Sydney Uni American Football Club

Dave Allen has been one of – if not the greatest – club men the Lions have ever had. Now he has played his 200th game for the club.

Dave’s career began at the Lions in 1992, starting his career at outside linebacker.  By 1993, he was a defensive leader and calling the plays in the huddle.  After missing the 1995 season (and a championship!) he then returned in 1996 to top the season tackle count from outside linebacker. In the late 1990s moved to D Line and then in 2000 offensive line, where he has been a starter on one of the most dominant units in football. On the offensive line he has played centre, guard and tackle. The Lions offense has been the dominant offense in NSW since 2003.

An anchor of the offensive line, Dave has paved the way to multiple championships

One of the big highlights of his career is his 2 interception returns for touchdowns – which he will tell you about at length if asked. The best was his return versus UTS in 2005 at Liverpool. Playing DL he dropped back and read screen, stepping in front of the pass and rumbled and rambled 6 yards, running over QB Irrgang in the process of scoring.

In playing his 200th game David holds the Lions career record for games played, which is surely a record for all teams. He has played on 9 Lions State Championship teams in 1992, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

As well as the Lions he has represented NSW in 1997 and 1999 and been a starter on offense on NSW Wolfpack Championship Teams in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010. He started for Australian Outback in the successful European tour of 2009, which included a victory over England – our biggest ever international win.

Representing Australia in 2009, Dave led the team to a win over Great Britain

Coach Stephen Dunne says: ‘It’s an honour to be Dave’s coach and friend. A tremendous footballer. A tremendous sense of humour. He has contributed in so many ways to the Club over 19 seasons. A couple of things stand out to me amongst the many highlights on his playing career. One is that in 2005 after playing OL for Wolfpack in a National Championship Team he missed some of the Lions pre-season. When he turned up the OL was pretty much set so he shifted over to D Line without complaint because that’s what the team needed to do. He had a stellar year that year on D…. and then started the 2005 Championship Game at Centre when Tim Snape broke his ankle in the semi. He did what the team needed, always.
‘The other thing is seeing him come out of the starting unit at training during scrimmage and picking up the water bottles and filling them for the other players. That’s just a small part of Dave’s incredible team spirit.’

From all of us at the Lions: congratulations, Dave.

Dave contemplating life: wondering who he can block next, or antagonise online.