Recruited from South Warrnambool, and nicknamed "Cowboy" for his bow-legs and his rolling gait, Neale played his first match for St Kilda against North Melbourne on 22 May 1965, as a back-pocket/ruckman. His debut had been delayed because his own club, South Warrnambool, had needed him as a player for the first three matches of their season. Neale, recruited by St Kilda as a nineteen-year-old,, ruckman, initially played in the backline, but was moved to full forward in 1966. He kicked five goals in St Kilda's 1966 Grand Final win over Collingwood; and held the club record of 16 finals games, until it was recently beaten by Robert Harvey. Neale played for Victoria in the interstate match against Tasmania in Hobart, on Saturday, 16 June 1967. He was selected at full-forward, and kicked four goals in the match. At the end of the 1976 season, it was thought that Neale would retire from playing with St Kilda; however, St Kilda prevailed upon him to play yet another season, and he played in 20 of St Kilda's 22 matches that season, playing his last match as the back-pocket ruckman, in a losing St Kilda side, 17.10, against Richmond 25.21 at the M.C.G. on 27 August 1977. In his entire VFL career at St Kilda, he had played in 256 games, and scored 301 goals.
Towards the end of his career at St Kilda, numerous offers were made to Neale to leave St Kilda and take up a coaching position. At the start of 1975, he was offered the position of playing coach at Turvey Park in the South-West League for three years at $25,000 per annum. St Kilda talked him out of accepting the offer; and, towards the end of the 1975 season, the Albury Football Club in the Ovens & Murray Football League offered him a three-year contract of $35,000 as captain-coach. In 1978, he moved to Canberra, and was appointed the captain-coach of the Ainslie Football Club. In that year, he was also the captain coach of a combined A.C.T. team in the Escort Cup competition. He was still very effective at full-forward, setting a goal-kicking record in 1980. With Neale as its captain-coach, Ainslie won the premiership in both 1979 and 1980.
For a number of reasons, Ainslie had experienced a dismal 1981 season; but, under the coaching of Neale and, particularly, due to his superb on-field leadership and strength at full-forward, Ainslie won the 1982 premiership. At the end of 1982, he was interviewed by St Kilda, with a view to him replacing Alex Jesaulenko. Neale demanded $50,000 as his salary.
In 1983, he began the 1983 season as the captain-coach of the Ainslie Football Club, and was playing as well as he had ever been, despite his advanced age and increased weight. Only a few matches into the 1983 season he suffered a relatively minor injury to his left knee, and was admitted to hospital for a simple, routine surgical repair. At the time of his admission to hospital, it was thought that he might miss two weeks at the most. Whilst in the hospital, he came down with a very severe nosocomial infection that threatened his life; and the extremely long time that it took for him to recover meant that he never retained his fitness levels, and was only well enough to play a couple of matches at the end of the season. Although not a "passenger", he was not able to play up to his usual level of dominance; and it was clear to all that his playing career was over. With Neale in the team, Ainslie won the 1983 premiership; the fourth in his six years as captain-coach. In the 1980 season he kicked 149 goals, in the 1981 season he kicked 139 goals, and in the 1982 season he kicked 125 goals.
South Australia
Because he was no longer able to take the field as a player, Neale was reluctantly released by the Ainslie Football Club; as their club and team structure at the time demanded a playing coach. Cleared by Ainslie, Neale moved to coach the Central District Football Club in the SANFL. He was non-playing coach from 1984–1987. Central District only appeared twice in the finals during Neale's coaching tenure, without them winning a single finals game. In 1984, with Neale as coach, Central District's John Platten won the Magarey Medal.
