AFL past makes teen gun O'Connor a mark man
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Greg Growden | August 20, 2009
At 19, James O'Connor is rugby's bright young thing ... but he could have been lost to the sport, reports Greg Growden.
The next Karmichael Hunt perhaps? Australian rugby's young phenomenon, James O'Connor, may be AFL's next code-switch target.
While O'Connor's rugby league and rugby exploits have been widely chronicled, less well known is that he is a more-than-capable AFL footballer who has been picked to represent Queensland at junior level.
When asked if he could be the next Hunt, the Wallabies Test fullback, who lines up against the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday, laughed: ''Well, you just never know.''
The high-flying game was the first football code he attempted, attending a training session on the Gold Coast when he was five. He didn't linger long.
''I wasn't a fan because there was no contact or anything, so I went to the local rugby league club instead,'' O'Connor said.
League dominated for the next decade, including five years living in Auckland, but when he returned to the Gold Coast, AFL bobbed up again.
''When I was at primary school, I played AFL for three years and I ended up making the Queensland representative under-13 team,'' O'Connor said. ''I loved playing rover and forward pocket, and that's where I was able to perfect my kicking game, learning the torpedo and drop punt.
''But in the end, I couldn't play representative AFL because at that time I had to choose between league and AFL, and I went with league. Still, I played in two district tournaments and enjoyed that.''
Rugby union came along three years ago and he grew serious about it when he became a boarder at Nudgee College. He soon earned representative honours, but there were also big setbacks, including at 16 when he became perilously ill.
''I was playing around in the dorms after training. We were involved in a bit of boarders' rugby, which is pretty much hits on, where you run straight at people. I went to shoulder charge someone and got hit the wrong way. I got hit under the ribs and ended up rupturing my spleen, which became a pretty big ordeal for me.
''I didn't leave hospital for two weeks. I thought I had just done my shoulder and cracked a few ribs, and decided to lie down for a little bit, and then see how I felt. But it was too painful and I ended up stumbling up to the house centre to see the nurse, and passed out up there.
''When I woke up I was in an ambulance on my way to hospital full of morphine.''
Unsurprisingly, O'Connor, a lively and self-assured teenager with a telling one-on-one eye contact, pulled through. Once more it showed his enormous will to achieve, to succeed, to be on top.
All those traits have been there from an early age.
''I've always been very competitive. When I was a little kid, the family would go to the local park and we'd have a fun kick-around.
''I've heard some stories about how if I lost I wouldn't leave the park until I had kicked my 10 goals in a row.
''I had to always win every game with my brothers. After school every day, my elder brother Daniel and I would spend an hour in the backyard, just one-on-one rugby. We couldn't stop playing until I had won. And he definitely toughened me up.''
Being tough has been crucial during a topsy-turvy season in which, despite his shining moments, there have been downsides, including struggling against the All Blacks in Auckland and hitting the headlines through his involvement in a team hotel food fight in Canberra.
Bombing at Eden Park woke O'Connor up.
''After that I had a good look at myself and realigned my focus. In that game, it was probably a case of trying to do too much. I wasn't playing the moment and that caught me off guard. Then again, I might have needed that.''
As for the food-throwing incident, O'Connor said: ''It was stupid, a brain explosion and I've learnt my lesson.''
Thankfully, the bravado remains, as does the boyish exuberance, as evidenced by his ready explanation of how he charmed the Queen at Windsor Castle last year on the end-of-season Wallabies tour. O'Connor had to carry the team mascot, a stuffed 'roo called Wally, around Europe. He showed Wally to the Queen.
''She took an interest. I told a little story of how the other players were trying to always steal it and had put a ransom on Wally, and I think she enjoyed that.''
Ever the charmer. All rugby has to do now is fight off the league and AFL scouts.
James O'Connor videoGo to rugbyheaven.com.au
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