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Gun of a Sun wins Rising Star

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The day before the 2013 Rising Star was crowned it seemed there was only one man in the country that hadn’t declared the winner a foregone conclusion. Less than 24 hours later, he won it.

It’s incredibly rare to find a footballer with Jaeger O’Meara’s football attributes, but perhaps his greatest asset is his attitude.

In many ways, he is already a complete footballer – the 19-year-old kicks beautifully, is strong overhead, has explosive pace, reads the game brilliantly and is an elite decision-maker – but O’Meara is determined not to get ahead of himself.

“I try to keep my head screwed on,” he says.

“I think that’s important.”

The bookies had declared the young Sun a certainty to win the Rising Star leading into the event – offering odds of $1.01 – but even then O’Meara was keeping things in perspective.

“It’d be very humbling to be recognised and to win the Rising Star, but I’m not too worried about it,” O’Meara told aflplayers.com.au, the day before being officially crowned the best young footballer in the competition.

“I’d rather focus on team success than individual accolades; it’s probably a little bonus if I do win it.

It might sound like an old footy cliché, but O’Meara is certainly not afraid to speak his mind and approach football a little differently. While plenty of young footballers talk about how ‘as a 19-year-old, it’s just great to get a kick’, O’Meara places much higher expectations on himself.

For one, he’s already interested in the possibility of becoming a leader at the Suns.

“Obviously I’ve only played one season of AFL footy, but we are a young club and I’d love to lead in some shape or form in the future – hopefully in the near future,” he says.

Young players of his calibre often struggle to deal with the weight of expectation, but O’Meara already seems equipped to manage added responsibility. He’s willing to do whatever he can to ensure Gold Coast becomes a better football club, and isn’t worried by expectations outside the club.

Earlier in the year former Essendon great Tim Watson declared O’Meara has the potential to finish his career as the best midfielder the game has ever seen. How did the 19-year-old kid from Dongara react to that?

“I didn’t worry about it too much,” O’Meara recalls.

“It didn’t play on my mind at all. I actually found it a little bit humorous because I’ve only played 22 games of footy” – Jaeger o’meara

“It didn’t play on my mind at all. I actually found it a little bit humorous because I’ve only played 22 games of footy.”

If he is to one day fill that mantle he needs only to look to his captain, Gary Ablett Junior, for guidance. O’Meara says the four-time Leigh Matthews Trophy winner has already had a profound effect on his career.

“What sticks out about Gary is just his professionalism; his willingness to do the right thing 100 per cent of the time. That’s something I’ve taken from him and something I can grasp ahold of and hopefully do myself.”

While acknowledging Ablett is ‘a great teacher’, O’Meara also makes mention of another – more surprising – role model.

“I’ve learnt a lot from Kyal Horsley,” he explains.

“Unfortunately he’s been delisted, but he had to do the hard yards to get drafted, as a 24-year-old, through the rookie draft. I lived with him for a short amount of time and (like Ablett) he just gets the basics right all the time.

“His willingness to do whatever he could to get a senior game of footy – it wasn’t just a given for him. I took that on board and tried to do everything I could to not only get a senior game of footy, but strive to do well if I did get that opportunity.”

That first chance to pull on a Suns jumper came in Round 1 this season, when Gold Coast notched up a gutsy come from behind win over St Kilda at Metricon Stadium.  O’Meara played every game for the remainder of the season – averaging more than 21 possessions, five tackles and three inside 50s per game.

Few players have had such an impact in their first year of AFL, but O’Meara insists he’s got a long way to go before reaching his full potential.

“There are a lot of things I can improve on,” he says.

“I think if you’re not striving to improve, you’re not going to get any better. Every aspect of my game, I need to improve on.”

Improvement is a term that’s been bandied around a lot at Gold Coast in the club’s first two seasons, but O’Meara is confident his side’s efforts will be brought to fruition in 2014. Specifically, the Suns are aiming for finals.

“That’s definitely our aspiration,” O’Meara admits.

“I think we improved this year, and we’ve got a lot of improvement to go. It’s going to take a lot of hard work but hopefully finals isn’t too far away.”

The Suns will venture to Colorado in November for a training camp, but before that O’Meara will finally have time to stop and take a breath.

“It has been a taxing year, but I’ve got a few weeks now where I can freshen up and forget about footy,” he says.

“I’ll go away with a few friends and get back to WA, and spend some time with my family as well, which is important to me.”

It’ll also provide O’Meara with a chance to rest his body, which he admits is in serious need of recuperation.

“I’m pretty buggered,” he says.

“I was starting to struggle in the last few rounds.”

“I think I do need a bit of a rest in the off-season, so I’ll have that rest and then get straight back into it and be raring to go for next year.”

O’Meara is also a strong chance to add to his Ron Evans Medal on Tuesday night when the 2013 Best First Year Player, presented by Be the Influence, is announced.

Coverage of the 2013 Be the Influence AFL Players’ MVP Awards will be live on Fox Footy from 9.30PM.

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