Posted on 26 July, 2010

O’Hea played the majority of his career (175 games) for Nunawading prior to joining the Swinburne Cobras in 2010 while he also spent time playing for the Melbourne Tigers in the Big V. During this time he was a member of the Tigers NBL Team and won two Championships in 2006 and 2008.

With a successful career like O’Hea has enjoyed, it is hard to identify a single highlight, "I’m lucky enough to have a couple of NBL Championship rings which was fantastic, at the same time I wasn’t a huge part of the roster."

"We won a couple of Championships with the Tigers Big V squad, we had a great group of guys in those teams so they were very enjoyable times. Winning a couple of finals games with Nunawading on the road early on in my career and singing the club song after some of those games won’t be easily forgotten. But ideally the career highlight will be in a few weeks time…" he stated. 

Playing 200 games at a senior level in any sport is an achievement, although Matt is probably closer to 350 when you count his Big V and NBL commitments.

He is proud he has been able to reach the milestone and highlights his fortunes of having great coaches and an injury free career.

"The SEABL competition has been fantastic for me and gave me the opportunity to run around for a few seasons in the NBL. I started training with my older brother’s SEABL side while still playing in the junior Friday night rep competition, from there I moved on to a dual role with the VBL (now D-League) and SEABL side, allowing me to get a taste for the main comp while still improving and working on my game in the VBL."

"I think that gradual progression through the ranks that the SEABL competition had in place and continues to develop is fantastic. I had a few years over in the Big V comp which delayed me reaching this milestone but very happy to now be back playing SEABL," he said.

With his 200th game behind him O’Hea is now looking at forward to a successful finals series with the Swinburne Cobras.  With Kilsyth and his former Club Nunawading both leading their respective conferences, the scene is set for a potential Grand Final match up.

"The Spectres are the in form team of the competition at the moment but I’m not thinking about them yet, we’ve got to focus on the East Conference first, get the results there. It’s a great environment to play in down at Kilsyth, we’ve got a great coach, the players are looked after really well, the crowd gets behind us, there’s a real community atmosphere to what’s going on down there so hopefully we can make some things happen come finals time."

O’Hea and the Swinburne Cobras will be back in action this coming Saturday night in Geelong as they attempt to win the SEABL East Conference Minor Premiership and secure a home semi final against Bendigo.