Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nBraith: “Have some balls!” | 01:41<\/p>\n
\u201cWally Lewis is the most competitive person I\u2019ve ever played against. He was the player of my generation,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWally stands out to me because he was just so competitive. I remember the first time I played against him, I was captain of ACT and he was captain of Queensland. We would meet them in the semi-final. As you do in rugby, you run out and go to shake hands with the opposite captain \u2013 he just looked at me and spat on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe referee didn\u2019t do anything and all game, Wally just played over the top of me. He wasn\u2019t interested in anyone else on the field. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019d just passed the ball he\u2019d take me out, he\u2019d tell me what he was going to do with my mother and my sister. I was traumatised after the game, he absolutely gave me a lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you were a threat to Wally on the football field, look out. It was Wally\u2019s way, he was just such a competitor. But he also had great football instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a decorated stint with the Wallabies, O\u2019Connor admitted he was lured to rugby league by its more professional standards at the time, and the opportunity for a regular income.<\/p>\n
Michael O’Connor in action.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
It was a move he believes was the right one for his career, even if those in his close circle \u2013 including even his father at the time \u2013 vehemently disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got an offer from St George and I thought to myself \u2018maybe I should be considering going to rugby league\u2019,\u201d O\u2019Connor remembers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no money in rugby at this point. [St George] offered me $40,000, which back in the early 80s was a lot of money. I was pulling beers at the Paddington Hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father didn\u2019t talk to me for three years. He thought, \u2018you\u2019re going to rugby league \u2013 you\u2019re going to be a deadbeat\u2019. I was never to be spoken about again, sort of thing. Back then, if you went to rugby league there was no way in the world you would ever come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team mates were good, they understood. Chris Roche is a really good mate of mine and in the end he sealed the deal. He said \u2018mate you\u2019re mad if you don\u2019t take that money\u2019. It turned out to be the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unpacking the fallout from Dragons drama | 07:14<\/p>\n
While O\u2019Connor admits it took him a while to find his feet, his stocks soon rose in rugby league, first for St George and then for Manly, where he would go onto secure a premiership in the Winfield Cup.<\/p>\n
Origin and then Test appearances in the Kangaroo jersey would soon follow \u2013 and as O\u2019Connor explained to Sampson, some legendary stories were to emerge from some brutal exchanges on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it was the accomplishment of [representing Australia in both codes] and it was a goal of mine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was a better rugby league player. I played more rugby league, 10 years. I really only had about three or four years of rugby before going into rugby league.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor would eventually return to his roots, working as a selector and in administration to nurture the next generation of Wallabies coming through the system.<\/p>\n
In a serendipitous twist, he would help usher in a wave of rugby league converts to union, including Mat Rogers, Lote Tuquiri and Wendell Sailor.<\/p>\n
Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Wallabies and Australian test legend Michael O\u2019Connor on Fox League at 7:30pm AEST on Tuesday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch Yvonne Sampson go Face to Face with Wallabies and Australian test legend Michael O\u2019Connor on Fox League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-620769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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