The 20-year-old crumbing forward has made the most of a healthier body and chances to play a significant, yet unheralded role for Terang Mortlake this season.

While key forwards Josh Baxter (54 goals) and Stephen Staunton (31 goals) are regarded as the Bloods major avenues to goal, O’Connor is third in the club’s goalkicking with 19.

“I’m really happy with my year, it’s a real turnaround from last year,” he said in the build up to today’s qualifying final against South Warrnambool at Mortlake’s D.C. Farran Oval. O’Connor grew up playing with Kolora-Noorat and after being a member of the Power’s unsuccessful 2008 Warrnambool and District league grand final team, he moved across to Terang Mortlake.

“I just wanted to have a crack at Hampden league to see if I would make it,” he said.

“I thought the time was right to move on. A lot of my mates were playing at Terang and the Power was a lot of older blokes.”

But he injured a hamstring in the pre-season. He recovered and was named in the seniors in round one but aggravated the injury twice before helping Terang Mortlake win the reserves flag.

O’Connor, a Ballarat University student, said he had worried about not getting an opportunity to play seniors.

“When Damian (O’Connor) got appointed as coach he said they were looking for a small forward who could kick goals. But I was a bit worried I would struggle to get a game. It’s a long way to travel from Ballarat to play reserves but it has worked out OK.

“I’m a lot fitter than last year and I’ve had a bit more opportunity to play through the midfield. Playing in a forward pocket is one of the toughest positions to play because you don’t get much of the ball and it’s easy to lose your confidence if it is not coming down there much.

“But with Damian, I’ve had a couple of bad games and he has backed me in and then your confidence grows.”

He said that belief ran through the team, especially when it lost three out of four games leading into last week’s final home-and-away match when it upset in-form Koroit.