Headlines....

08/04/09 - From Chris Pike of Sportal.com.au –While the Hurricanes' inside centre Ma'a Nonu has an almost 20kg weight advantage over James O'Connor, Mitchell is backing him and the rest of the Force team to carry out their plans against a dangerous Hurricanes team."Ma'a is a big guy, an excellent carrier of the ball and I'm well aware of that, but that's their strengths. We are focusing on our strengths and where we can expose them. They are a huge threat, are a very attack focused football team and have the ability to open you up like a can of worms," he said.

Yeah, and in that analogy, O’Connor is the can opener.

Don’t get me wrong, O’Connor is the most talented, intuitive, toughest, kid I have ever seen play professional rugby.

But he’s still a kid.

Ma’a Nonu (it’s scary just to write that) is a man. He’s a man among men. Sure, O’Connor will slice and dice like a pair of scissors but Nonu will crush him like a rock at some point this weekend. His money bicep (his right), is the same width as both of O’Connor’s arms put together. This is the biggest rugby mismatch since the Reds played anybody.

You can’t tell me he isn’t licking his lips at the prospect of hitting a short ball straight at O’Connor. It wouldn’t surprise me if he tattooed messages on his thighs the same way Americans wrote messages on their bombs during Vietnam.

It’s like when LeBron or Vince Carter dunk over a rookie. They don’t have to, but they do because they want to send a message. We could be witnessing rugby’s first official posterizing.

So props to John Mitchell for believing in O’Connor. I can see him shaking his hand in the locker room before the game with the same facial expression Kevin had when Stifler sculled his “pale ale”.

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But seriously, if O’Connor takes a beating and still has another stellar performance, we are in unchartered territory. How high is his ceiling? Does he even have one?

Behind Matt Giteau and George Smith, he probably has the highest trade value (if there were such a thing) among any player in Australia. He may even be higher then Smith.

If you were going to re-draft the four Australian franchises tomorrow, he would be a top 4 pick because he would form the foundation of a teams future. The same way the bulldogs are building around Sonny-Bill….oh, wait, that’s not a good example.

I would rank the top ten guys as having the most trade value, as following:

(I took into account: age; leadership; skill; marketability; ceiling; intangibles)

1. Matt Giteau (He would be zero if it didn’t always look like someone pissed in his hair.)
2. George Smith (He needs a name like “the General” or something. Unfortunately, because of his age this is probably his first, and last, year this high.)
3. James O’Connor (For next season I would recommend he grow some facial hair and change his name to Jim O’Connor.)
4. Stirling Mortlock (Will probably project in the 8-10 range next year because of his age.)
5. Lachlen Turner (Just gets the nod over Mitchell because of his age.)
6. Drew Mitchell
7. Berrick Barnes (He would be a much bigger star if he played on any other team and in the right position. That would be flyhalf.)
8. Nathan Sharp (Getting old, and he’s unmarketable because his head looks like a penis when he isn’t wearing headgear. And that’s not a “he’s a dickhead for leaving the Reds” joke either. I’m serious. I watched him for years at the Reds. Trust me, its just weird.)
9. David Pocock (The David Stagg of the S14)
10. Josh Holmes (Makes the list for no other reason then his swagger at the 2006 U19 World Cup. Put it this way, if you put him in a room with players 3, 5, and 9 on this list, he is the top dog.)

Twitter, email, if you disagree.

Brisbane Sports Fan.