Aidan O'Connor's burgeoning cricket career has taken its next step, named player of the tournament at the under-19 national championships.
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The 17-year-old all-rounder earned the Brian Taber Medal by scoring 261 runs at 52.2, taking seven wickets at 28.1 and being involved in two run-outs.
"I was obviously pretty shocked when it first came out but I felt like we had a pretty good carnival as a team, winning a few games obviously helped along the way," he said.
"We were probably pretty stiff not to win one or two more along the way.
"With the ball I was pretty dirty on myself for a couple of days there but with the bat, I had some clear plans and just tried to go out there and play my role and what the coaches wanted."
The George Town and Riverside product opened the tournament with a 63-ball century, scoring an unbeaten 114 off 70 against ACT.
"[Starting the tournament well] was definitely something I set out to do the morning of, leading into the tournament I wanted to start off with a bit of a bang and get the team away," he said.
He backed it up with 71 off 80 balls against grand finalists Queensland and finished with 54 off 49 and 3-47 against Northern Territory.
The player of the year honour strengthens O'Connor's chances of being included in Australia's Under-19 World Cup squad.
The tournament takes place in South Africa across January and February, with Jarrod Freeman the last Tasmanian-born player to take part in the event in 2018.
"I'm just honoured to be where I am at the moment and then if anything else comes up, then I will take it as it comes," O'Connor said.
"But I'll definitely be honoured if something was to come up."
The Launceston Grammar School student had been in superb form coming into the tournament, having scored a half-century for Tasmania's second XI alongside several hard-hitting knocks for Riverside.
"[Recently] I've just been backing my eye and not trying to think about it too much," he said on his approach to batting.
"I've been trusting my technique early to be able to get through the tough periods and then when I get a bad ball, whether that's the first or the 70th ball, just putting it to the boundary."
O'Connor was joined in the team of the tournament by teammate James Scott, who claimed 17 wickets at 14.8.