Jamesie O’Connor: Taking Sky to another level

Well before last Saturday Jamesie O’Connor was a Sky Sports man.

You could hardly describe him as a couch potato — let’s face it, he didn’t just look good in that famous blue suit, he made the suit look good; 10 years after his inter-county retirement he looked like he could still play — but if you were to ask him, his ideal way to spend a winter Sunday afternoon would be to plop up on the sofa and watch three NFL games one after the other into the early hours.

Test cricket intrigues him too. And college basketball. And rugby league. Years ago he’d get up on a Saturday morning to specifically watch NRL action from Australia and see an Irish guy called Brian Carney playing for the Newcastle Knights. He’ll still watch the sport’s State of Origin series where New South Wales and Queensland fight it out over three games, a rivalry and event he describes “as intense as any sports event in the world”.