The thoughts of the Uni Blues community were with former player Geoff Allen and his family over the weekend. “Goober” Allen, a popular player at Blues in the early 90’s, currently serves as Geelong’s club doctor and suffered a dramatic heart attack on Friday night out on Football Park as he watched his beloved Cats undergo their pre-game routine.

Fortunately, Goober was well enough to speak to the media by Monday morning (including an FM breakfast radio appearance) but the weekend was not without its trying moments. The episode unnerved the Geelong players prior to their upset loss to Adelaide and the regard in which Goober is held at the club was evident from the post-match comments made by members of the team. While Geelong coach Mark Thompson described him as “family”, Goober’s nearest and dearest - wife Claudia and children Emma, 15, Georgie, 12, and Sam, 10 - caught a midnight light plane flight on Friday night to be by his side at Adelaide’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The front page of Monday’s Geelong Addy was all about Dr Allen as he sounded a cautionary tale for those experiencing chest pains. He described himself as"stupid" for not seeking treatment after experiencing dull chest pain during the past few weeks. "If people get chest pain, make sure they go and see their doctor, not like the dumb doctor who doesn't go and see anyone.” Super-fit, Goober had actually knocked over a 6 kilometre run only hours before accompanying the Cats onto Football Park.

While the setting meant the incident was accompanied by plenty of media attention, it also may have saved Goober’s life. He suggested to the Addy that without the immediate cardiac resuscitation response of officials (including fellow club doctor Chris Bradshaw) and paramedics and the proximity of a heart defibrillator, the outcome may have been quite different.

"If I'd done it even in the mall or somewhere where there's no defibrillator, by the time an ambulance gets to you it's probably going to be too late or by the time it gets to you, your brain's going to be dead. I was zapped within two minutes, which is hopefully why my brain is OK."

Former Uni Blues teammate James Dunn, whose “Monday’s Expert” column on the website BackPageLead (www.backpagelead.com.au), is required post-weekend reading took up the tale:

Get well Goober!

It was a shock to all who know Geelong club doctor Geoff Allen that he could go down with a heart attack, as he did during the warm-up at AAMI Stadium on Friday night: the 48-year-old Allen is a fitness fanatic, all-round sportsman, my-body-is-a-temple kind of fellow that you would not think a candidate for such a thing at this age.

“Goober” played two reserves Grand Finals with the Cats when we were at Melbourne University, and then played with Werribee in the VFA before joining University Blues in the VAFA, where he was a major contributor to Blues’ re-accession to A Grade in 1994, and subsequent status as perennial contender. Goober just loves football madly, and it was no surprise that he parlayed his involvement as Geelong radio station K-Rock FM’s boundary rider/medical reporter on the Cats into a gig as the club’s number two doctor.

It is a joke among his friends that when a Cat is leaving the field with blood seeping out of his head, and there is great concern in the box and on the bench, as Goober jumps up with his rubber gloves on and his suturing kit at the ready, he is struggling to keep an ear-to-ear grin from his face because he just loves being so closely involved with his beloved Cats. When a Geelong player goes down, he is like a setter in a room where a human is giving the slightest indication of preparing to go outside for a walk.

But he is a consummate professional, shown no better than by the hug Matthew Stokes gave him after the 2007 Grand Final: it was Goober’s work on Stokes’ dislocated kneecap, suffered in the first quarter, that got the Cats forward – who looked finished for the day – back on to the ground. So best wishes to Geoff and Claudia and the kids, and hope to see you bounding up off that Geelong bench again soon, Goober – with that big grin kept well under wraps.

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/union/1957-james-dunn-mondays-expert190710