West Coast Eagles co-captain Oscar Allen has bravely opened up on a difficult past month that saw him step away from the game, while also revealing the truth about his meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.
Appearing on Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins on Mix94.5 this morning, Allen shared the mental health challenges that he has faced after his meeting with Mitchell, which stole headlines across the footy media world.
“It’s been a difficult probably month, four to five weeks. Highlighted that we’re probably not playing well as a team, we haven’t won a game yet this year and I’ve been playing poorly as well, so there’s been a couple of other factors involved,” Allen said.
Allen has known Mitchell since he was drafted to the club and has a relationship with the now Hawthorn coach that spans almost a decade.
It had been reported that Mitchell and Allen had met for a coffee at a café, but Allen revealed the pair had caught up for a private dinner at Allen’s own residence.
“We’ve had a relationship for a long period of time. I caught up with Sam, the thing that kind of frustrated me was people are annoyed, ‘Oh, you did it in public’,” he said.
“I had dinner with Sam privately at my house and nothing else was involved, no one else was there.
“That’s the thing that frustrated me a little bit is that we caught up completely privately. No one else was involved whatsoever. It was just two guys having a chat. We talked about a lot of things, but yeah, we were just having a conversation about where I’m at, how I’ve been going this year and a combination of things.”
Allen said he was keen to pick the brains of the 2008 premiership captain, particularly around how Hawthorn bounced back after a few lean years following that triumph.
“He was obviously a premiership captain for Hawthorn, so I was trying to talk a little bit about when Hawthorn won in 2008 and then had a couple of tough years, how they helped respond to that,” Allen said.
“We had a good conversation there, then it got played out that I met him in public. I clearly understand the frustration of the fans and the annoyance that a lot of people had, but I didn’t think it would be as big of a story.”
Allen is one of the league’s most intriguing players when it comes to player movement this year. He’s been linked to Hawthorn, but Brisbane are also reportedly keen on acquiring his services as well.
Allen says he had a “pretty difficult month” following the meeting with Mitchell, which resulted in him fronting the media to apologise, admitting at the time he was “embarrassed and ashamed”.
“It was a pretty difficult month, decided with the club to step away a couple of weeks ago. I just wasn’t handling it all mentally whatsoever,” he continued.
“I’m going a lot better now. It definitely was really tough, particularly when I love West Coast, I love the club, I love playing footy and I wasn’t able to do any of that well.
“And then because of that, your supposed identity as a footballer and a person kind of get merged because playing footy is something I’ve loved to do since I was a kid and my job was going poorly, publicly everyone hated me, and my performance was poor.
“It was tough, but I’ve had a really good support network around me. My partner, family, the footy club have supported me as well with my decision and I’m just excited now to get back in.”
Allen said deleting all of his social media accounts had been a good decision.
“One thing for anyone who is struggling with stuff, get off social media is probably the first bit of advice. I’ve deleted all of that, it’s just not good to look at,” he said.
“It’s been a good decision to get away from it and not look at things on my phone, because if I don’t know you well enough to have a coffee with you, then I probably shouldn’t really care what you’re thinking about me.”
Last week, West Coast coach Andrew McQualter swung Allen into defence in a bid to try and spark their star asset.
Allen, who plied his trade as a defender at times during his junior career, said he enjoyed the “new challenge”.
“I’m not playing that well at the moment, so it was something that we thought we’d try and we’re probably a bit thin down back as well at the moment,” he said.
“I’m just excited to get back into footy, get back into playing as well as I can and helping the boys.”
It has also been reported recently that the Eagles have held a crisis meeting, as the club searches for ways to rise up the ladder after its 0-7 start to 2025.
“It was actually a couple of weeks ago and it was just a meeting where we had a conversation, senior players and senior members of the footy club about how can we get better as an organisation,” Allen said.
Eagles head of football John Worsfold was among the attendees, as was GM Gavin Bell.
“We had a conversation about how we can get better as players and then how the club can get better as well at supporting players,” Allen continued.
“I reckon every single company in the world has had a million of these meetings. I wouldn’t exactly call it a crisis meeting, but that’s what will sell newspapers…”
Allen will play his 100th AFL match this weekend when the Eagles host Melbourne at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
