[2] Neates had earlier been chosen for state under-15 and under-16 representative teams, but was restricted to playing only for his school in 2008 after tearing his hamstring off the bone the previous season.
After Broome was delisted at the end of the 2011 season, Neates became the shortest player on an AFL list, standing three centimetres shorter than North Melbourne's Matt Campbell.
[11] Neates played in every one of the club's games for the rest of the season, mainly as an inside midfielder or half-forward flanker, including the loss to Swan Districts in the 2010 Grand Final.
He pulled up sore after West Coast's semi-final loss to Collingwood, and the decision was later made to operate on a hernia, causing him to miss the first eleven weeks of the season.
[22] In assessments before his drafting, Neates' strengths were described as his "clearance work and ability to bring teammates into the game", with his "good turn of pace" also being noted.
[6] After the draft, West Coast's recruiting manager Trevor Woodhouse compared Neates to Fremantle's Hayden Ballantyne in terms of his pace and tackling inside the forward 50, describing him as "little, but very quick and a hard runner", and as a "pretty good tackler for his size".