Mark O'Connor is perhaps one of the more unlikely players to be the subject of hot debate in grand final week, but his job on Josh Weddle last week and Cam Rayner in the previous meeting between today's combatants makes his role vitally important to the outcome. Does Chris Scott go ultra-defensive again, hoping that Chris Fagan has no answer to a negative gamestyle? It has worked for the Cats most of the year - Scott even had two tags running against lowly Essendon - so there is every likelihood that O'Connor, Mullin and Blicavs will all play stopping roles today.
Mark O'Connor is perhaps one of the more unlikely players to be the subject of hot debate in grand final week, but his job on Josh Weddle last week and Cam Rayner in the previous meeting between today's combatants makes his role vitally important to the outcome. Does Chris Scott go ultra-defensive again, hoping that Chris Fagan has no answer to a negative gamestyle? It has worked for the Cats most of the year - Scott even had two tags running against lowly Essendon - so there is every likelihood that O'Connor, Mullin and Blicavs will all play stopping roles today.
MOC is for real, to be sure
It was a clear yet surprising case of third-year breakout for Mark O'Connor who came from nowhere to establish himself across the Cats' half-back line. With 14 touches and five grabs per game while keeping attackers in check, the County Kerry recruit did enough to keep Jed Bews waiting in the wings. O'Connor will be hopeful of adding more of an offensive side to his gameplay in 2020, in which case he'll be poised to join Tom Stewart as an important rebounder. Improvement looms but not enough to justify a starting position just yet. Let him slide but keep an eye out for surprises in his early-season form.
Merrick and cross, oh
Selected for the last four games of Geelong's season including the final, Mark O'Connor still hasn't broken the 15-disposal mark across seven senior appearances. O'Connor is still on the fringes of selection. Irish lads usually take a few years to learn the ropes and show us what their ceiling is, so there's still hope there, but his floor is way too low for draft consideration.
Tasting tray for O'Connor
After only four VFL games, Mark O'Connor was thrown into the AFL deep end for two more with disposal counts of nine and 12, before returning to the twos to play out the year. He scored a fantasy ton in his last match. There have been some excellent success stories from the Irish contingent in recent years, but if O'Connor wants to follow in the footsteps most recently trodden by Conor McKenna, he'll need more development time.
