West Coast captain Oscar Allen has opened up about his mental health battle in the wake of his highly-publicised meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell, saying it felt like everyone hated him.
Allen is a restricted free agent, but fans vented their anger when it was revealed he had caught up with Mitchell last month.
It was initially reported the pair met up in public, but Allen said it was a private dinner at his house.
The fallout from that meeting – combined with Allen’s on-field struggles – led to a downfall in his mental health.
The 26-year-old was granted a few days away from the club a fortnight ago, and he returned to playing duties in last week’s 50-point loss to Hawthorn.
“It was a pretty difficult month,” Allen told Perth radio station Mix 94.5.
“I decided, with the club, to step away a couple of weeks ago. I just wasn’t handling it all mentally whatsoever.
“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, I suppose your 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.”
Allen used Thursday’s radio interview to clarify how his meeting with Mitchell came about.
“I’ve known Mitch since I was 18. When I got drafted, he was a coach at West Coast,” Allen said.
“We’ve had a relationship for a long period of time.
“The thing that frustrated me was people are annoyed that, ‘oh, you did it in public’.
“I had dinner with Sam privately at my house. No one else was there.
“It was just two guys having a chat. We were having a conversation about where I’m at, how I’ve been going this year.
“He was 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 responded from that.
“Then it got played out I met him in public.
“I clearly understand the frustration of fans and I suppose the annoyance a lot of people had, but I didn’t think it would be as big of a story.”
Allen said he has taken a step away from social media in order to protect himself mentally, adding that if anyone sees any posts from him, it’s from his fiance Lorna McNabb.
The key forward is set to play in defence again when he lines up for his 100-game in Saturday night’s clash with Melbourne at Optus Stadium.
Eagles coach Andrew McQualter dismissed any suggestions Allen should be dropped to regain his form.
“I don’t agree with it at all,” McQualter said.
“Oscar’s a really good player. He’s a high level AFL player.
“We know he’s not in the best form of his career right now, but Oscar is working as hard as anyone to get himself going in the football field, and we’re going to continue to support you.”
