IF I COULD BE TWO PLACES AT ONCE I’D PLAY FOR KERRY ALSO
‘Zach Tuohy has been an inspiration to me over here’
ON THE final Sunday of January, as Sean O’Shea and Jason Foley had their first audition for a role in Kerry’s future, the man who captained them to AllIreland minor glory was on the other side of the world, using GAAGo to catch up on what was happening against Donegal in Fitzgerald Stadium.
It was midnight in Victoria when the ball was being thrown up in Killarney and Mark O’Connor was resting up before another week of the gruelling pre-season expected of all AFL players. He wasn’t surprised to see his friends settle seamlessly into senior football. But he had no regrets, either. He never once allowed his mind to wonder what might have happened if he stayed at home.
O’Connor had his own ambitions. His rookie season with Geelong Cats was such a success that he managed to play two AFL games, foundations on which a career in Australia can be built, and he wanted to push on by being part of the team for the opening game of the season against Melbourne Demons.
He was on course to achieving that until going over on his ankle two days before the match. ‘The Friday before the first game, I rolled my ankle. But you have to get over these things pretty quickly because there is another game the following week. You can’t get too down on yourself.’
Having recovered from the ankle injury, the young Dingle native earned his place in the Geelong Cats side who were just edged out by Hawthorn in an Easter Monday thriller. And while he has been sent back to Geelong’s VFL side (second team) in recent weeks, it is simply to learn more about the game. And grow as a player.
‘The coaches have told me a few things. I need to be a bit quicker on the ball and make better decisions in game-time. I am putting the work in and hopefully will be able to work through all of that. I am learning and adapting all the time, and hopefully I am growing as a player, all the time.’
O’Connor’s fortunate in that he has a mentor at the club who knows exactly what he is going through. Zach Tuohy also had to learn a new sport, a world away from his family and friends in Portlaoise. He has been a sounding board for his young teammate from Kerry over the past 18 months or so.
‘I try to pick up different things from different people but obviously it helps that Zach came from the same background. He worked hard at his game to become an established player here. He learnt how to use the ball well. Anything I need to know, he’s there.’
Tuohy will reach a personal milestone today when Geelong face Port Adelaide. He will become the third Irish player to reach 150 AFL games — following Jim Stynes and Tadhg Kennelly. In a dressing-room that contains AFL superstars such as Gary Ablett and Patrick Dangerfield, O’Connor’s greatest inspiration comes from closer to home.
‘He has been a great support to me and has turned into a good friend. Any time I was going through a tough time in trying to learn the game or adjust to it, he was there. Any time I didn’t understand something, I just asked Zach. And the fact that he has had such a successful career over here means he’s an inspiration to any Irish player that comes over. It shows that maybe you can do the same thing.’
Apart from Tuohy, O’Connor has struck up a friendship with Scott Selwood, younger brother of Geelong captain Joel. He brought his team-mate over to Dingle for a couple of weeks last October, pulled him a couple of pints of Guinness in O’Flaherty’s and brought him to a Munster Champions Cup game in Thomond Park. ‘Scott enjoyed it. He says he will be back,’ O’Connor says.
And then there is the batch of Irish youngsters who are trying to follow in Tuohy’s footsteps. Former Derry minor star Conor Glass is making most waves after a fine debut for Hawthorn but there are about 10 lads from home spread across the vast continent who keep in touch over the phone.
‘We try to catch up when we can, but most of the lads are in Melbourne, which is more than an hour from here. We stay in touch on WhatsApp,’ he says. ‘There is a bit of craic on the group.’
Home-sickness, which has crippled prospective careers of other Irish players in the AFL, isn’t an issue for O’Connor. Only once he found himself missing home, when recovering from an ankle injury in the middle of last season, but Geelong did their bit to help him adjust, too, flying his parents and brother over last Easter.
‘That was nice for my parents, it gave them a bit of comfort, because they could see what I was doing here and how I had fitted in.’ They also got to meet the Furphy family (‘Murphy with a F instead of a M,’ O’Connor says. ‘It took me a while to get used to it.’). They are the hosts picked by Geelong to provide digs for him. And their house is a stone throw’s away from the club.
O’Connor displays a maturity beyond his 21 years. Even though he is determined to make it as a professional athlete, he is also using the opportunity in Australia to further his education. Having been a Commerce student in UCC, he enrolled in an Applied Business Management course in the city. ‘I was in second year commerce in UCC when I got this opportunity to come over and I was enjoying the course. When I came here, I wanted an avenue to continue in that line of study.’
The Kerryman is determined to succeed in Australia but he is also preparing a soft landing in case it doesn’t happen for him Down Under.
‘The way I am looking at it, even if didn’t make it here, I will be stronger, fitter and faster. I am learning so much about my own body, just by being a professional sportsperson.
‘I will be better for it overall, that even if I did come home to Kerry, I will be a better footballer and athlete. This was an opportunity to improve myself and to do it while experiencing a new culture, and different way of life.’
And as he kept tabs on his former team-mates like O’Shea and Foley during the National League, did he not yearn to wear the green and gold himself? ‘At some point, I want to come home and play with Kerry. I don’t know when that would be but it’s certainly an ambition of mine.
‘If I could be in two places at once, I would love to be doing both, playing for Kerry and Geelong. But that’s not possible. You never know what the future holds, it is a very cut-throat business over here. But at the moment, it is about trying to be the best I can be in the AFL.’
O’Connor was unusual when making his AFL debut last year in that he was utilised as a wingman. Most Irish players are placed in defence — although O’Connor has been playing as a back in recent VFL games for Geelong.
‘Most Irish lads that come over play as a defender or down at the back, as they call it, which is like the attacking half-back role in
Gaelic. I was used on the wing last year, where you link the play between defenders and forwards, sort of like the role of a midfielder at home,’ says O’Connor, who won two minor AllIrelands, and a couple of Hogan Cups, as a dynamic centre-fielder.
His future may lie in defence, like most Irish players and where Zach Tuohy made his name. Wherever he finds himself, O’Connor is determined to build on the base that was set last year.
‘I haven’t set myself a target of how many games to play this year or anything like that. It is just about making progress, continuing to learn the game and grow as a player.’
An attitude that will serve him well as he looks to follow in the footsteps of Tuohy and those that came before him.