Collingwood’s commitment to the development of, and search for, new talent has seen one of the AFL’s most experienced and successful administrators, Graeme Allan, appointed to the position of General Manager of Next Generation Academies and Teams.
With a women’s national competition on the horizon and the AFL designing club-based multicultural and indigenous academy programs in an effort to nourish and unearth new talent, Collingwood recognised the need for an outstanding football person to oversee its push into these new frontiers.
It found Allan, a former Collingwood player and administrator who, for family reasons, returned earlier this year to Melbourne after long stints with Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney.
With four premierships on his administrative resume (Collingwood 1990, Brisbane 2001-2003), almost two decades of experience in non-traditional football states and, more recently, a significant role in the creation of the Giants, ‘Gubby’ was an obvious choice for a role Collingwood Chief Executive, Gary Pert, described as ground breaking.
Collingwood has applied for a licence in the proposed national women’s football league and has been assigned the regions of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and Oakleigh in suburban Melbourne to develop as part of the AFL’s multicultural and indigenous academy program.
PROFILE: Learn more about the career of Graeme Allan on Collingwood Forever.
Collingwood also has its important father-son academy program to further strengthen, a task Allan will oversee to ensure past players and their sons enjoy a strong connection to the club. All of these initiatives form Allan’s new brief, which will sit outside of the traditional AFL program.
Allan will report directly to Pert.
“The game of AFL is growing and Collingwood, as a club, has to grow with it,” Pert said.
“That is a responsibility we have to ourselves and to the game. And to do it well we need the very best people. The industry recognises ‘Gubby’ as one of its very best.
“Success has followed him and the broad experience he has had in designing and bringing plans to fruition is precisely what we need as we look to a football future that will be, more than ever, male, female, local, regional, national, indigenous and multicultural.”
Allan will commence with Collingwood next Monday, 9 May.
Allan played 54 matches for Collingwood across the 1981-84 and 1986 seasons, after an 87 game career with Fitzroy which began in 1975. Upon retirement as a player, Allan began his distinguished career as an administrator with Collingwood.
He was famously by the side of coach Leigh Matthews when the club broke its premiership drought in 1990 and remained with Collingwood as football manager until 1997. He was by the side of Matthews again, in 1999, as Brisbane football manager where the pair helped the Lions to their historic premiership three-peat in 2001-2003.
Allan joined GWS in 2010 and in 2015 was awarded AFL Life membership.
