Rugby, Australian Football: Who put the fire in O'Meley

IT hit him when he was walking down the tunnel, the Bulldogs trailing 8-4 and a whole second 40 minutes still to play.

For no good reason it just hit Mark O'Meley and he started thinking of his father's cousin somewhere in the stands, a man he later said was like a brother to him growing up in the sticks at Wyee.

"It's strange," O'Meley says.

It was strange because it was the first game Kevin O'Meley had ever seen Mark play, in all his years.

In his days spent fishing and camping, in the days he watched on as Mark's cousin Tony drilled him on the boxing bag hanging from a tree - "tackling practice" - or had him dragging the car tyre behind him, Tony's kids sitting in it and taking the ride.