THE support of family and friends for anyone playing the game – be it at local level or in the AFL – can do wonders for players.

And in Alex Neal-Bullen’s case, this is no exception.

Neal-Bullen has a tight-knit group of family and friends, with his mum Sharon one of his greatest supporters.

An example of her dedication was highlighted, when she once flew from Adelaide to Melbourne early one November morning, and then caught a taxi to Princes Park, to watch her son run a time-trial.

On Friday night, Sharon was again among the thick of the action.

“’Shazza’ made her way down to the Demon Army at three quarter-time and she told me she got some TV time as well, so she was pretty happy with that” he told Melbourne Media with a smile.

“We were very happy with how we all performed and how the team performed. It was one of those special moments where you run out [on the ground] and I haven’t heard that support in a long time – the noise and the buzz around the stadium at the time was huge.

“Hopefully, we can have that again this Friday night.”

The 22-year-old, who was originally drafted from Plympton/Glenelg at No.40 in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft, said it was “always special” to have family and friends come across from Adelaide to watch him play.

“Finals are why you play footy. For them to get over here and the support I had [was great],” he said.

“I had one of my best mates over here as well, so it was a real special time, so it was good that we could play our brand of footy and the style we wanted to.

“Going forward now, hopefully there are a few more to come and we can keep that up.”

Neal-Bullen, who had 20 disposals and kicked 1.3 in Melbourne’s 29-point win over Geelong Cats at the MCG, was one of his side’s best in the first elimination final.

But the 57-game Demon played down his performance.

“It’s probably something I’ll look back on and have a good look at it, but at this point in time, I’m just happy that we’re playing good footy as a team and I was just playing my role,” he said.

Neal-Bullen said he backed the Melbourne faithful to come out again in full force this Friday night, when it takes on Hawthorn in the first semi-final at the MCG.

“They’re (Hawthorn) a good side and they finished top four for a reason, so we’ve got to bring our best footy and we’ll just get out there and hopefully get the support like we did last Friday night, and we’ll just give it our best,” he said.

“They’re (Hawthorn) in our way of going to a prelim final, so we’re going to make sure we’ll get that done.”