North Melbourne’s Finn O’Sullivan is obsessed with success. If the Roos don’t start winning, coach Alastair Clarkson is cooked

Despite an outstanding first season in which he played all but one game, No.2 pick Finn O’Sullivan kept a low profile.

He was one of just six players from the 2024 draft to play more than 20 games but attracted about 5 per cent of the headlines his good friend and No.1 pick Sam Lalor attracted in 11 matches for Richmond.

It suited the country kid from Koroit, who, despite boarding at Xavier College in the final years of secondary school, continues to carry a drawl developed in the small rural town not far from Warrnambool.

Words fall from his mouth with the rhythm of running water as he explains why he fell for the Kangaroos in his first season.

“I feel like this club really suits me as a person. We fly below the radar a bit, so we just go about our business, but not in the spotlight too much,” O’Sullivan said.

That might be about the change as four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson enters the fourth year of his five-year deal with the demand for wins rising after 11 wins in 69 matches since 2023.

O’Sullivan, who barracked for the Hawks as a kid when Clarkson helped turn country kids such as Jordan Lewis, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Hodge and Lance Franklin into superstars, is one of the players who holds the key to the coach’s reign stretching beyond 2027.

He is the youngest of the formidable five players picked inside the top four of their respective drafts, joining Harry Sheezel (pick three, 2022), George Wardlaw (pick four, 2022), Colby McKercher (pick two, 2023), Zane Duursma (pick four, 2023) as the club’s future.

The 19-year-old will push into the midfield in 2026 to show his poise and running power after finding his feet across half-back last season.

It will be another step in his development, but already he is showing signs that he might be special. It’s the reason why the Kangaroos could not pass him up when external noise was loud that they should use their first pick to fill a need for a key position player.

They picked O’Sullivan then traded back into the draft later to add tall defender Matt Whitlock to the list (meaning their first selection in last year’s draft was pick 16) rather than pass up on O’Sullivan.

Kangaroos midfield coach Michael Barlow has worked closely with O’Sullivan after being a development coach last season.

He knows O’Sullivan has the right mix of high cruising speed and endurance for the modern game. Importantly, he also has the attitude needed to lift the team off the bottom rungs of the ladder.

“He is very humble, respectful and hardworking,” Barlow said. “Because of his humility, he is probably naive to what his limit might be. But at the same time, he is so willing to learn, absorb coaching and take feedback and be a good teammate.”

Being a good teammate is important in successful clubs, and O’Sullivan’s words match those who say his nature makes him exactly that.

“I don’t dive too deep into the future or any accolades I want to achieve. For me, it’s just about getting some wins on the board for the club,” O’Sullivan said.

“Once you get the first and second game [on the board], you’d say, ‘what can I do now to make the team better?’

“It’s really cool how quickly it happened for me to want to get wins on the board.”

Wins on the board is a phrase O’Sullivan uses multiple times during our interview, as it’s all that’s on his mind. He enjoyed the Roos’ five wins last season, and now wants to share the same feeling more often with his teammates.

“The connection is very tight. Everyone’s real close mates. Everyone wants to play for each other and get the best out of each other. We just have to show that on the field.” O’Sullivan said. “We have got talent. It’s just more about playing for each other, playing freely and getting the job done.”

O’Sullivan doesn’t carry any of the baggage which comes with being anchored in the bottom three spots on the ladder for the past six seasons. He sees teammates with skill and promise and opportunity, and considers those who have been around for a while as fonts of football knowledge.

Barlow is bullish on O’Sullivan. He says his body is about 60-70 per cent of full maturity, but his running is already elite.

Part of the process to getting better this season will be knowing when to give the ball to his first option and when to use his talent to light up a game.

But only part. He will be encouraged to use his strength, which is his running power.

“It’s something I want to use as a weapon,” O’Sullivan said. “I still have to train it and use it to my advantage because it will hopefully help my team.”

The word “team” is never far away from his lips; a learnt habit that keeps getting reinforced at the house he shares in Yarraville with his older brothers Jack and Paddy and former Bomber Luamon Lual.

Jack is on Carlton’s VFL list and Paddy is kicking around at Uni Blues in the VAFA. In 2022, Finn watched them played in a premiership together at Koroit, the club’s seventh in succession in the Hampden League.

There is no chance of O’Sullivan getting too big for his boots around them. And he is loving the chance to live under the same roof as his siblings again after his years at boarding school.

“[We] have not been living together for a while.[It’s an] unbelievable feeling living with your brothers again,” O’Sullivan said.

At the Kangaroos, he feels as though he is surrounded by a bunch of brothers, who have bonded under the low-key, sometimes avuncular approach of Clarkson, who is spending more time one-on-one with his players this pre-season.

“I feel like he’s a real personable guy, that’s one of his weapons as a coach. When you hear that feedback from him directly, it’s a real uplifter,” O’Sullivan said.

As long as the coach sticks to football. His strike rate when attaching nicknames to players is declining. “He tried something early but like all his nicknames, they don’t stick,” O’Sullivan, who is known as ‘Foss’ for obvious reasons, said.

In O’Sullivan, the Kangaroos have found one, a genuine footballer who grew up around sport, is popular wherever he goes and free of the adornments many crave.

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Barlow realised what mattered most to the 19-year-old when he was part of the North Warrnambool team that beat Koroit in last year’s Hampden League grand final after being runners-up more than once in the previous decade.

“He is humble and down to earth, but you can’t take Koroit out of the boy,” Barlow laughed.

Although O’Sullivan holds a key, he instinctively knows football success relies completely on team and community. It’s in his blood.

“A lot of people just expect it to click, and that’s just not the way it works. Just stick with us, coz, um, yeah, we’re trying our guts out,” he said.

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