Just seven months and four VFL games into his Aussie rules career, Mark O'Connor will make his senior debut for the Geelong Cats this weekend when he lines out against Essendon at the MCG.
It has been a meteoric rise for the 20-year-old from Dingle who only signed for Geelong in October.
One of the main individuals responsible for identifying Irish talent capable of making the transition to the AFL is O'Connor's fellow Kerryman Tadhg Kennelly.
An Aussie rules veteran and 2009 All-Ireland winner with Kerry, Kennelly is currently the AFL's international talent coordinator.
Speaking to the Fox Footy podcast, Kennelly elaborated on what makes O'Connor - a two-time minor All-Ireland winner - such a special Aussie rules prospect.
He’s able to identify what’s needed right there and then.
It’s hard to quantify it in terms of numbers, but he can run — he’s got really good endurance — and he’s got very good marking ability.
But you can’t quantify that true leadership. He’s got a couple of good leaders at his football club like Joel Selwood. But he’s not too dissimilar to someone like Luke Hodge at centre-half back or in the forward line, to say ‘well this is what’s needed, I can go and do it’.
He’s got a long way to go, but he’s making blokes like us look very poor. We struggled to get a game and now it’s Round 8 and he’s straight in.
It’s an incredible achievement and an incredible story.
The Listowel man added that while O'Connor may appear quiet, he's simply listening, soaking up information and considering it.
He also said that O'Connor has an innate calmness during games.
He’s one of those players with fantastic composure and decision-making under pressure.
Everything around him looks like it’s going in slow motion. He’s very calm and that’s what separated him in the under 18s in Ireland — every time there was a big moment, he was the one that took over the game.
That sort of stuff is very hard to identify from a recruiting perspective, but when you’re actually watching him play live you can clearly see it. He’s got a great temperament to be a professional footballer.
O'Connor was viewed as one of Kerry football's brightest young stars before his move to Australia. His loss was a major blow to the Kingdom. He's not the only prospect Kerry may lose in the future.
On Wednesday night, David Clifford outscored Cork on his own with a performance for the Kerry minors which opened eyes even wider for a player already highly-lauded. There have already been rumours that AFL scouts are keeping on eye on the young man from Fossa.
Kerry's anxiousness about possibly losing Clifford, like they lost O'Connor, has led to some tension bubbling under with Kennelly. Back in November, current Kerry footballer Killian Young, with a slight laugh, told Radio Kerry that perhaps 'we'd be looking to keep Tadhg Kennelly away from us at the moment because he seems to be poaching our players.'
This week, Tomás Ó Sé joked that perhaps a wall should be built to prevent Kennelly luring further Kerry talent to Australia.
Great performance by @Kerry_Official minors tonight.If David Clifford goes to Oz we'll have to build a wall especially for @TadhgKennelly😉
— Tomás Ó Sé (@tomas5ky) May 10, 2017
That suggestion appears to have not been taken well by Kennelly.
Picture credit: Sportsfile
