Geelong young gun Connor O’Sullivan on his first season stuck on the outer and 2025 hopes

Connor O’Sullivan was handed the coveted No.14 guernsey at Geelong. But as other top 2023 draftees turned heads, he was stuck on the outer. However, it looks like it will be a different story in his second year.

Connor O’Sullivan spent almost his entire debut season in the VFL as many of his highly touted peers from the 2023 draft class shone brightly in the AFL.

The exciting top 10 from the 2023 draft – headlined by No.1 pick Harley Reid – averaged 13.5 appearances in 2024, with Adelaide’s Dan Curtin (seven matches) and Ethan Read (four) the only players who didn’t pass the 10-game barrier.

Taken with the very next selection after that group at pick 11, O’Sullivan, had a solid AFL debut in round five against North Melbourne but was forced to bide his time in the VFL for the rest of the season — where he averaged 16 disposals, six intercepts and six marks across 18 games.

Connor O'Sullivan in the circle after his first game. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

An athletic 198 centimetre key defender with a huge tank — finishing eighth in the 2km time trial at the draft combine with a time of 6mins 11 seconds — O’Sullivan trained all over the ground in his first pre-season at Geelong and was thrown around a bit in the VFL too.

O’Sullivan loved his time developing in the VFL but conceded his first season was challenging at times as the likes of Jack Henry, Jake Kolodjashnij and Sam De Koning made it difficult to break in.

The Albury product had some frank conversations about what he needed to improve to stake his claim, namely his speed and slender frame.

O'Sullivan was stuck in the VFL in his first season. Picture: Rob Lawson/AFL Photos

“I think obviously coming in you’re pretty eager to just get in and play as many games as possible,” O’Sullivan told this masthead.

“Obviously I was still lucky enough to debut, which was an amazing experience. But for me, with chatting with the coaches and stuff, they were really open and honest about things that I had to work on, and I was completely okay with that.

“So both last year and this year, it’s just continuing to work on those things – particularly being my size, power, all that sort of stuff.

“Obviously as a key defender you have to play on very mature and strong bodies. So for me it’s just about continuing to work on sort of the areas that I have to improve on as well as continuing to develop my strengths to make them sort of AFL ready.

“For me it’s obviously always a little bit tough but since I’ve enjoyed playing VFL so much, it’s made it a lot easier.”

Connor O'Sullivan with Joel Selwood after being drafted to the Cats in 2023. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The wraps are big on O’Sullivan — that much was clear when he received the coveted No.14 guernsey by legend Joel Selwood on draft night.

Geelong forward Gryan Miers said flippantly this time last year that O’Sullivan was the kind of player he would sign up on a 10-year deal.

Settling into a key defensive post this pre-season, the position that saw him earn U18 All-Australian honours alongside Allies teammates Colby McKercher and Ryley Sanders, O’Sullivan has caught the eye of teammates and trackwatchers.

At one gruelling pre-Christmas session, a player remarked, “F--- you Sully!”, as he blitzed his teammates in a running drill.

Breakout halfback Lawson Humphries saw his professional standards first-hand on a trip to his native Western Australia with O’Sullivan, and fellow 2023 draftees George Stevens and Mitch Edwards.

Having played alongside O’Sullivan the first half of the VFL season, Humphries is excited by O’Sullivan’s potential – and his athletic make-up.

Connor O'Sullivan has impressed his teammates this pre-season. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

“’Sully’ is a beautiful athlete, without sounding a bit weird,” Humphries said with a laugh.

“He’s a gun, he lives for the pre-season. He’s built unbelievably, he is going to be a good player for us. I think he’s really exciting. Of course he has such a good voice.

“I loved playing with him last year in the VFL, he always instilled me with a lot of confidence being up the ground, directing me from behind.

“So hopefully he can just continue doing that and I’m sure he will play AFL this year if he just plays his role. And he’s a good person around the club, so he’s going to have a good year I think – whether that’s AFL or VFL.”

O’Sullivan is flattered by this kind of praise and while he knows where he sits in the pecking order, the Albury product will be pushing for an opening round berth and for as much senior opportunity in 2025.

O'Sullivan puts on a spoil. Picture: Rob Lawson/AFL Photos

“Obviously I am very grateful for it. I don’t think anyone has stood out (at training) any more than anyone else, but for me it’s definitely just been, like I said, working on my areas of improvement – my strength and my speed and stuff,” O’Sullivan said.

“The goals is always sort of going to be to put my best foot forward and hopefully play every week. But understanding that that’s not always the reality.

“I’ll always strive for that and want to excel as best I can, but I’ll just be looking to put my best foot forward and whatever happens, ‘Scotty’ is a pretty smart man, so I know he’s going to make the right decision.

“I’m just going to work going to continue to work on what I can improve on and let the rest happen from there.”

O’Sullivan will be tackling a Business – Sports Management bachelor’s degree off the field this year and continuing to soak up as much knowledge from his premiership teammates on the training track – ironically some of the ones keeping him out of the side.

“While I’ve been at Geelong – Jack Henry, Tom Stewart, Mark Blicavs, all those sort of great names stand out to me as people who I’ve tried to sort of imitate and model some of my strengths off,” O’Sullivan said.

“Obviously they’re the professionals and they’ve done it for a long time. So I feel very grateful to be in such a position where I can just learn off them every day at training.”

The humble young talent relished watching his Allies premiership teammates impress at the next level last season, and he hopes to join them more often this season.

“Hopefully get more of an opportunity to play against them, but nonetheless, they’ve been absolutely going amazing and I couldn’t be happier for them,” O’Sullivan said.

Originally published as Geelong young gun Connor O’Sullivan on his first season stuck on the outer and 2025 hopes