow second-round pick Fritsch dominated that Grand Final but like pick 32 Rivers this season Neal-Bullen has had his turn in the spotlight.

Against Sydney last week the grunt work was still on show with 12 tackles but his deft touch hitting up Fritsch with a perfectly weighted pass amid three Swans showed his new-found impact.

“I don’t want to sell him short,” says captain Max Gawn.

“There are two parts to ‘Nibbler’. There is the part where he plays an incredible role for us as a high half forward. But he’s also become a very skilful half forward. He is kicking goals and passing the ball off to our forwards as well.

“It’s the biggest thing that has changed in his game, he’s gone from tackling and running patterns and being the guy who will set up our forward line to being that guy who is actually damaging with the ball with players coming to him to try to shut him out of the game. It’s a credit to him because he’s worked incredibly hard.”

As Gawn notes, he and no. 53 pick Tom McDonald were actually selected by former recruiter Barry Prendergast instead of current national recruiting manager Jason Taylor, who came on board in 2012.

List manager Tim Lamb joined the club in the same year after a 22-year career as a senior officer with Vic Police while also coaching with Vic Metro and the Sandringham Dragons.

The capacity of Lamb and Taylor to achieve spectacular results while also trading for stars like Steven May and Jake Lever has been profound.

In 2017 when the Demons handed over pick 10 and a future first-rounder for Lever the No. 35 selection they received in return became Petty.

In 2019 they secured premiership ruckman Luke Jackson (pick 3) and Kysaiah Pickett (12) as well as Rivers at pick 32, then when Jackson departed an already-generous trade turned into a bonanza because of Fremantle’s horrible 2023 campaign.

In 2020 they had already on-traded their first-rounder but found Jake Bowey at pick 21 and traded for Ben Brown, so instrumental in the final weeks of the 2021 campaign.

In 2021 it was Jacob Van Rooyen at pick 19 (they also loved Darcy Wilmot, who went at pick 16).

Rookie picks Judd McVee and Kade Chandler are revelations, with the Demons planning for McVee and likely Rivers to one day turn into full-time midfielders.

At Essendon amid the focus on recruiter Adrian Dodoro’s selections it has always been impossible to pinpoint the quality of exact selections given the development and coaching issues have been so apparent.

Yet at Melbourne Neal-Bullen credits the whole-of-club approach with flushing out so many late-draft successes who have had their talent maximised.

“Probably one thing that has jumped to mind is the environment they‘re walking into. That’s been led by Simon Goodwin. Since I’ve walked into this footy club I could see from the get go he loved characters and personnel wanting to get the best out of themselves and develop strong habits from the start of their career. Every name you have mentioned there _ Fritsch, Sparrow, Rivers _ have all built their own habits. They come into an environment where you have got 45 players who have their own habits but it’s an environment of competitiveness. That has allowed the guys who went on draft night as later-on picks to come here and flourish.”

Neal-Bullen can sense the moment ahead as the Demons approach the clash with Collingwood aware of last year’s catastrophic blown double chance.

“I am so looking forward to the challenge. A full house at the MCG. Finals footy. As a young kids that’s literally what I dreamed about. We are so ready for the challenge. They will be at their best and we will be at our best.”