Geelong coach Scott praises Mullin’s selfless role: ‘Great persistence and perseverance’

The Mayo man has been in excellent form Down Under. 

MEN AT WORK: Zak Butters of the Power tries to evade Oisin Mullin of the Cats at Adelaide Oval this weekend. Pic: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Geelong coach Chris Scott has hailed Mayo’s Oisín Mullin for his recent man-marking performances on two of the brightest talents in the AFL.

The Cats stormed to a dominant win last weekend, downing Port Adelaide by 76 points. Two Irish players were awesome in the fixture. Mullin was tasked with tagging Port Adelaide star Zak Butters, limited him to 20 disposals and three clearances, his lowest total in both categories for the year.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Scott praised Mullin’s recent form. The former Young Player of the Year also impressed on Collingwood’s Nick Daicos at the start of the month. Daicos is the current favourite for the Brownlow Medal, but Mullin was widely praised for how he limited the hotshot’s influence. Collingwood coach Craig McRae singled the Kilmaine man out for acclaim after that contest.

“So it’s Ois-sheen,” clarified Scott first.

“I thought he really stuck to his role with great persistence and perseverance. But he was playing on a pretty handy player, you talk about those untaggable guys, he might be up there with the Nick Daicos types. We will have to take our time to assess how it went.

“You go into a game thinking, if we can limit them a bit, that would be a good result because you can’t stop them completely. My sense is that Ois did a good job. He certainly did a good job against Daicos a few weeks ago. If he never plays another game, he can go back to Ireland and say, ‘I had pretty good nights on pretty good players.’” 

Kerry’s Mark O'Connor finished with a career-high 28 disposals and a game-high 10 intercept possessions. He was recognised with four coaches' votes.

The AFL Coaches Association’s AFL Champion Player Award is an accolade voted by the 18 coaching panels on a 5,4,3,2,1 basis after each home and away game, acknowledging outstanding effort by an individual player in a season. 

The Dingle man has now received six votes so far this season.