'Irish off-season' has Mark O'Connor well prepped for AFL campaign

Geelong boss Chris Scott described Oisín Mullin as a "supreme athlete"

Wed, 04 Mar, 2026 - 11:13

PJ Browne

Geelong Cats senior coach Chris Scott said both Mark O'Connor and Oisín Mullin will be in the team for their opening match of the AFL season against the Gold Coast Suns on Friday.

Scott added that O'Connor being a key part of Dingle's run to the All-Ireland club football title means he is in great shape ahead of the new campaign.

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"Mark [O'Connor] might be the best prepared AFL player in the game at the moment, given his Irish off-season," said Scott.

The 49-year-old Scott, who took over at Geelong in 2011, did put 'off-season' in air quotation marks, smiling as he did so. O'Connor, who has played 147 games for Geelong, is heading into his tenth season in the AFL.

Mayo man Mullin has played 43 games for the club since joining them in 2022. His importance is growing each season. He played in 25 games last season, adding to 12 in 2024, and six in 2023. Mullin was involved with Andy Moran's Mayo panel during the AFL off-season, travelling to Portugal for a training camp.

"We like the development of those guys," Scott continued.

"Mark has been around a while so I'll focus on Oisin [Mullin] a little bit more. We see his game evolving from a bit more of a defensive bias, to one where he can really complement the strengths that we have.

"In particular as a running team, he is just a supreme athlete in every sense of the description. He not only has elite speed, but he has got great endurance and power as well.

"It is nice to know we have those options, but I don't think our coaching group is sitting here at the moment pigeonholing the roles that those two are going to play."

Geelong lost last season's Grand Final to the Brisbane Lions, the club which signed rising Kerry star Ben Murphy in November. The Austin Stacks man has suffered an early setback at the club. He is listed on their injury list as having a chest problem with no date set for his return.