Alex Neal-Bullen (born 9 January 1996) is a professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). A

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, tall and weighing , Neal-Bullen plays primarily as a half-forward. He played top-level football early when he played senior football for the Glenelg Football Club in the

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL) at eighteen years of age, in addition to representing South Australia at the 2014 AFL Under 18 Championships. He was recruited by the Melbourne Football Club with pick 40 of the 2014 AFL draft and he made his AFL debut during the 2015 season.

Early life

Neal-Bullen was born into a sporting family, where his grandma, Cheryl Neal, became the first female

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase (horse racing), steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used ...

in history to win a race in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

against men, achieved in 1979. Her career ended prematurely after a fall which left her in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

for eight months and

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neura ...

from the waist down; his grandmother's disability was one of the reasons behind Neal-Bullen deciding to study education and disability at

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

during 2014. Born and raised in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, Neal-Bullen grew up supporting the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

. Neal-Bullen played his junior career with Mitchell Park Football Club and the Glenelg Football Club and played nine games with the

(SANFL) senior team in 2014. He attended Sacred Heart College in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. He achieved state selection for South Australia in the 2014 AFL Under 18 Championships and played in the winning grand final against Vic Metro, whilst also being named in the best players for the match. His performances in the championships, where he was the leading clearance winner, and his performances in the SANFL led to him being regarded as an in-and-under player who made an impact on games. In addition, his athletic background placed him in the elite bracket of endurance runners and raised his prospects to being drafted inside the top twenty-five.

AFL career

Melbourne

Neal-Bullen was recruited by the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

with their third selection and the fortieth overall in the 2014 national draft. After a delayed start to the 2015 season through knee injuries, he made his debut in round eleven against at Etihad Stadium. He kicked his first goal the following week in the twenty-four point victory against at Simonds Stadium and finished the match with three goals. After his debut, he missed only one match for the remainder of the season and managed eleven games overall with a total of six goals; furthermore, Melbourne football operations manager, Josh Mahoney, noted Neal-Bullen had "adapted really quickly to the demands of being an AFL player" which saw him extend his contract until the end of 2017, despite being in contract for the 2016 season. The 2016 season saw Neal-Bullen spend the majority of the season playing in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) for Melbourne's affiliate team, the Casey Scorpions. He played his first senior match for the season in the sixty-three point win against the at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

in round nine. He maintained his spot the next week for the match against , before being omitted for the round eleven match against at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He was recalled to the senior side for the six point loss against at

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco, Western Australia, Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood, ...

in round eighteen and was dropped the next week before playing his final match of the season in the twenty-point loss against at the

in round twenty-two, managing just four matches in his second year. Despite failing to maintain a spot in the senior side, he had strong form in the VFL, which saw him play in seventeen matches, and he was named in the best players twelve times. His performances saw him finish as the runner-up in Casey's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

count, behind captain and former player, Jack Hutchins, and a fifth-place finish in the

J. J. Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (VFL), which was formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA). It is named after J. J. Liston, J.J. Liston, a busine ...

– awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL – with thirteen votes. Alex Neal-Bullen 2019

Neal-Bullen's Demons, who finished first on the AFL ladder in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, won the premiership in the

2021 AFL Grand Final The 2021 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between and the at Perth Stadium, Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, on Saturday 25 September 2021. It was the 126th annual AFL Grand Final, grand final of the ...

. He kicked a goal and had 24 disposals at

Perth Stadium Perth Stadium, commercially known as Optus Stadium due to sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the Burswood, Western Australia, Burswood suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It was completed during late 2017 and officially opened ...

. Neal-Bullen was awarded with the Norm Smith Memorial Trophy – a coaches' award – at Melbourne's

awards night following their historic season. The Demons finished in the top four in the following two seasons, but did not win a final. One of Neal-Bullen's best AFL performances to date came in his home state against in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, when he kicked two goals along with 24 disposals. In his final season at the Demons, Neal-Bullen finished third in the

Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy The Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Trophy is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player(s) adjudged the best and fairest at the Melbourne Football Club throughout the Australian Football League, Victorian Football League/Austra ...

, awarded to the best and fairest player at Melbourne during the year.

Adelaide

In August of 2024, despite being contracted at Melbourne until the end of 2026, Neal-Bullen confirmed his request to be traded to his home state of

for family reasons. After the conclusion of Melbourne's failed 2024 season, he would nominate as his preferred destination, the request made official by the Crows a few weeks later. He was traded on 7 October, the first day of the 2024 trade period.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of 2024''. , - ,

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2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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Honours and achievements

Team * AFL premiership player ():

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football club championship trophy, awarded each year to the club with the best aggregate performance across the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) seasons. The trophy was inaugur ...

():

Individual * Norm Smith Memorial Trophy: 2021

References

External links

* * * *
Alex Neal-Bullen profile
from Demonwiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Neal-Bullen, Alex 1996 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Adelaide Football Club players Casey Demons players Glenelg Football Club players Australian rules footballers from South Australia People educated at Sacred Heart College (Adelaide) Melbourne Football Club premiership players VFL/AFL premiership players 21st-century Australian sportsmen