OSCAR Allen has been a shining light in West Coast's horror season after missing all of last year with a foot injury.

Ahead of Sunday's clash with North Melbourne, the star key forward chatted with Cal Twomey for Cal's Q&A this week, discussing the Eagles' struggles, his inspiration for a turnaround, being dubbed a 'future skipper', his near Grand Final experience and why he has a teammate in the gun. 

It's been a historically tough season at West Coast. How does that sit with you? 

I probably have a little bit of a different perspective to some of the other boys in not playing any footy last year and observing from afar and this year being amongst it, which has definitely been a challenge. We're pretty tight within the club so that's something that's been one of the positive things this year. Another silver lining is the exposure some of the younger players have gotten, like Reuben Ginbey, Elijah Hewett, Noah Long, and I've thought they've all had moments to show they're going to be good senior players. 

Another big defeat against Carlton last week. Why do you think so many games have been blown out early?  

That was probably the most disappointing aspect of the weekend with the lack of competitiveness in the first quarter. We've had a couple of games like that this year which is too many and it's something we need to get a hold of. As a player it is disappointing when you come in at quarter-time and they're up by a large margin. You know it's going to be a difficult day ahead. We lost by two goals after quarter-time and won the second half so to be able to respond as a group is something we've been working on. 

What's been the day-to-day impact of this run of losses for you? 

Early in my career I really struggled with not letting a good or poor performance impact my mood and the person I was throughout the week. So not being the life of the party and nice guy to be around when I'd played well on the weekend and if you have a quiet one not having your head in your hands and not speaking to anyone. Last year gave me a lot of perspective watching from the sidelines and understanding how important footy is to me. Because of that I'm just grateful to be out there. Although it has been a poor year and we accept that, I've quite enjoyed the experience of getting back into the week-to-week of AFL football. 

This weekend against North Melbourne it's 18 v 17 and one of the long losing streaks will be broken. Do you sense some extra optimism heading into this game?

We've gone into a lot of games this year with the belief we can compete and beat sides. The disappointing aspect is we haven't been able to do it for four quarters. We've played some solid sides and played well for a half, a quarter here and there, but haven't been able to string together strong performances. It would be nice to get the monkey off the back and there's a lot of young boys who haven't sung the team song yet and celebrated their first win so it would be great if we could share that with them. 

Everyone always tries to look ahead and see when the wheel will turn. From your point of view, when can that be? 

Hopefully as soon as possible. This is the first I've experienced of it in senior football. My first year was in 2018 and obviously we were in a successful period there and I learned a lot from senior players. One I always think of is Mark LeCras who missed out on the flag early in his career in 2006 and went through the trials and tribulations of that late 2010s era when West Coast were down the bottom of the ladder and dealing with a lot of things as a football club. But then he was able to achieve the ultimate success in the last game he ended up playing in 2018. I look at his career and think it would be great if I could help the football club get back to that position. Hopefully it's not going to be my last game where I get to taste some success but the younger players and the positives we've seen out of them has inspired a lot of confidence in me and also the way the football club is operating day to day. We aren't satisfied with where we are. We'll be doing everything we can to get back as quick as possible. 

You played two games in that 2018 premiership year. What are your memories from that season?

It was a whirlwind. I came to the club with some stress fractures in my legs and missed all the pre-season and first month of the year. I always thought it would be an uphill battle to play senior footy. The reason I got my opportunity was Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and Tom Barrass were all out injured so they needed someone who could play key position and they picked the skinny blond kid and I played a game down back and a game up forward. At the time I thought I was thereabouts and a chance to play in September but upon reflection you don't really know what you don't know and I was further away than I thought. I rolled into Grand Final week and the Jeremy McGovern story has been talked about a lot and he was close to missing the game with injury and I was the one who was going to come in if he wasn't to play. They hid from me how likely 'Gov' was to get up so I never really thought I was a chance to play. Gov got up and played and was a part of that incredible passage of footy that will be remembered for a long time. I don't really have any regrets on it, it's just reflecting how quickly things happen. 

Did Gov tell you post game how close he actually was to missing? 

We were heading towards the Grand Final parade and our backs coach sent me a text and said 'Can you come and see me when the parade's done?' I met up with him in the lunchroom and he was showing me some vision of Mason Cox and I thought it was strange he was showing me it. It didn't really click until I went to bed that night. I was kept out of the loop a bit, I wasn't the most important person to tell at the time, and I think it was lunch a couple of hours before the Grand Final and I looked over to Gov and said 'You gonna be right mate?' and he was like 'Yeah, of course I am' like there was never any doubt on him playing. That put a stamp on it and the rest is history. 

You got to the Eagles at pick 21 in the draft after winning the Larke Medal. Where did you think you were headed? 

I came into the year not really thinking I was going to be drafted. I was pretty unknown and then put together a relatively strong campaign and in the end thought I was potentially a chance to go a little bit earlier. I grew up a West Coast fan so when they picked Jarrod Brander I thought 'Oh well, I guess I don't support West Coast anymore'. I did think Sydney was going to pick me with the next pick but I managed to keep getting passed on and then the Eagles picked me. I was on the same table as Aaron Naughton as we played 18s together. At the start of the second round his old man gave me a pat on the shoulder and said 'It's going to be alright, mate' which at the time probably wasn't what I wanted to hear but it's all worked out. I've lived in Perth my whole life and I'm very grateful to play for the team I grew up supporting. 

Last year saw you miss the whole season with the foot injury. Tell us about the depth of that issue. 

It was an innocuous one. It was a light skills day in January and I was a bit sore after the session. Two days later I couldn't walk and I thought maybe I'd burst a blood vessel in my foot or something. I was put in a moonboot and pretty well stayed in that moonboot for a long period of time. I knew I was going to miss the start of the season but worked as hard as I have ever worked to return as quick as possible. I was close to making my return and the same feeling came across my foot after a main training session and that inevitability of what was going to happen sunk in. I got follow-up scans and the stress injury had come back. From that point I was back in the moonboot and it was too far to come back and play. We put a plan in place then to come back in 2023 and play every game and be as consistent a performer on field as I could be. 

Did you have doubts you'd be able to return to your best?

Absolutely. In 2021 I started the year off pretty well and was disappointed with how I and we finished. We missed out on finals in a year where we felt we were better than where we finished and personally my form dipped as the year went on. I built that anger into 2022 and then to be ruled out for the season was a tough pill to swallow. Everything happens for a reason and it's inspired me to come back a better player. 

You were voted best clubman last year despite the injuries. What ways did you stay involved? 

Simmo reached out to me and said 'You've got a real keen interest in football and you love analysing the game and we really could use your leadership'. I'd just been voted into the leadership group last year and I thought the best way I could help out was doing whatever I could. COVID was really prevalent at that time at the club so it started off with coaching at WAFL level and helping out the forwards there when there was some coaches who couldn't be there. It evolved to travelling with the team and working as the bench coach for the back half of last year. It was a fine line to teeter to get your feedback direct but also realising everyone is trying as hard as they can. 

We've seen you piece together a very strong season this year given the circumstances, a career-best 41 goals. How have you viewed your own form?

I think I've had a pretty consistent year. I've still shown signs of rustiness and definitely have some more areas to improve my game on. I certainly don't think I'm the finished product as a player. I still have a lot of development left in me but it has been pleasing to be able to contribute in whatever way I can. All the credit goes up the field because if they don't put in the work then we don't get any looks at goal. Although I've been able to hit the scoreboard a little bit I really just want to be winning. That's where my mind's going to go to now for the next five games and hopefully winning as many games as we can. 

What are your ambitions as a key forward in this competition – how lofty do you set them and who do you admire? 

You definitely have to set high goals for yourself, however lofty they may seem. Last year when I wasn't playing I was still looking at a lot of the players I admire around the competition and their edits and what they do well. Aaron Naughton and I spent a lot of time together in our draft year and we've kept a relationship since then so things like the way he attacks the ball in the air makes him one of the best at it and even Charlie Curnow, who I saw close and personal on the weekend, his ability to follow up when the ball's at ground level is really impressive for his size. Then a lot of the older players as well. Jack Riewoldt's been a superstar for a number of years to halve contests when he's often outnumbered and I've been fortunate enough to have Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling to learn behind as well. 

You had kicked a goal in every game before the weekend, when you were thrown back to play on Charlie Curnow after he'd kicked seven goals. Was it annoying to break that streak in those circumstances?

Nah, it wasn't annoying. It was a funny tidbit and little stat that was going on but at the end of the day I wanted to do what I could to help the side. He's a terrific player and he started off pretty hot and with Gov and Tom Barrass going out of the side we knew we were pretty short behind the footy and I always thought there was potential if things got ugly early to be asked to go behind the ball and help out. When I came in at quarter-time I probably thought that was going to be the case. I learnt a lot. I used to play backline five or six years ago and my craft as a back is probably a little bit off but I thought I tried as hard as I could to help the team. You have to pride yourself on that as a player, whether you're playing in the position you want to or not. I wish I could have stopped him kicking a couple more goals. 

Will we see you playing back more often?

I went up to Simmo on Monday and said 'Forwards or backs this week, mate?' and he had a smirk on his face and said 'Go back to the forwards, mate'. I'll hopefully remain there for the foreseeable future. 

We touched on your leadership. What pressure comes with being seen as a 'future captain'?  

It probably does affect the way you present to people out from the football club. I don't think it changes the way you are day to day. If you're looked at as a leader then it's probably because of the way you act. If you're going to alter that then you're probably not being authentic to who you are. My two captains I've had in Shannon Hurn and Luke Shuey are polar opposites in terms of personality and how they are day to day and they're both exceptional leaders because they're their true selves. I've been fortunate the club's invested a lot of time in upskilling my leadership, learning on communication, doing a lot of training and giving feedback the right and wrong ways. 

Back in 2017 you joined us on our draft podcast and you impressed with the way you spoke and presented. Has that always been your way being able to talk like that?

Both of my parents were English teachers so I always had to be as well-rounded and broad as I could. I was exposed to leadership pretty early with my footy and was fortunate enough to captain my colts and state side and then at school I was Head Boy as well. I was put into those positions when even I didn't see myself as a leader so you figure it out along the way. It's a massive contributor to me being who I am and being able to articulate my thoughts. 

You seem a big personality and funny behind the scenes but you manage to keep that relatively internal – do on-field results impact how players approach their media work? 

Absolutely. In the back of players' minds they're always wondering 'How am I going? How's the team going?' whenever they present themselves. If individually or collectively you're not going as well as you'd like to be it definitely affects how you present yourself. You don't want to be the guy who is coming out and seems not to have a care in the world while on-field we are definitely not where we want to be just because of the ramifications that can come back your way. In saying that, it's something where I see a lot of players expressing themselves more. I see Christian Petracca with his Tik Tok cooking and that's great and I see Cody Weightman doing his art designs which are pretty incredible. When you look at American sporting culture in the NBA and NFL and European football they're all happy to express themselves because they often do it without any ramifications. I'm sure that's where footy's going and hopefully guys can keep expressing themselves. 

We've spoken about you growing up an Eagles fan, getting drafted by them, nearly playing in a Grand Final with them and the period that you're in at the moment. How committed are you to seeing this through?  

I'm really committed to it. I mentioned Mark LeCras earlier and growing up he played for the same junior footy club I did and growing up I was a small, skinny blond-haired kid who played in the forward pocket and Lecca made a career doing that better than anyone else. Being able to share a year and special experiences with him and seeing what it meant to him to win a premiership with the club he grew up supporting, and dedicated his professional career towards, that's a feeling that I hope to one day have with West Coast. 

Surely you put your hand up for the No.2 jumper when he retired…

Jakey Waterman stole it off me when 'Lec' retired so I'll always hold that against Lec.