Albury's Jacob Conlan impressed by professionalism of O and M

"Definitely the pre-season was different to what I was used to, three nights a week and everyone rocks up, it's not just the 10 blokes we had up at the Swans in November, here we had 60-odd and then everyone goes to the gym," he explained.

"But it was the video (analysis), they'd video a game every now and then in Griffith, maybe a final, but there were no reviews and no snippets of your own personal game, which is good, I like it."

Conlan signed with Albury after the 2019 season where he'd just won the Riverina Football League goakicking with 66 for his junior club, Griffith Swans.

COVID guaranteed there would be no football last year, but it allowed Conlan and younger brother Lucas to ease into the O and M lifestyle.

"Just the pace of the game, it's so much quicker and you've got players coming from the AFL, both in our team and some others, it's pretty unreal," he offered.

Conlan had played a handful of NEAFL games with Canberra Demons in 2019, but when a former player returned, he was on the outer and returned home, only to play in a second successive losing grand final.

Under the O and M's player points system, the Conlan siblings are four-pointers, which places pressure on them to perform.

And it certainly didn't look good for Jacob when he kicked six straight behinds in the second game against Wangaratta Rovers and went goalless.

"I don't know what that was, it was just one of those days where it wasn't working and once you miss a few, it starts to get in your head," he admitted.

"It's never been a weakness, I'm not elite or anything, but I'd back myself to kick more goals than points, but that was just a rough day in front of the sticks."

Conlan has shown his class in the games since, particularly with a five-goal haul against the miserly Wangaratta defence last week, booting three majors in the first quarter to blow the game open.

He now leads the Doug Strang Medal with 21, although the Tigers and Yarrawonga have played one more game than the other eight teams.

Conlan faces another stern test away to Lavington on Saturday.

Given former O and M rep defender Brant Dickson is out injured, there's every chance another ex-VFL backman in Nick Meredith will oppose the strongly-built 191cm, 95kg Conlan.

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This will be the 21-year-old's first clash against the long-time and fierce rival of the Tigers and the Panthers will be desperate to rebound from a poor performance against the Roos.

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