Jack O’Connor will be following in the footsteps of his family when he returns to Robert’s Park to play for the Harden Red Devils in 2018.

At 25 years of age, Jack O’Connor has returned to Yarrawonga, his family home, Oxton Park the family business and the Harden Red Devils, his family club.
A large number of Jack’s relatives have pulled on the red jumper for the Harden Red Devils over the last 4 decades.
   His father and uncle, his dad’s cousins and his own second cousins. The number heads towards double figures.
Jack will be making his mark on the Devils when he lines up for the club in 2018. Jack grew up around the Harden Red Devils. He watched the Lenehans and the Thurkettles wreak havoc at Robert’s Park in the 90s as a youngster and he spent plenty of time hanging around his favourite players afterwards at the famous Red Devil functions. He grew up playing with the next generation of Fairfield-Smiths, Thurkettles and the current club President Harry Sachs.

Jack completed his high schooling at St Ignatius in Sydney, the same school which has produced the likes of Twin Town legend and Australian Captain Jim Lenehan as well as current Wallaby Jack Dempsey.

After completing his studies he headed for Ireland where he worked at a school and took on a coaching role.

He returned to Sydney and commenced studying Agricultural Economics where he played for Sydney University before making the change to Northern suburbs. Injury then kept him out of the game he loves after making it through his schooling relatively injury free.

He spent the last year in Uganda and was coaching 7s rugby before heading home to the family farm.

Jack said “We never got too pressured to come straight back to the farm after school. After my time in Africa and after talking to my dad and some of my cousins it felt like it was the right time to come home.”

Jack is enjoying his time back on the farm and is quick to praise Greg and Nigel Brown and Brad Cavanough whom he said, “We can learn so much off them as young blokes on the farm.”

Jack is looking forward to Rugby this year and although he played fly-half all the way through school, he said he now prefers the second play maker role or fullback.

“At this stage I’m happy to play where ever the team needs me” he said.

“We are not trying to do anything too dramatic. For me it’s about just getting that first win. The club has a lot of talent but it’s about getting the best possible culture around the club. We are looking to build culture. We want to make it like it used to be. A place to go on a Saturday afternoon. Having a guy like Walshy around and his experience will be really good for the squad.”

Jack joked “John O’Connor will be putting on some snags.”

The Devils will face Grenfell on April 7 before returning to Robert’s Park for their first game the following week.

Welcome back Jack.