VFL Past #54: Nick O'Brien - returning to play for Essendon VFL in 2017!

[Knight Ryders]

99% of our players struggle to kick a goal game, let alone 4 games of 30+ disposals in a row with a goal a game.

Sarcasm mate

 

[ManWithNoName]

Why are people acting like he's gotten 10 Brownlow votes in three weeks?

It was one game. Great. If we give every player who plays one good game a new contract we'd be middling for ten years and wi...oh.

One decent game. Cool. Now do it again.

 

[SherbertLemon]

still has a rig that looks like he spends a few nights on the turps

 

[tesla1962]

Exactly.


Name the last Essendon player who last got 30 disposals within his first 10 games?

Not easy, looked at some likely candidates

Misiti 37 in game 6 (27 game 1, 35 game 8, 30 game 10)
Heppell 29 in game 9
Olarenshaw 28 in game 5
Foulds 28 in game 9 (28 was more like 33 back when g foulds started)

 

[efcboy]

Smokin joe in the dreadlocks wearing no.52! Good comparison actually as Misiti wasn't the fittest looking bloke going around but boy he could play.

 

[YEMOC NAYR]

Not easy, looked at some likely candidates

Misiti 37 in game 6 (27 in game 1, 35 game 8, 30 game 10)
Heppell 29 in game 9
Olarenshaw 28 in game 5
Foulds 28 in game 9 (28 more like 33 back when g foulds started)

Wow. Thats a day out...

I'm just happy Nobby is showing something. Ofcorse he should have consistent performances but hes shown something for me to think he can have a future at club.

Looking forward to watching him in this weeks game. He's progressively gotten better statswise, hopefully he can do even better?

 

[efcboy]

Guys like M.Tuck and G.O'Donnell spent a few seasons in the reserves prior to becoming good senior players. There no reason this development scenario shouldn't occur now. Players are drafted at 18 and majority are not physically ready for 2 seasons at least. Different position but it took Podsiadly 10 years in the system of afl/VFL to become a decent senior afl player at the age of 28! Priddis came into afl as a mature age player. If O'Brien had been playing in some other comp and was a new recruit for EFC playing his first year fans would be raving over his 30+ game.

 

[Kakkle]

Sarcasm mate

Put it in Comic Sans!!!!

 

[Howard Moon]

notice his handballs dont spin backwards?

delist.

 

[ManWithNoName]

So is he still the saviour?

 

[yaco55]

So is he still the saviour?

Was he ever the saviour ? He is a player who is battling to stay on an AFL list.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

So is he still the saviour?

That was Smack..

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Impressive young man.....unfortunately not sure we can keep another slow player in mid...

Nick O'Brien toils on under stormy skies

Steep learning curve: Essendon's Nick O'Brien, whose whole career has been played under the cloud of the drugs saga (he didn't take part in the program), and who is finally finding his feet and playing regular senior football. Photo: Jason South

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For someone whose entire AFL career has been played under metaphorically stormy skies, Nick O'Brien is blessed with a bright outlook. "Regardless of whatever happens, you're always going to be the same person with the same values who comes from the same place."

The place O'Brien comes from, the family and friends who moulded him, boast a strength of character that has served him well through four years as an Essendon footballer, with all of the baggage that job description has carried. "It's been one of the biggest learning curves I'll have in my life."


Nick O'Brien marks in front of Nathan Grima of the Kangaroos. Photo: Getty Images

Nick's father, Tim, was one of eight off a Snake Valley sheep farm, near Ballarat. Tim's father, Frank, held opinions as strong as his Catholic faith yet was warm and giving; the door to Nick's grandparents' house was open to all. "I loved that growing up," O'Brien says. "There were always people around."

Nick's mother, Helen, was a Murphy ("very Irish, hence the pasty skin") from Cape Clear. Crossing the Glenelg Highway to marry an O'Brien meant marrying the Carngham Linton Football Netball Club, too. "Grandad was president for years, there's four or five life members from Dad's family," O'Brien says. Club functions were held in Frank and Kathy O'Brien's woolshed.

Carngham Linton won three flags in a row up to 2008, but last weekend had just the second win of a season in which 100-point beltings have been commonplace. Tim coaches the under-18s, Helen is in the canteen or pitching in somewhere, and Nick's three brothers and sister all play.

"I'd really love to find a way to give back to the club," O'Brien says. "You feel guilty that you're not there when the club's going through a tough time."

Frank O'Brien died a couple of years back, and his grandson says family members have wryly pondered that he went at the right time. "The things that have happened the last couple of years around footy and politics, it would have been tough for him."

He loved seeing Brendon Goddard on AFL 360 last week, speaking for teammates whose voice has been largely unheard. "There's a lot of players hurt at the moment from the way we've been treated the past couple of years, the breach of confidentiality," O'Brien says.

Long before he was school captain at Ballarat's St Pat's College, O'Brien was a leader. He thanks his parents for all they taught their five children - to be humble in good times and gracious in bad, to be polite and give people your time, to stand up for what you believe is right.

He'd just walked in the door in late 2011 when the doomed supplements program began. He says he wasn't fully involved in it yet spent much of his second year nervous about whether he'd get an infraction notice. None came; O'Brien isn't one of the infamous "past and present 34". Yet his part - or lack of - in the saga sits uneasily.

"I've got a bit of survivor's guilt, because I wasn't necessarily against what was going on, I didn't put my hand up and say, 'No'. Looking back you try and search for, 'Did I see things that weren't right'? But I never knew any different, I never knew what life inside an AFL football club looked like."

He lives with assistant coach Hayden Skipworth and Skipworth's partner Sarah, and is forever grateful for the support they've given him through a time when everyone at the club has been scarred. "It affects your family. [But] the players have kept their integrity."

So much has happened beyond the players' control, "and that's hard with leadership, when you feel you haven't got control". Yet he feels blessed to have played under Jobe Watson, "the best leader I've seen", and now Dyson Heppell. "He's only a year older than me, to see how far he's come as a leader ..."

He's tried to lead by showing care for his teammates, but admits to feeling like something was missing. "People at the club always told me you don't have to play senior footy to be a leader, but it does add a bit more credibility if you are."

He played five games in his first two seasons then none under Mark Thompson last year. Outsiders assumed "Bomber" didn't rate him; O'Brien regards him as hugely influential in his football life.

"Bomber gave me some all-time greatest sprays last year, was prepared to sit back and go whack a couple of times, put it between my eyes. I loved that, I thrived on that feedback." Thompson told him he was too nice, and needed to put the time into himself that he invested in others. O'Brien says it's made him stronger, more ruthless.

After 49 VFL games he was called up to play Hawthorn in round 13 and strung together seven games in a row. It says something of the Bombers' malaise that after a 21-disposal game against GWS a fortnight ago he was dropped, so missed James Hird's miserable last game as coach. O'Brien had 37 touches in his 50th VFL game, and is back to tackle Gold Coast on Saturday.

He's the first to admit he's not fast, but compensates by reading the game well and using high endurance to get to where the ball is going. He attacks training and games feeling like he belongs.

"The last couple of years I was like, 'I hope I'm good at training today and Hirdy notices me'. Now I know I'm going to give a certain level of performance."

He catches up regularly with an old St Pat's schoolteacher, who tired of hearing "I'm knocking on the door" every time he asked O'Brien how he was going in the VFL. "I kept pretty in-the-moment, I reckon I still am. I was knocking on the door, told myself not to think about whether anyone was inside, just keep it up until someone answers."

He's coming out of contract and is determined to finish the year strongly and put his case. He'd miss the humour if it ended, the thing that's held his teammates together. Like Joe Daniher changing his Facebook account name to Nick O'Brien without realising he faced a 60-day wait before he could change it back.

He gets defensive hearing that the young are disengaged, "because I'm a young person and I'd like to think we are". Promoting the Purple Bombers' "Pride" event on Twitter last week, O'Brien was challenged by a homophobic follower and didn't hold back.

"Someone had contrary views about where gay people sit in our community, I can't really see why they're any different to anyone else." He slept well that night.

Whenever his Essendon days end, he knows he'll have mates for life. He's wondered what it's like playing for a club that hasn't been through what for the Bombers has become an endless norm, yet looks around the locker room and doesn't see a single clique, only a team.

"We'll go our separate ways, but the care those guys have shown to me has been amazing. We're not all best mates, but you can ring anyone anytime and they'll be there for you. That's what I appreciate most."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essend...ormy-skies-20150820-gj4cls.html#ixzz3jV15Sh90
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[Vindicater]

Done.

 

[yaco55]

An ordinary game today - Then again a number of our high possession getters were in the same situation.

 

[YEMOC NAYR]

Gets alot of the ball but really does nothing with it.

 

[Beerfish]

 

[Zach Package]

Impressive young man.....unfortunately not sure we can keep another slow player in mid...

Nick O'Brien toils on under stormy skies





Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essend...ormy-skies-20150820-gj4cls.html#ixzz3jV15Sh90
Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook

Lovely part of the world is Cape Clear, right down to the hilarious inland lighthouse plonked across the road from the pub.

Keeping Nick around wouldn't be the worst thing in the world tbh, yeah he's not fantastic but for depth purposes he's basically all we've got for his position at the moment and at the very least you know he'll apply some selection pressure every week.

 

[eth-dog]

The worst 30 disposal game you're ever likely to see. You could tell that Gold Coast wanted him to have the ball towards the end, always had men in position when he got near it.

 

[Darealrath]

Wouldn't be a against giving him 1 year. We are going to have a lot of turnover and don't want to be taking too many picks past round 3.

 

[Talidorian]

He has fast hands i'll give him that, he needs to lose some puppy fat in the pre season.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Delist.

 

[YEMOC NAYR]

Should be picked up by Ess VFL. He's a handy player there

 

[ant555]

My issue with him is as a replacement midfielder does he offer an upgrade on what we have now. I like the fact he finds the ball, gets in good spots and is an ok inside mid. The issue is the scrappy handballs and kicks and he is a plodder. He is a bit of a poor mans Stanton / Howlett cross as in he gets the ball like Stants, he goes in hard like Howlett but pace and disposal issues make him not much of a great upgrade.

 

[BrunoV]

My issue with him is as a replacement midfielder does he offer an upgrade on what we have now. I like the fact he finds the ball, gets in good spots and is an ok inside mid. The issue is the scrappy handballs and kicks and he is a plodder. He is a bit of a poor mans Stanton / Howlett cross as in he gets the ball like Stants, he goes in hard like Howlett but pace and disposal issues make him not much of a great upgrade.

I see him as a poor man's Heppell.