THE LAST time Hudson O’Keeffe walked into the Carlton Media studios, he was greeted with polite calls of ‘nice to meet you, Hudson’. He had just walked into Carlton days prior as a train-on, and was then signed a matter of days later.

That was two years ago. Now, he’s heartily met with cries of ‘Skull’. He’s a fan.

“I’m happy with it - I got it maybe a month or so of me being at the Club.

“‘SOS’ started it. It’s after Kerry O’Keeffe, the cricket commentator who’s a very funny man. ‘SOS’ was watching the cricket, sent a message out of nowhere with a photo of Kerry, said ‘Skull’ and tagged me. It just stuck - and I’m pretty happy with it.

“In the early stages, everyone gets nicknames that are either generic like ‘Huddo’, or nicknames that last a couple of days but don’t stick. Ollie got ‘Maps’ for a week, because on his first camp he was on navigation and took them half an hour in the wrong direction and the group were late to recovery. He hated it - ‘Skull’ is a good one.”

Ollie is one of O’Keeffe’s crew, having been in the same draft year as Lachie Cowan, Jaxon Binns and Harry Lemmey. It’s easy to forget that, given it wasn’t until February that both O’Keeffe and Alex Cincotta were signed in February as supplemental selection period recruits.

But while O’Keeffe considers himself part of that intake with players he was up against in his under-18s year, he does regard this as his second pre-season as a Blue - and you can understand why.

“I count this as my second pre-season: I can’t count my first year, I was only here for a few days before I got signed and that was about a week before match sim started.

“I’ve been close with Ollie Hollands and Harry Lemmey since I got here - we’re a tight crew. We were the same draft year, and even though I came in a bit later, it was only a few months difference.

“With ‘Lemm’ also being a key position player and a similar age, we’re always doing gym together and running sessions. Ollie is there for the running sessions and generally takes off - actually, Lemmey takes off as well.”

The focus for O’Keeffe has been a clear one since he walked in the door, as is mostly the case with young rucks: he needed to put on some size.

Walking in the doors in February 2023 at 89 kilograms, O’Keeffe already knew what he had to do - but his first training session only further reinforced that.

“I reckon the first session on my first day was against ‘Pitto’ - I was absolutely nowhere. It was a real wake-up call. That was before I signed and I was pretty down on myself, thinking ‘oh no, I haven’t shown the list management team what they wanted to see’.

“As the years have gone on, I’m getting a bit stronger and nowadays feel like I’m competing better. I’m a lot bigger now, putting on a bit of size since then: It still happens occasionally, but I’m getting thrown around less and less, which is nice!”

The transformation for O’Keeffe this summer has been evident, and it’s no surprise that a number of teammates have shouted out O’Keeffe for the way he has returned to IKON Park.. After putting on five kilos in his opening two years, he jumped another six from the season finishing in September to the players returning in November.

“It’s funny looking back on photos of me early compared to ‘Weiters’ and Harry, my arms were half the size.

“In the off-season, I really honed in on my strength work and my eating. I felt that was a part of my game that I needed to take to the next level to compete.

“We’ve got ‘King’ and ‘Pitto’ who are two very strong individuals, plus there’s the other rucks in the comp as well. I felt that was the part of my game I needed to go after, and I really attacked it during the off-season.”

What’s the term for a collective bunch of rucks at IKON Park, anyway?

“The ‘Kreuz’ Academy! It’s a tight bunch. They’ve been huge for my development, taking me under their wing and giving me pointers.

“Whether it’s in training or we’re competing against each other, they’re always giving me tips to help me improve: I really appreciate what they’ve done for me.”

When you consider the make-up of the students of the Kreuz Academy - and, no less, the group’s namesake - it’s no surprise what dictates a fair chunk of their training.

One of the things O’Keeffe first said when he signed was him being a competitor, and if anything, that’s gone up a few levels since being in the elite environment. Among himself, De Koning and Pittonet, it can get pretty willing.

“We compete so hard all the time that we get each other angry - and we all end up playing and training better off the back of it. It helps, 100 per cent. As a ruck, when I’m playing angry, I play better - and I know the other two are definitely rhetorical same.

“I’ll try and get under their skin during training to get them riled up, and they’ll do the same to me.”

As a young ruck under the tutelage of two established senior players, patience was always going to be crucial for O’Keeffe - as is the case with most developing talls across the competition. It’s been a slow burn, particularly with the time he missed due to a hamstring injury throughout 2024 which delayed what was turning out to be a highly promising VFL campaign for him.

So when the Blues came to him with a two-year contract in the middle of last year, it was affirmation that while it’s a long road, he’s on the right track.

“That was huge for me personally. I wasn’t quite expecting it: to know the Club has belief in me, the coaches have belief and the list management team has the belief that I can go to the next level, it’s huge.

“It’s been important to take those little wins as a developing players. You come in skinny, you’re against bigger bodies getting thrown around and think you’re so far off it. Those small wins are huge - I felt I showed in a few VFL games last year where I can hopefully get to.

“You can’t help but look into the future and I obviously want to debut as soon as possible, but you can’t look too far ahead: another goal of mine this year is to consistently perform at VFL level, to hopefully be that guy now that starts to throw around others. Hopefully that can happen.”