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Sport Nation
Find your Sport Nation frequency“Don't play him”: Eagles called to sideline captain on verge of exit
Jaiden Sciberras • May 13th, 2025 7:00 pm
Will Oscar Allen play again for the Eagles?
With the West Coast captain all-but-confirmed to leave the West Coast Eagles at season’s end, and ongoing concerns surrounding a knee complaint that kept him out of their Round 9 loss to Richmond, debates have sparked surrounding the risks of continuing to field the 26-year-old.
Allen’s contract is set to expire at the commencement of the 2025 season, with a rumoured deal tabled from the Brisbane Lions expected to land the Eagles a compensation pik around the top two in the upcoming draft.
Speaking on Channel Seven, Kane Cornes suggested that it’s in the best interest of the Eagles to sideline Allen for the remainder of the season.
“There is nothing to gain by him playing for the rest of the year,” Cornes said on The Agenda Setters.
“There is nothing to gain for his value going up, there is nothing to gain by him helping West Coast win because it doesn’t matter. The only thing he can do is get injured and effect his value for the next club.
“He should just sit out for the rest of the year.”
Referencing Cornes’ take, SEN WA’s Tim Gossage believes the Eagles would benefit from benching Allen for the foreseeable future.
“West Coast’s best interest: don’t play him,” Gossage told SEN WA Breakfast.
“If he’s agreed to go to Brisbane, there is no point in him playing.
“It effects the value for the next club, but it also effects the value of the compensation pick for West Coast.
“If he gets injured again - and it was his good knee that pulled him out on the weekend - he did it the day before and they let him warm up. It’s not the knee he had operated on, it’s his good knee which is less of a concern.
“The problem is that if he plays and gets injured, then it devalues what another club wants to pay for him.
“They might go cold on it, (clubs are) not going to recruit a bloke who has just gone in for another surgery. Then West Coast lose their compensation pick.”
Gossage’s co-host, Scott Cummings, was strong on allowing Allen to continue to play, with the basis that joining his next club in strong touch would increase his value.
“When a player gets injured, say they miss half a season, the next year we say, ‘he’s missed an enormous amount of football, it’s going to take time to get back to where he was’, and we’re patient with them because he was injured,” Cummings said.
“If he misses more than half a season of football, does that take away his chances of hitting the ground running, fully fit at the beginning of the year?
“Being fully fit is one thing, but having the touch, having the confidence when you get hit in a contest that you’re okay and you can handle it.
“There is not a player in the world that would say, ‘sit me out for half a season.’”
Gossage concluded: “In his own best interests, for his own future of the next few years, why bother?”
The pair also provided snap judgments as to who stays and who goes, with reference to those potentially linked with a move away from their current colours.
Luke Jackson – STAY
Clayton Oliver – GO
Tom De Koning – STAY
Harley Reid – GO
Zak Butters – GO
Brayden Maynard – STAY
Darcy Cameron – STAY
Kysaiah Pickett – GO
