Mark O’Connor was full of praise for his AFL club Geelong after Dingle’s amazing journey ended in All-Ireland glory.

The midfielder was granted permission by the Cats to line out in the latter stages of the Kerry SFC and in their Munster and All-Ireland campaigns during the AFL off-season. Cheered on by three of his Geelong team-mates at Croke Park, O’Connor will return to Australia in the coming days to resume pre-season training as an AFL Premiership and All-Ireland club SFC winner.

“It was a full circle moment for me looking up and seeing the lads, I made sure that I saw them before the game,” he told TG4 after Dingle’s dramatic extra-time victory over St Brigid’s.

“I made a special point of looking up into the crowd before games this year, because they’re the things that I remember”.

He added: “I do want to pay tribute to Geelong, because it didn’t even take much convincing to be honest. I played a few years ago without permission, I probably got in a small bit of trouble for that, but I probably explained to them what the club actually meant to me and they just said: ‘Why didn’t you just ask?’

“I can say here with full confidence I wouldn’t still be in Australia if it wasn’t for Geelong. I love them and I appreciate them massively.”

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