Ben Allan

Nevertheless, a dispirited playing group stayed reasonably competitive in many of the remaining games of the season. Allan's two victories were both notable: the first was in Round 18 against Hawthorn at Colonial Stadium, which broke an 18-match, 370-day losing series of matches (and, as of 2016, remains the last time Fremantle has defeated Hawthorn outside of Western Australia), and the second was in the final match of the season against Adelaide. The joyous spirit of this game, played in front of a smallish but passionate crowd in night rain at Subiaco Oval, was rejuvenating for the club and its supporters after the gloom of the Damien Drum years. The new optimism was built on with the appointment of the new coach for 2002, Chris Connolly, and the exciting victories and growing crowds that and the subsequent years brought.

In March 2012, Allan was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame. He is the first former Fremantle player to be inducted.

Allan has had an active media career in print, on radio and on TV, including The West Australian, ABC Radio, 6PR, SEN and the now defunct Fox Footy Channel. Outside of football he has become a successful businessman in the Margaret River wine industry. In 2005 he was elected to the Members position on the board of the Fremantle Football Club. He will hold that position for 2 years before all Fremantle Season Ticket holding members over 18 years vote again.

Ironically, three years later Allan was called on as care-taker to replace Drum, sacked after the team's 10th consecutive loss, a diabolical performance against the Sydney Swans at the Sydney Cricket Ground in round 9, 2001. Despite his role three years previously as assistant coach, Allan did not view the appointment as leading to a permanent position. On being made coach, he told the media:

Allan stayed at the club as an assistant coach in 1998. When it became clear Gerard Neesham would not coach Fremantle in 1999, Allan tendered his resignation pending the appointment of a replacement. When interviewed by new head coach Damian Drum, he was told no position would be available. His disappointment was obvious, telling the media

He played all 22 games in 1995 and finished 3rd in the best and fairest award. However injuries took their toll in 1996, restricting him to only 8 games for the year. In 1997 he relinquished the captaincy to Peter Mann and managed to play 17 games. However, a degenerative knee condition caused Allan to retire from football at the end of the 1997 season. He had played 145 AFL games in total, along with 66 for Claremont and 6 state games, earning him a position in the WA Football Two Hundred Club.

He played as a rover (or follower). He was a premiership player with Claremont in the WAFL before be drafted to the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League where he played 98 games and won their best and fairest in 1991 as well as a premiership. He was an All Australian player in 1993 and 1994.

Benjamin Thomas Allan (born 15 October 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was educated at Aquinas College, Perth