AFL Talent Manager Kevin Sheehan has named Claremont draft prospect Ed Allan as this year’s player who has bolted up the draft rankings.
Unfortunately for Hawthorn and Fremantle fans, Allan does not qualify under father-son rules.
His dad Ben Allan played 98 games for Hawthorn and was Freo’s inaugural captain, with 100 matches the required threshold.
Sheehan said it was a stunning 20-metre sprint at the combine that saw recruiters take notice of the tall West Australian midfielder.
“His father is Ben Allan who played 98 games for Hawthorn and then went on to become the first captain of Freo where he played 70-odd games before injuries cut short his career, but he’d also played a lot of games for Claremont,” the draft guru told SEN SA.
“So he is not eligible for Hawthorn because unfortunately he played in three different spots.
“So he’s in the open draft and he’d been injured in the first half of the year. I think he’s had growth problems in his back, he’s grown to 194cm.
“He’s a terrific sized boy that can play inside or outside in the midfield, on the wing or in the centre.
“He’d only played the half dozen games in the back-half of the year, then he comes to the national combine and was the quickest kid in Australia. 2.81 (seconds) for his 20 metres.
“That had everyone scrambling for the vision of his games to make an assessment.
“He’s a chance to go first night where about 20 will get picked, if not early in the second. He’s got plenty of upside. He hasn’t played a lot of footy, but the flashes have been pretty impressive.
“He played the one state game against South Australia and he had one moment where he’s dashed from the wing and left about three blokes fallen on the ground with his speed and dobbed it from inside 50.
“That was the moment that looked absolute class and AFL-like if you want to call it that and would have people talking about him.
“Whether West Coast uses an early pick, they’ve got three, or whether another club will jump in, only time will tell but he looks a real prospect.”
The AFL’s National Draft takes place tonight and you can listen to it live on SEN.