Ben Allan has been named Round 15’s Motoink Motorcycles Lion of the Round after his impressive performance in Sunday’s win over Frankston.
Allan had 19 disposals helped by his eight handball receives to go along with five tackles.
He played on Sunday as a forward for majority of the game but also spent some time in the midfield when Coburg was kicking into the wind. His role was to apply as much pressure as possible on the opposition to cause turnovers and create goal scoring opportunities.
“The most pleasing aspect [of my performance] was my cleanliness with the ball and my ability to win a few one on one contests in dangerous positions on the ground,” Allan said, “My ball use is something I pride my game on and I think I executed this fairly well on the weekend.”
He has now played 63 VFL games which was the third most of any Coburg player that took the field on Sunday. As Allan is one of the most experienced players in Coburg’s lineup, it is important he uses this experience to educate his teammates that are new to VFL level.
“I help my younger teammates on the field in providing directional talk and talking them through some situations during important stages of the game,” he said, “Simple things like instructing them to take their 30 seconds when they are having a shot at goal and encouraging them if they may have made a mistake.”
Allan said the team took a lot of confidence out of the draw against Sandringham and the hunger to get a win definitely showed.
“It may have been the disappointment from this [Sandringham] game which helped us play a consistent four quarter game and ultimately get the win.”
There was a great feeling in the rooms after the win, which Allan described as ‘grouse’.
“Now that we’ve got that winning feeling, I think we will be able to claim another few scalps in the following weeks,” he said.
You can see Allan and his teammates attempt to make in two wins in a row and three undefeated on Saturday afternoon when they take on Port Melbourne at North Port Oval.
