The outrage machine is out of control this week, even by the AFL bubble’s hysterical standards.
The reaction to West Coast co-captain, and impending free agent, Oscar Allen’s in-season meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell and his wife Lyndall in Perth has bordered on embarrassing. One veteran journalist even described Allen’s actions in extraordinarily hyperbolic fashion as “utterly disgusting”.
Oscar Allen made a public apology over his meeting with Sam Mitchell.Credit: AFL Photos
There were also calls far and wide, including from former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, for the Eagles to strip Allen of his captaincy.
It reached such fever-pitch levels that West Coast rolled poor Allen out in Perth on Thursday, alongside the club’s head of football John Worsfold, to field questions from local reporters.
The 26-year-old, who is set to be a restricted free agent at season’s end, also had to front his teammates beforehand, and told the media – with brows furrowed – how he felt “bad and ashamed” and “serious embarrassment” as he explained himself to them.
The media have made Allen feel like a naughty boy, at a time club list managers and player agents have barely blinked an eye at this turn of events.
The Eagles’ players and new coach Andrew McQualter swiftly backed Allen to remain as co-captain because they understand how free agency, in particular, works. He has a major decision to make, so doing his due diligence is smart – and this situation is a reality that fans need to get their heads around.
All Allen and his agent, Andrew McDougall, were guilty of is not being more secretive about their meeting because almost every player with any opposition interest is doing exactly what the star forward did.
Everyone working in football knows that, yet here we are.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin and his Demons are not having a good time of it, but he has served as a voice of reason on the Allen saga.
“It’s part of our industry. I don’t like it, but if you’re not doing it, you’re not getting players to your footy club,” Goodwin said. “Every club is in that process of going after any player – and no one’s off limits. That’s where it’s at. It started [with approaching players in] leadership groups, and now we’re moving into captains.
“Right now, as an industry, in clubland, no one is seen as off limits. Player movement is going to get more and more.”
Another premiership coach, Geelong’s Chris Scott, put it well: “I would argue that anyone who played footy before 2000 hates it, and anyone who started playing footy after 2010 is probably OK with it.”
The idea that everyone but captains are allowed to meet with rival club people, a stance ex-Melbourne skipper Garry Lyon has taken, is also such a romanticised, flawed perspective. Scott called it a “nonsense”. They have every bit as much right to explore their options and do that across an extended period, rather than squeeze it in at the last minute as the naive among us expect them to do.
There has never been more money in the game, and free agency riches are soaring, so players would be crazy not to at least hear what is out there for them, just like the average Joe would jump at more money, themselves.
Another reality: Football is these guys’ job, and they have a finite time to cash in.
At the same time, players such as Allen make these decisions based on more than just money, which is why meetings to hear a coach or recruiter’s pitch are actually important, as is having enough time to think afterwards.
It is also convenient to highlight Allen’s underwhelming start to the season, capped by a goalless four-touch afternoon on Sunday in a loss to arch-rivals Fremantle.
We have seen footballers reach never-before-seen heights in a contract year, and vice versa.
There are all sorts of reasons for good and bad form, but it’s certainly not easy being a key forward in one of the worst teams in the competition.
The other part of this is Allen’s past knee injuries.
His suitors will complete medical testing, while West Coast would know his physical condition and the level of risk with any potential degeneration down the track.
Allen knows the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn have each had success rehabilitating players, so taking the biggest and longest contract might be in his best interests. Meeting with Mitchell was also in his best interests, which he has every right to prioritise.
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