West Coast blinsided by captain Oscar Allen’s secret meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell

West Coast have revealed they were not aware captain Oscar Allen had met with former Eagles player and assistant turned Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.

Allen, out of contract at the end of the year, sat down with Mitchell on Monday in Perth — just hours after losing the Western Derby to Fremantle.

The 26-year-old is weighing up his future, with the Hawks and Brisbane tabling “significantly stronger” offers than West Coast, according to 7NEWS Perth’s Ryan Daniels.

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Eagles premiership player Will Schofield described Sam Mitchell’s move on his former club as “a full-blown raid” after he already recruited Tom Barrass last year.

In recent months West Coast have made their own attempt to sway Sydney star Chad Warner, who is considering a move home to WA but could yet re-sign with the Swans.

Their captain Allen meeting with Mitchell, however, has stung West Coast fans — and it blindsided the Eagles.

“It’s obviously news to us that that may have occurred,” chief executive Don Pyke said on SEN.

“But I think we’re working in the world now that’s changed from times gone past. I don’t think it’s unusual for clubs to meet with players, if that is the case.

“Clearly, we’ll keep talking with Oscar about his position at the club. We’d love to obviously keep him here, and we’re working towards that with him and his management.

“That sort of came to bear overnight, I guess, and we’ll work through that as we do with everything.”

AFL great and former Essendon captain Tim Watson said Allen’s meeting with Mitchell had “100 per cent” compromised his leadership at the Eagles.

“Do you think that is an abuse of your captaincy and leadership in any way to be talking to another club about the possibility of moving?” Watson said in a discussion on SEN.

“I want my captain to be totally committed to the cause and to be the captain of the football club, and believing in him that he’s on the journey with me.”

Mitchell successfully lured Tom Barrass over to Hawthorn from West Coast and is now eyeing off Oscar Allen. Credit: AAP

Hawthorn great Luke Hodge said a captain meeting with a rival club was “definitely a non-negotiable” 10 years ago and is still an issue today, even though the game has changed over the past decade.

“It doesn’t send a good look to the rest of the team who are going ‘hang on, if we’re committed and we spoke earlier about leaders sacrificing their game for the benefit of the club’,” the Channel 7 commentator said on SEN.

“If you’re a young person coming in and Allen is asking you to sacrifice your game but then there’s doubt he’s going to be there in 12 months, it does take away the power of what he’s saying.

“It’s interesting, but that’s how our game has evolved. With contracts that have been broken over the last couple of years, contracts don’t mean anything these days.”

Speaking later, Pyke refused to get involved in the debate.

“I’ll probably leave it for others to opinionate their views on whether from a captaincy viewpoint there’s a higher burden of responsibility,” he said.

Pyke claimed the Allen camp was keen to “get a deal done”.

“Oscar wants to be here, and we’d love Oscar to be here,” he said.

“It’s really just down to those terms, and we’ve been in communication with Oscar and his management for a while on that.

“We’re optimistic, but we appreciate that free agency throws up a whole range of things for players to consider, and some of those are clearly beyond our control.”

News of Allen’s meeting with Hawthorn came after criticism over his shift into defence against Fremantle.

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