MALLEE Eagles co-coach Harry Allen has joined an illustrious group of footballers as a two-times winner of the Jack Betts Medal following Sunday night’s tense Central Murray vote count at the Swan Hill Town Hall.
Allen polled 24 votes to finish in a three-way tie for the prestigious award with the Cohuna Kangas’ Joel Helman, who is now also a multiple Jack Betts Medal winner, and Tooleybuc-Manangatang ruckman Connor Mcdonald.
It ended an emotional weekend for Allen after his Eagles were eliminated from this year’s finals series by NNW United in Saturday’s preliminary final.
Although Allen’s season won’t end with the ultimate prize, his second Jack Betts Medal is far from a consolation. The hard nosed onballer had to overcome a late start to the season due to a pre-season ankle injury to be declared among the Central Murray’s most elite footballers.
“I definitely didn’t come here expecting this tonight,” Allen said.
“I missed the first month of the season with injury so that plays into your mind thinking you’ll be forever playing catch-up.
“To win alongside these two guys (Helman and Mcdonald) as well is really very special.
Joel’s (Helman) a really good mate of mine and he’s been one of the best players in the competition for a while, and Connor (Mcdonald) started the year really well.
“I’ll let it sink in, to win one was really humbling, but to win two it’s something I never thought I’d achieve and I certainly don’t put myself in the same category as those two time winners, I’m pretty speechless really.”
Allen is now in prestigious company as a dual winner of the league’s best and fairest award, joining former Swan Hill midfielder Xavier Moloney and Lalbert onballer Lance Brown as two-time winners of the Jack Betts Medal in the Central Murray.
Having won his first medal back in 2019, Allen this season re-emerged as one of the league’s premier midfielders in his first season as a joint coach of his home club.
It’s a role that clearly agrees with the 27-year old, who was quick to praise his coaching partner.
“I have to give a shout out to Brent (Macleod), I’ve learnt a lot of him and hopefully he’s learnt a bit off me,” Allen said.
“He’s certainly the voice on Saturday’s, but I think we bounce off each other really well in the breaks.
“We’re pretty confident within our system we’ve got going, we address what we need to address, do the training and prepare, but when we cross the white line we’re still players and still need to do what we do well and that’s find the footy.
“We have a great team on the bench as well and that takes a lot of pressure off because we know they can get the job done. Without those guys we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.”
Although proud, it’s the medals that will be handed out to one of Kerang or NNW United this Saturday that Allen longs for, with the pain of a premature exit from this season still evident 24 hours after the Eagles 18-point loss.
“The initial reaction post game was pretty devastating,” Allen said.
“Prelim finals are hard to get into and they’re hard to win, but by the same token, you’re so close yet so far because ultimately you want to be one of the final two sides.
“The last couple of weeks we probably let a couple of opportunities slip.
“Against Kerang we kicked ourselves out of it early, even though Kerang were the better team and deserved the win, and then on the weekend against (NNW United) we just we didn’t make the most of our opportunities in the first quarter with the wind.
“We’ll envy them both on Saturday, but at the same time wish them all the best.
“Ideally, we just want to win a flag, that’s what we’re striving for.
“We got close this year, but by the same token, from where we were last year and with new coaches and a completely new direction in terms of the footy department, we’ve had some big improvement this year and we’re on the right trajectory.
“We’ll announce a few things shortly, but we’ve basically re-signed everyone and hopefully we’ll have a few guys returning to the club as well.
“We’re in the box seat to contend next year, but as we said post game, to get to a prelim it doesn’t just happen, things have to go your way and you need a bit of luck.
“We know it’s a bit of a missed opportunity, but that’s footy, we’ll just regroup now and go again next year.”
