THERE WAS A stretch of time, over a decade ago now, when Croke Park must have felt like Mark O’Connor’s personal sporting playground.
It was a place associated with football excellence and the joy at claiming silveware as a teenager.
The unbroken run of success began in April 2014 when Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne lifted the Hogan Cup, and followed up that September when Kerry defeated Donegal to take the All-Ireland minor crown.
2015? Rinse and repeat.
The Hogan Cup retained in April by the West Kerry school, an improbable back-to-back achievement, O’Connor lifting the cup alongside An Ghaeltacht’s Brian Ó Beaglaoich.
September saw O’Connor the leader of the Kerry minors, lifting the Tom Markham Cup as they blitzed Tipperary to complete an All-Ireland two-in-a-row.
With his immense talent and surfing a wave of success, a lengthy Kerry career beckoned. Instead life pushed him down a different sporting road.
Mark O'Connor celebrates with the trophy after the 2015 All-Ireland minor final.
Pobscoil Chorca Dhuibhne's Marc O'Conchuir and Brian O'Beaglaoich lift the trophy after the 2015 Hogan Cup final. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Tomorrow will mark his first time playing in Croke Park since that 2015 minor decider, this time lining out in Dingle colours.
He inked his name on an AFL contract in October 2016, made his debut the following May and a career with the Geelong Cats, bidding for Premiership glory and sampling AFL Grand Finals has dominated his sporting agenda ever since.
Yet while he has been kicking a ball on the other side of the world, that magnetic pull to home in West Kerry has remained.
“A really grounded, humble individual,” says David Geaney, the eldest cousin of that clan, a former Kerry senior and a mainstay in the Dingle attack until 2015.
“He’s gone over and above to continuously come home to play. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, Mark O’Connor’s coming home.’ He’s not coming from Tralee like!
“These are 24 hour flights. I did it once, came home and tried to play a championship game after coming home from Australia, I was on holidays there.
“I was trying to manage the time zones on the way back and stretching on the plane, I came home, I wasn’t worth anything, couldn’t play at all.
“Nothing’s going to stop Mark contributing.”
Why do it and keep committing to these treks across the globe?
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” was the reason offered by Patrick Dangerfield on Friday at an airport in Melbourne as to why he and two Geelong team-mates were flying to Dublin to support O’Connor.
Advertisement
A trio of premiership Cats is jetting off to the other side of the globe to watch a teammate chase a lifelong dream. It's reignited calls for the return of the International Rules Series. @cleary_mitch@7AFLpic.twitter.com/WYmEaLbGb4
Those words could easily be applicable to O’Connor himself. He was pivotal to Dingle breaking free after being imprisoned on the Kerry scene for 77 years. Stayed on for their journey to a dramatic Munster title.
Headed back to Australia for a few weeks of pre-season work in December, before landing back in Dingle on Christmas Eve, and producing a typical mammoth shift around the middle as the staged the semi-final comeback to stun Ballyboden.
It has been a wondrous personal journey and praise came cascading on top of O’Connor in the wake of that epic victory.
“God only knows if we had him the last couple of years we might (not) have had to learn all those lessons,” reflected Paul Geaney.
“It’s huge to have a man of that stature on the middle. He’s just that extra really composed player on the ball. He’s fiercely positive the way he goes about his business.”
Mark O'Connor in action in the last December's Munster senior club final. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
“He’s a massive player for us, it gave the lads a great lift when he did come in,” admitted manager Pádraig Corcoran.
“He’s just a natural leader really,” outlined Niall Geaney.
“An old head on his shoulders. He’s phenomenal and encouraging and he hasn’t lost much of his football in the ten years or so that he’s away.”
The regard in which the Geelong club hold him in, is clear to afford him the time and space to chase this dream.
Back in 2018, O’Connor played a championship game against Austin Stacks, pitched in at full-back to closely watch Kieran Donaghy. He played without clearing it with Geelong first and they weren’t pleased. An understanding was struck after that though, O’Connor explaining why this pursuit was so important to him.
Injuries prevented him from lining out a couple of years during the AFL off-season, but in 2022 he did feature at centre-back when Dingle were caught in injury-time of a semi-final against East Kerry, Paul Murphy booming over the winning point from downtown.
Mark O'Connor in action for Geelong. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Across the end of 2025 and the start of 2026, O’Connor and Dingle have forged the perfect connection, his roots serving him well.
“He comes home and he fits into the group or the community as if he’s never been away,” says David Geaney.
“He’s still very much grounded in the way he was reared. His parents are super people as well and his brothers (John, the head Kerry GAA nutritionist, and David) are great craic and they’ll take him down, if they need to!
“It’s very impressive to keep that connection and keep that love of home, to want to come back.
“I was home over Christmas and I was up in the club field with with my three kids, doing a dual puck around/kick around. As we were leaving, himself and Tom (O’Sullivan) were heading into the gym.
“I did a lap of the town with the kids after and maybe an hour later I was walking past Dylan’s (Geaney) place and the boys are inside having a coffee.
“Mark’s come home from Australia, and that’s probably four hours of a block there straight away that he’s with the boys. Tom has been exceptional as well, he’s such an unassuming young fella. They’re very good to each other as well, they look out for each other.
“Barry Dan (O’Sullivan) is the same. The only reason you’re not seeing Barry in the photos with them as well is because he’s traveling. Matthew (Flaherty), Cathal (Bambury), they’re all very, very tight. You rarely see them without each other.”
Tom O'Sullivan, Cathal Bambury, and Mark O'Connor after the Munster senior club final. Instagram - @markcon17
Instagram - @markcon17
In a strictly football sense, Dingle have desperately needed O’Connor’s input. When Barry Dan’s cruciate snapped while playing for Kerry last May, the county lost a midfield option, the club lost a central component.
O’Connor’s return was invaluable in Kerry when facing dominant midfielders like Mid Kerry’s Liam Smith and Austin Stack’s Joe O’Connor. That trend continued outside the county when the challenges grew bigger and the opponents more powerful, and after being accustomed to Aussie Rules, O’Connor has adjusted.
“Playing around midfield, he’s playing an old game, old style football, and for that reason the rules are not impacting him as much,” says David Geaney.
“The rest of the rules then are suiting him better because the kickouts are going straight up in the air for the most part. Great battles with Brian Hayes and Céin Darcy, they’re two of the top midfielders in the country. So if he’s breaking even with some of these fellas, he’s playing ferociously well.
“He’s not going out there thinking he has to rule the roost here. He’s obviously playing a game that he’s not used to playing, but with every game he’s getting more used to it.
“What he’s done over the last couple of years in the AFL, tagging fellas, it’s outrageous really. We wouldn’t have ever seen him as a man-marker or a defensive kind of a player because you want him on the ball and you want him attacking. He’s such an athletic freak on top of it.”
Jack O'Shea and Mark O'Connor celebrate after Dingle's county senior final win. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Over a decade ago as Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibne were carving a slice of schools football history for themselves, Geaney first noticed O’Connor start to emerge.
“I remember doing the games, the Hogan Cup finals in particular, for TG4 (as an analyst).
“He was just head and shoulders above a lot of fellas on the field. He didn’t play with us in the club championship year (2015). Tom was playing and Cathal was playing, but Mark had a good bit of tendonitis and he was trying to manage all that.
“He came into the panel then after. I remember thinking that he was really special, so composed for such a young fella on the ball. He could glide away from you at the same time. from a near equal start, he could just start pulling away, and it wouldn’t even look like it was pace.
“His talent was unquestionable and more his attitude in particular was unquestionable, that he was going to succeed, whether he went away to Australia or decided to come back and give it a lash with Kerry.”
Perhaps there will be another Kerry chapter written down the line. For now the three-time AFL Grand finalist will return to Croke Park to play in an All-Ireland final, a day after his 29th birthday.
In Dingle, they know they wouldn’t have reached this stage without him.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Dingle's AFL star - 'A really grounded, humble individual. He's gone over and above to come home'
THERE WAS A stretch of time, over a decade ago now, when Croke Park must have felt like Mark O’Connor’s personal sporting playground.
It was a place associated with football excellence and the joy at claiming silveware as a teenager.
The unbroken run of success began in April 2014 when Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne lifted the Hogan Cup, and followed up that September when Kerry defeated Donegal to take the All-Ireland minor crown.
2015? Rinse and repeat.
The Hogan Cup retained in April by the West Kerry school, an improbable back-to-back achievement, O’Connor lifting the cup alongside An Ghaeltacht’s Brian Ó Beaglaoich.
September saw O’Connor the leader of the Kerry minors, lifting the Tom Markham Cup as they blitzed Tipperary to complete an All-Ireland two-in-a-row.
With his immense talent and surfing a wave of success, a lengthy Kerry career beckoned. Instead life pushed him down a different sporting road.
Tomorrow will mark his first time playing in Croke Park since that 2015 minor decider, this time lining out in Dingle colours.
He inked his name on an AFL contract in October 2016, made his debut the following May and a career with the Geelong Cats, bidding for Premiership glory and sampling AFL Grand Finals has dominated his sporting agenda ever since.
Yet while he has been kicking a ball on the other side of the world, that magnetic pull to home in West Kerry has remained.
“A really grounded, humble individual,” says David Geaney, the eldest cousin of that clan, a former Kerry senior and a mainstay in the Dingle attack until 2015.
“He’s gone over and above to continuously come home to play. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, Mark O’Connor’s coming home.’ He’s not coming from Tralee like!
“These are 24 hour flights. I did it once, came home and tried to play a championship game after coming home from Australia, I was on holidays there.
“I was trying to manage the time zones on the way back and stretching on the plane, I came home, I wasn’t worth anything, couldn’t play at all.
“Nothing’s going to stop Mark contributing.”
Why do it and keep committing to these treks across the globe?
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” was the reason offered by Patrick Dangerfield on Friday at an airport in Melbourne as to why he and two Geelong team-mates were flying to Dublin to support O’Connor.
Those words could easily be applicable to O’Connor himself. He was pivotal to Dingle breaking free after being imprisoned on the Kerry scene for 77 years. Stayed on for their journey to a dramatic Munster title.
Headed back to Australia for a few weeks of pre-season work in December, before landing back in Dingle on Christmas Eve, and producing a typical mammoth shift around the middle as the staged the semi-final comeback to stun Ballyboden.
It has been a wondrous personal journey and praise came cascading on top of O’Connor in the wake of that epic victory.
“God only knows if we had him the last couple of years we might (not) have had to learn all those lessons,” reflected Paul Geaney.
“It’s huge to have a man of that stature on the middle. He’s just that extra really composed player on the ball. He’s fiercely positive the way he goes about his business.”
“He’s a massive player for us, it gave the lads a great lift when he did come in,” admitted manager Pádraig Corcoran.
“He’s just a natural leader really,” outlined Niall Geaney.
“An old head on his shoulders. He’s phenomenal and encouraging and he hasn’t lost much of his football in the ten years or so that he’s away.”
The regard in which the Geelong club hold him in, is clear to afford him the time and space to chase this dream.
Back in 2018, O’Connor played a championship game against Austin Stacks, pitched in at full-back to closely watch Kieran Donaghy. He played without clearing it with Geelong first and they weren’t pleased. An understanding was struck after that though, O’Connor explaining why this pursuit was so important to him.
Injuries prevented him from lining out a couple of years during the AFL off-season, but in 2022 he did feature at centre-back when Dingle were caught in injury-time of a semi-final against East Kerry, Paul Murphy booming over the winning point from downtown.
Across the end of 2025 and the start of 2026, O’Connor and Dingle have forged the perfect connection, his roots serving him well.
“He comes home and he fits into the group or the community as if he’s never been away,” says David Geaney.
“He’s still very much grounded in the way he was reared. His parents are super people as well and his brothers (John, the head Kerry GAA nutritionist, and David) are great craic and they’ll take him down, if they need to!
“It’s very impressive to keep that connection and keep that love of home, to want to come back.
“I was home over Christmas and I was up in the club field with with my three kids, doing a dual puck around/kick around. As we were leaving, himself and Tom (O’Sullivan) were heading into the gym.
“I did a lap of the town with the kids after and maybe an hour later I was walking past Dylan’s (Geaney) place and the boys are inside having a coffee.
“Mark’s come home from Australia, and that’s probably four hours of a block there straight away that he’s with the boys. Tom has been exceptional as well, he’s such an unassuming young fella. They’re very good to each other as well, they look out for each other.
“Barry Dan (O’Sullivan) is the same. The only reason you’re not seeing Barry in the photos with them as well is because he’s traveling. Matthew (Flaherty), Cathal (Bambury), they’re all very, very tight. You rarely see them without each other.”
In a strictly football sense, Dingle have desperately needed O’Connor’s input. When Barry Dan’s cruciate snapped while playing for Kerry last May, the county lost a midfield option, the club lost a central component.
O’Connor’s return was invaluable in Kerry when facing dominant midfielders like Mid Kerry’s Liam Smith and Austin Stack’s Joe O’Connor. That trend continued outside the county when the challenges grew bigger and the opponents more powerful, and after being accustomed to Aussie Rules, O’Connor has adjusted.
“Playing around midfield, he’s playing an old game, old style football, and for that reason the rules are not impacting him as much,” says David Geaney.
“The rest of the rules then are suiting him better because the kickouts are going straight up in the air for the most part. Great battles with Brian Hayes and Céin Darcy, they’re two of the top midfielders in the country. So if he’s breaking even with some of these fellas, he’s playing ferociously well.
“He’s not going out there thinking he has to rule the roost here. He’s obviously playing a game that he’s not used to playing, but with every game he’s getting more used to it.
“What he’s done over the last couple of years in the AFL, tagging fellas, it’s outrageous really. We wouldn’t have ever seen him as a man-marker or a defensive kind of a player because you want him on the ball and you want him attacking. He’s such an athletic freak on top of it.”
Over a decade ago as Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibne were carving a slice of schools football history for themselves, Geaney first noticed O’Connor start to emerge.
“I remember doing the games, the Hogan Cup finals in particular, for TG4 (as an analyst).
“He was just head and shoulders above a lot of fellas on the field. He didn’t play with us in the club championship year (2015). Tom was playing and Cathal was playing, but Mark had a good bit of tendonitis and he was trying to manage all that.
“He came into the panel then after. I remember thinking that he was really special, so composed for such a young fella on the ball. He could glide away from you at the same time. from a near equal start, he could just start pulling away, and it wouldn’t even look like it was pace.
“His talent was unquestionable and more his attitude in particular was unquestionable, that he was going to succeed, whether he went away to Australia or decided to come back and give it a lash with Kerry.”
Perhaps there will be another Kerry chapter written down the line. For now the three-time AFL Grand finalist will return to Croke Park to play in an All-Ireland final, a day after his 29th birthday.
In Dingle, they know they wouldn’t have reached this stage without him.
****
Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
All-Ireland club Dingle GAA making his mark Mark O'Connor