Steve O'Connor
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Steve O'Connor played 290 games in the
Background
Stephen (Steve) joined Revesby Rovers as a 7-year-old and played representative soccer for Bankstown at 8 years old and in consecutive years up until the age of 15. Steve was then chosen in the New South Wales team at 16 and also played 1st grade for Bankstown the same year. During this time Steve also played representative basketball and had to make a decision on which sport to concentrate on, choosing soccer.
He then joined the Hakoah Club making his 1st grade appearance as a 17-year-old in a team with such players as
International Playing Career
O'Connor represented Australia in the national team with 44 Socceroo appearances.
Coaching career
Australian Institute of Sport
In 1990 Steve was appointed Assistant Coach at the
, Clint Bolten to name a few. During this time he completed the Level 3 Coaching Accreditation and the AIS High Performance Coaching Diploma.Technical Director - New South Wales Soccer Federation
From 1994 to '96 Steve became TD of NSW and started the NTC Development Program and Zone Program concept of which he was Head Coach and included a young Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell.
Head Coach, Australian Institute of Sport 1996-2008
Steve was Head Coach of the AIS Men's Football Program for 12 years. During that time he was assistant coach with the U/17, U/20 and U/23 National Teams at various times and also the U/20 National Coach Between 1996 and 2008 Steve brought into the AIS and further developed
Australia National Under 20 Association Football Team - Young Socceroos 2007 - 2008
Steve took the team to the first round of Asian qualifiers for the Youth World Cup
Technical Director & Youth Coach at Sydney FC
In 2008 Steve resigned from the
"I love helping serious young footballers not only improve their performance but understand what commitment it takes to make it as a professional footballer." The one thing that stands out about all the players mentioned above is not only were they talented but they always wanted to improve and work on their game. Once they understood how, they would constantly evaluate their performance for improvement. The whole process of developing them became very cooperative between the coaching staff and the player. They would set the standards.
Hong Kong Football Association
On 17 April 2012, the
Australian Football Hall of Fame
In 2003, Steve O'Connor was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, which was established in 1999 to pay tribute to Australia's football greats and to recognise exceptional achievements of players, coaches, referees, administrators, and media representatives.
References
- ^ Aussie O'Connor happy to sign on as HKFA technical director Archived 22 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Standard. Wednesday, 18 April 2012.