While being a Cricket Tasmania-contracted player has always been a dream for Aidan O'Connor, he did not believe it would come this early.
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The 17-year-old all-rounder has signed as a "local rookie" for the 2023-24 season, remaining in Launceston to prioritise his education at Launceston Grammar School.
"To stay in Launceston with my family and grandparents as well as my schoolmates while being a professional cricketer has been one of the best things for me," he said.
"I'm very thankful for Cricket Tasmania for the opportunity to do that.
"This opportunity of getting a contract - even a rookie one - has come sooner than I could've hoped, but I also know that there are no guarantees in sport.
"I'm just going to make the most of the opportunity to learn from the players and coaches in the program, and really hope that I can improve my skills and my game over the next year."
The contract means he will work with high performance coach Alistair Taylor during school periods before joining the Tigers for training blocks - having spent the last two weeks in Hobart.
O'Connor began his cricket journey at George Town under the guidance of Winston Mason, whose son Scott played for Tasmania before dying aged just 28.
"He's played a massive part in my whole career to this point and he's someone that's able to keep me grounded as well," O'Connor said of Mason.
"He's given me everything I need and he's mentored Dad [Michael] as well as he's been through that [being a cricket parent] before."
Mason was a driving force in O'Connor making the move to Riverside Cricket Club, where he debuted for 1st grade aged just 14 in 2020.
He told the talented junior to "go and do something with cricket" and that he has, having graduated to the Greater Northern Raiders program as well as representing Tasmania in under-12s, 13s, 15s, 17s and 19s.
O'Connor described himself as an "extremely competitive cricketer".
"I love to win games of cricket, so that's probably my main objective, to do what I can to make the team win," he said.
"Whatever that is, whether it's taking a catch or making runs, taking wickets, that's why I like to be able to bowl, bat and field - if one doesn't work out, I can do all three, which I love about my cricket."
Tigers head coach Jeff Vaughan said he was excited that the organisation had the opportunity to approach the rookie program differently.
"There is no doubt that skill-wise, he is one of Tasmania's brightest cricketing talents, but he is also very young," Vaughan said.
"We want to give him the opportunity to grow and foster that talent within our program, whilst also remaining at home to complete his schooling and potentially even pursue other interests outside of cricket."
He described being a rookie as "one of the most difficult positions on a contract list".
"As a rookie you are a young player that is relatively new to the elite system, training full-time, with little time to pursue other interests outside of cricket, and a lot of your focus is on eventually earning that contract upgrade and forging a career as a first-class cricketer."
"Generally, you also don't get as many playing opportunities, which we know can be frustrating and can make the whole experience really challenging.
"Hence, we wanted to develop an opportunity specifically for young Tasmanian talents, to fast-track their development as players, get them into our system early, but also not overwhelm or overload them while they're still so young.
"We've just seen with the retirement of Tim Paine how, when managed well, a cricketer can go on to have a career in excess of 20 years. This is something we hope for any of our young Tassie talents, and we believe this model of the rookie program allows them the best opportunity to achieve that."
O'Connor joins fellow George Town products Gabe Bell and Jarrod Freeman as contracted players.
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