![\"Oscar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/afd30855776d18913b540f81639806be7df6ed21.jpg\")
Camera IconOscar Allen\u2019s move is imminent. Credit: Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\nWest Coast are set to reap the highest draft pick ever as compensation for a departing free agent as Oscar Allen closes in on joining Brisbane.<\/p>\n
The Eagles are not expected to match Brisbane\u2019s offer for their co-captain, a six-year deal, after the official paperwork was lodged on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Brisbane deal far exceeds what West Coast was prepared to offer Allen and under AFL rules they will be entitled to band-one compensation which falls immediately after a club\u2019s natural first-round selection.<\/p>\n
After finishing last, their prized hand at next month\u2019s national draft will be headlined by picks one and two. The Eagles could use one of them to trade two more picks inside the top 10.<\/p>\n
The Allen compensation will be one pick better than the third selection Melbourne received for James Frawley\u2019s shift to Hawthorn in 2014 and Gold Coast landed for Tom Lynch\u2019s departure for Richmond in 2018.<\/p>\n
Essendon also received a band-one pick when Joe Daniher joined the Lions in 2020, with the result pick nine.<\/p>\n
Band-one compensation is triggered by a combination of contract length, earnings of more than $900,000 per year and the player\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s move to Brisbane will be made possible by a mega-trade involving three clubs in which dual Lions premiership defender Brandon Starcevich joined West Coast after a suite of draft picks changed hands in a deal that involved the Eagles\u2019 cross-town rival Fremantle.<\/p>\n
The Eagles ability to trade for restricted free agent Starcevich was crucial as it meant any free agency compensation for the loss of Allen was not diluted.<\/p>\n
Allen, 26, the Eagles\u2019 co-captain since 2023 following a 53-goal season in which he finished runner-up in the John Worsfold Medal, fills a need for the Lions who had the West Coast key forward in their sights after All-Australian forward Joe Daniher retired in the days after the 2024 grand final.<\/p>\n
Camera IconOscar Allen\u2019s move is imminent. Credit: Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s arrival will give Brisbane a powerful forward arc headed by Allen, Logan Morris, Eric Hipwood and Ty Gallop.<\/p>\n
Hipwood missed the Lions\u2019 premiership win after injuring his knee in the penultimate round of the home-and-away season against Fremantle.<\/p>\n
Allen was ruled out in June for the remainder of the 2025 season after opting to have knee surgery while recovering from calf and Achilles tendon injuries.<\/p>\n
He informed the Eagles of his desire to explore his options a day after the season ended.<\/p>\n
While Brisbane was always the front-runner to acquire the gifted forward\u2019s services, there was major interest from Hawthorn, with a highly publicised mid-season meeting with Hawks\u2019 coach Sam Mitchell.<\/p>\n
The Eagles will now focus on securing deals for wantaway pair Campbell Chesser and Liam Ryan.<\/p>\n
Chesser had a strong finish to the 2025 season, playing the final four games of the year at AFL level.<\/p>\n
The Eagles had tabled a two-year extension for the player they recruited at pick 14 in the 2021 draft but he has indicated he wants to shift to Carlton.<\/p>\n
Chesser has battled injuries through long periods with West Coast, playing 32 games across his first three seasons before recurrent ankle issues severely hampered him in 2025.<\/p>\n
Eagles premiership forward Ryan has asked to be traded to St Kilda, but is contracted to West Coast for another season.<\/p>\n
Victorian ruckman Cooper Duff-Tytler is considered the likely first pick in the draft, while projected No.2 pick Willem Duursma he said he would be open to moving west.<\/p>\n
Duff-Tytler \u2014 who has been compared to Fremantle star Luke Jackson \u2014 ran a highly-rated 2.93 seconds in the 20-metre sprint at the recent national draft combine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Coast are set to reap the highest draft pick ever as compensation for a departing free agent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,53746,64,63,55,639,3237,588,85,7067],"class_list":{"0":"post-196839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-afl-trades","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-brisbane-lions","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-west-coast-eagles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}