Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy believes Collingwood draftee Ed Allan is one of the more interesting players from the 2022 National Draft.
Seen as a bolter who quickly rose up draft rankings, the West Australian is a 194cm midfielder who was also one of the quickest players at the combine. Allan is also the son of former Hawthorn and Fremantle player Ben Allan.
Ranked in the teens coming into the draft, he was overlooked by the likes of West Coast and Melbourne, and even the Hawks who traded up with Sydney to grab a different player.
The Magpies swooped at pick 19 and Healy wonders if he could make those teams regret overlooking him.
“I think Ben Allan’s son is going to be one of the most discussed players, particularly if he starts to get a gallop on,” the Brownlow Medallist told SEN’s Sportsday.
“He’s 6’5, he can run like the wind, he can kick the ball well … he clearly wasn’t on Sydney’s radar, they overlooked him, Hawthorn overlooked him, they’re pretty happy with what they got.
“I reckon when you’ve got a guy who is as big as Patrick Cripps and can run faster and kicks the ball pretty well, you run the risk of overlooking a really sensational product and it wasn’t just Sydney who overlooked him, everyone else did too as well.
“He’ll be one of great interest and it was interesting that Collingwood jumped all over him.”
AFL Draft expert Callum Twomey ranked Allan 13th coming into the draft and believes he will need some time to develop.
“He was an interesting one, Ed Allan. He had some interest from West Coast and Melbourne in the middle part of the first round and got a little bit deeper to the Pies pick,” Twomey said.
“I think they were genuinely excited and surprised that he got to that part of the draft.
“It’s a bit more on projection with Allan. That’s the question for recruiters in their own mind – the projection of what he could be versus the production of other players around him and a few went ahead of him obviously.
“(I ranked him at 13) mainly because of the scope we see in him. He’s a runner. I think he’s going to be able to play that Mark Blicavs type of midfield role, but he may be able to turn into a key back like Blicavs as well.
“I like that potential we’ve seen from him, again only six or seven games from him this year after a back injury. Clearly good bloodlines as well which you factor in and he’s still got some growth left in him in terms of his body development, but I’m a fan.”
