ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
If fourth-grade suburban rugby league is the sport of kings – Paddy O’Connor is certainly the crown price of the local competition.
Either that or court jester – according to those who play with the swashbuckling 29-year-old prop forward.
Case in point being at a forwards gym and drill session down the Dolphins Leagues Club this morning, says his long-suffering captain and scrum-mate, Mike Redpath.
“We were working on our hand skills this morning because we had a lot of drop ball on Saturday; not good enough,” said Redpath.
“It’s a good activity to warm the boys up before we pump iron. Anyway, so this morning, we’re running a cross drill with two balls. You know what I mean, just those short sharp pop passes, agility building and whatnot,”
“So Paddy gets the ball in from the right then handballs it to his left. Fuck it was funny but it wasn’t the right time for joking around like that. I had to reprimand him for not taking the drill seriously – though it broke my heart to do so. It really threw the bloke who caught it a curveball, regardless. He almost coughed it up.”
Our reporter reached out to the big kahuna for comment – and promptly received a poorly thought out reply.
“Yeah, just thought I’d spice things up. I’m originally from Melbourne and I played Victorian Football as a youth so handballing things comes naturally to me,”
“I even handballed the missus a loaf of bread this morning in the kitchen. She kinda cough laughed and told me not to but I know she was impressed. It’s hard to hide a genuine smile,”
“But oi, yeah but perhaps nah. I’ll probably to it again, I like keeping things interesting by throwing out curveballs such as handpassing a Steeden. Classic.”
More to come.
