The Geelong Football Club enters the 2013 AFL season in an intriguing position while it continues its transition phase for another sustained tilt at success.
Many people would say losing to Fremantle in the qualifying final last year as reigning premiers is a sign of an end of an era which included three premierships in a span of five seasons.
What is often forgotten is when Chris Scott took over as coach in 2011 from Mark Thompson, he gradually brought in a host of young players who challenged the side’s veterans for their positions.
Part of that transition was the rise to prominence of midfielder Allen Christensen.
The 21-year-old debuted in his second season, playing 19 games in 2011, including the premiership. He backed up in 2012 playing 17 games but suffered a few injury niggles along the way.
Christensen believes now is the time for the younger brigade to stand up if Geelong are going to continue to play deep into September.
“It’s really important for us 18 to 23 year old guys to really take over the reins,” he said.
“We have to get every little bit of knowledge out of these older guys and start pushing for their spots. It’s the only way we will keep being successful.”
There’s no doubt the Geelong youngsters have been privileged to be surrounded by so many experienced stars and they hope to bring the knowledge they have gained from them onto the field in the future.
“It helped a lot, coming into a successful environment and the boys being so driven for success it was easy to slot into a culture like that,” Christensen explained.
“With so many great players, you just listened to everything they said and it was really important for me.”
Christensen had to wait an entire season before he finally debuted, but once he did he made sure he never looked back.
“I guess I was lucky to have a pretty good pre-season to put my hand up and once I had my chance I just knew I had to do everything I could to stay in. I got put back in the VFL for three weeks during the year and that helped me get some really good form back and I didn’t really look back after that.”
AFL statistician Richard Pallister believes it’s integral that players like Christensen step up for Geelong to move forward in 2013.
“Geelong has an aging midfield and in 2012 they were poor at winning first possession, clearances and contested possessions,” Pallister said.
“Too much of this grunt work was left to Joel Selwood, James Kelly and Joel Corey. If Geelong is to be a legitimate premiership contender in 2013, they desperately need players like Christensen to improve in these areas,” he said.
“Christensen is somewhat of a barometer for Geelong. He has accumulated 20 or more disposals in 14 of the 28 games in which he has not started as the substitute. Geelong has won 13 of these games and lost the 14th by only five points. Geelong has a far less imposing 13-9 record in games in which Christensen has failed to reach 20 disposals.”
While the statistics certainly paint a glowing picture of Christensen’s consistency, the youngster has also proven he can step up when it matters most.
Many Geelong supporters will never forget the mark Christensen took in the third quarter of the Grand Final which led to a Tom Hawkins goal, but he modestly brushed it aside.
“Yeah it’s a bit of a weird one. If I could some it up would be “everything at training coming to work out in one moment.” I have thought about it but I don’t really see the importance of it to be honest. It’s weird a lot of people put a lot of emphasis on it.”
Looking forward to this season, Christensen feels he’s ready to take the next step.
“I’ve had a really good pre-season. My running has really improved and having only played around 65% in games through the NAB Cup, I’m really fresh coming into the year. I’m hoping for more midfield time but it’s got to come from a number of us.”
You can follow Allen Christensen on Twitter here.
