And the Eagles captaincy goes to…: Xav takes his pick

Former Eagle Xavier Ellis believes West Coast star Oscar Allen “will captain the football club next year”.

The 24-year-old led the Eagles for the primary time towards Essendon on Saturday, kicking 4 of the membership’s six objectives within the 50-point loss.

While defenders Tom Barrass and Liam Duggan have rotated the captaincy over the previous month, Ellis backed Allen to succeed injured skipper Luke Shuey, who has held the position because the begin of the 2020 season.

“I’m going to make a statement here. The man who will captain the football club next year, Oscar Allen,” Ellis stated on 7mate and 7plus’ Mad Monday.

“Gee whiz, he’s an impressive person and an impressive player. Missing last year (through injury) hasn’t stopped him.”

Allen sat out your complete 2022 season with a foot damage however has performed each recreation up to now this 12 months, kicking 29 of the membership’s 97 objectives.

“They just need to get the ball to him one-on-one as many times as possible,” Ellis stated.

“I know they try and share the load in the game but I reckon you needed to put the blinkers on a bit early (against Essendon) on Oscar Allen and just give him four or five genuine one-on-one contests, because he was going to win them all.

“A couple of times they went left, they went right – just go to Oscar Allen. He’s had a super year.

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His Mad Monday co-host Michael Barlow agreed.

“You can see when you watch him live, he oozes that leadership, he oozes the passion for the football club,” Barlow stated.

“He hasn’t played much in the last 12 months before this season which, you’d imagine, if he would’ve played last year that they would have had more wins and got more results because they were a little bit healthier last year.

“This year, on their bare bones, without him – it’s unfathomable to think where they could be.

“But he will captain the football club in 12 months, well said.”