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WHEN most teenagers get involved in a food fight with some mates the worst they can expect is terse words from mum or dad.
For James O'Connor, a few minutes of innocent frivolity ended up back-page news and on TV and radio sports bulletins across the country.
It was a sure sign the Perth lad had arrived on the big stage. The other indication is the six zeroes behind the contract he is just about to sign.
If you have never heard of James O'Connor you should have - and soon will.
He is not just WA's most talented young sportsman, he is one of the world's best and now wealthiest.
When you compare the Western Force and Wallabies rugby phenomenon to the other precocious teenager who has been in the news all week, Eagles ruckman Nic Naitanui - well, there really isn't a comparison.
O'Connor, who turns 19 today, will pick up a cool $1.2million when he signs with the Western Force for the next two years.
Add incentives and product endorsements to that and you're heading towards $2million.
With potential sponsors fighting their way to his door, his earning capacity has few limits. Over a 15-year career he could earn more than $20 million.
Naitanui could earn a little over $100,000 if he plays all the remaining games this AFL season. Over his career he could hope for half of O'Connor's fortune.
Big Nic will draw tens of thousands of fans to Subiaco Oval; O'Connor's face will be on posters on bedrooms in Paris, London, Rome, Buenos Aires and Johannesburg.
If he plays in the 2011 World Cup an international audience of millions will be watching.
While Naitanui will learn to live with the scorn of Fremantle fans, entire nations - particularly two shaky isles to our east - will loathe O'Connor with a passion.
All this makes you forget he is still a teenager, all iPod and computer games.
"We've got an Xbox at home," he told The Sunday Times.
"I'm the house champ at the moment. I haven't been beaten at Rugby '08 ... so if there's any challengers out there ..."
Home is a share house in Perth's western suburbs with a couple of young Force teammates.
Like any other teenager, O'Connor wants to spend time hanging out with mates and getting into his university commerce studies.
"We're a good group," he said. "We tend to do a lot of things together, chilling out at the beach, going to the movies."
Life is still simple, but with his new riches he can afford to invest in some blue-chip Perth real estate and ditch the pizza nights in favour of fine dining.
Two years ago O'Connor was playing for Nudgee College in Brisbane - and not even captain.
At 180cm and then just 80kg he had been rejected by many talent scouts as being too small for rugby and rugby league.
But the fearless tackler and ball runner thinks nothing of colliding with the biggest in his sport - and is quick to point out he now weighs 87kg.
He burst on to the international rugby scene last year as the youngest Super 14 debutant, at 17 years and 303 days, and second youngest player to represent the Wallabies, at 18 years and 126 days.
Western Force coach John Mitchell, who helped snare O'Connor for the WA side, was never in doubt about his raw ability and talent.
"I never questioned his size," Mitchell said. "I was more impressed with his willingness to have a go and the confidence he has in his ability."
Confidence is something never in short supply with O'Connor - on or off the field.
He rapidly became one of the most sought-after commodities on the rugby market - his family background made him eligible for the Wallabies, South Africa and the All Blacks - and his value soared with three tries in his man-of-the match debut performance for the Wallabies against Italy.
On his first tour with Australia last year, baby-faced O'Connor was photographed meeting the Queen at a Buckingham Palace reception for the Wallabies.
He was clutching a stuffed wallaby that the youngest player on tour traditionally must look after - the toy is now safely at his parents' Gold Coast home.
The Force have been desperate to keep him, and the ACT Brumbies, their closest bidding rivals, could not match the big third-party money on offer in the west.
No doubt some of the $1.6million syndicate money left unused by the departing Matt Giteau was a third-party carrot.
O'Connor, nicknamed Rabbit, can expect to earn his signing-on money this way:
- Force salary $110,000.
- Force match fees $50,000.
- ARU top-up salary $100,000-$150,000.
- Test appearances $100,000.Corporate third-party sponsorship $200,000.
Bigger dollars will flow if he can keep a squeaky-clean image and attract the attention of major companies chasing his name for products from sports drinks to clothing, even the brand of sunglasses he wears.
Celebrity agent Max Markson says the big dollars are in store for O'Connor if he can focus on his rugby, keep his boots firmly on the playing field and not get carried away by the huge publicity that surrounds him.
"His focus has to be on playing, training and competing," Mr Markson said.
"That's the key.
"If he can do that, riches will come.
"With the right management there is a lot of potential for someone like him.
"He should be putting together three or four long-term deals, say for three years, each worth $300,000 to $400,000 a year. There's a million dollars off the top to start with.
"There are car companies, sports and retail-clothing companies with a potential to do modelling, personal appearances and a memorabilia contract, and with the World Cup in 2011 there is even more potential."
The pressure is enormous and O'Connor has already attracted headlines of the wrong sort.
The ARU fined him and two other Wallabies, former Force halfback Josh Valentine and Quade Cooper, several thousand dollars for engaging in the food fight at their team hotel during the recent Test series.
Both the ARU and the Force were also unhappy late last year when O'Connor was picked up by police for a minor offence after a Surfers Paradise nightclub incident.
He had already been reprimanded by the Force a couple of months earlier about his behaviour after a party incident and admitted at the time that he was struggling to cope his rapid rise to fame.
He spoke with Wallabies coach Robbie Deans about the food fight and has moved on.
"Everyone makes mistakes," he told The Sunday Times.
"But it's the way you cope with it after. I've had a good look at myself and what I want to do and I've chosen this path to play rugby professionally.
"I don't want to do anything to jeopardise that now. I've got to be more responsible. I'm trying to just focus on my rugby and have a bit of balance in my life as well."
So how does a 19-year-old balance teenage life with the the knowledge he is about to become very wealthy and even more famous?
"I don't really think about things like that at the moment," he said.
"I'm just trying to concentrate on my rugby."
He said coming back to Perth this week was an emotional release from the pressures of his new contract negotiations and the Test series.
Leaving parents Warren and Tina and brothers Jonathan, 17, and Daniel, 21, on the Gold Coast was not easy, but it was softened by two years at boarding school.
"Mum and Dad come to most of my games and I can catch up with them then," he said.
"But, yeah, it can be pretty hard. I do miss them and my mates back home. I get a few late- night phone calls from them telling me what they're up to."
He regrets not being able to watch Jonathan play rugby in his last year at school: "He's pretty good. He's already as big as me. I think he's more of a tackle-breaker, though."
Older brother Daniel has just finished marketing studies at university and is joining O'Connor's management team.
"It's been a whirlwind couple of years," O'Connor said. "I remember my first day walking into RugbyWA and seeing the Giteaus (Matt Giteau) the Crossies (Ryan Cross), the Sharpies (Nathan Sharpe).
"They were guys I had been watching playing rugby for years and looking up to and here I was with them.
"It was an awesome feeling. Now there's no other lifestyle."
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/stor...005401,00.html
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