By Marco Monteverde

Copyright news

To qualify for a third successive decider, the Lions must beat Collingwood in Saturday’s preliminary final at the MCG.

And while Fagan was keen to focus on Brisbane’s task of beating the Magpies rather than whether Neale would play in next weekend’s grand final if the Lions made it that far, he said it would be “good to have a dual Brownlow medallist available”.

“We haven’t got there yet so I don’t really want to talk about grand finals … but I realise that might be a (selection) decision that we have to make,’’ Fagan said in Melbourne on Friday.

“He’s making good progress. Whether he’s good enough to play or not next week, if we get there, only time will tell.

“He’s probably a little bit further ahead of where we thought he’d be.”

Neale injured his calf in the Lions’ qualifying final loss to Geelong on September 5 in his return from a quad injury that had sidelined him from Brisbane’s previous three games.

“Lachie hasn’t played a lot of football in the last six or seven weeks … so they’re all those things you weigh up when the times comes,” Fagan said.

“It depends how all the other blokes are going in his position.

“It’d be a good problem to have though. I’d be happy to have it.”