The Tamworth teenager will early next year wear NSW colours for the fifth occasion in the space of just a couple of years after earning selection in the under 15s side to contest the indoor nationals.

It will be the 14-year-olds second indoor campaign with NSW. Earlier this year he played a starring role for the for the under 13s side that won gold. He was their top goalscorer for the tournament with 12 goals.

Being bottom age this time round, he didn’t really go into the recent state championships on the Central Coast with any great expectations.

“I was pretty shocked at first. I wasn’t really thinking about making it,” the striker said.

But with 18 goals for the weekend he made a pretty strong case for selection.

“He was very creative up front,” his Tamworth coach Greg Doolan said.

He thought he was probably the best striker at the championships.

The main role of a striker is to score goals and O’Connor has done plenty of that in the past 12 months.

Playing just his second year of grade hockey, he finished the equal highest goalscorer in second grade with 21 goals and topped the third grade count with 38.

On top of that, he was part of the South United side that won the Tamworth second grade premiership and represented NSW at the under 15 outdoor nationals in Sydney.

“It has been a big year,” O’Connor said.

Next year is shaping up to be equally as big, with the indoor nationals at Goulburn in January and potentially the outdoor nationals in April. O’Connor has been named in the under 15s NSW squad. His selection in the Blues side for this years championships followed two years in the under 13s and trips to Darwin (2015) and Perth (2016).

As to whether he likes outdoor or indoor better, O’Connor doesn’t really have a preference. He enjoys playing both, although indoor is probably a bit more fun and social.

Not that he gets too many opportunities to play outside of the state championships or nationals with Tamworth currently not having a local boys or mens competition.

That lack of regular exposure makes his selection even more impressive.

As Doolan commented after the state championships, indoor is a faster and different game, and you can’t take your outdoor skills to indoor.

O’Connor has been playing indoor for about four or five years, and will back up for the Tamworth under 18s at their state championships. It will be a “pretty big step up”, but he will get to play alongside older brother Jamie.