At club level he played with Aghada and was an All-Ireland Championship-winner as a member of the extended panel with the Cork senior football team in 2010.
From his debut, O'Connor became a regular in defence and made a total of 25 championship appearances in a career that ended with him leaving the panel in March 2011.
O'Connor joined the Aghada club at a young age and played in all grade at juvenile and underage levels as a dual player.
[3] He made his first appearance for the Aghada senior football team on 18 May 1997 when he lined out at right corner-back in a 5–05 to 4–07 defeat by Mallow in the 1997 Cork County Championship.
[7] O'Connor joined the Cork senior team under Billy Morgan, and made his first appearance on 17 July 2004 when he came on as a 60th-minute substitute for Owen Sexton in an 0–18 to 0–11 defeat by Fermanagh in the All-Ireland Qualifiers.
[12] After starting Cork's opening game of 2008 Munster Championship on the bench, O'Connor was reinstated to left corner-back for the final and claimed a second winners' medal after the 1–16 to 1–11 victory over Kerry.
[13] After claiming the Division 2 title of the 2009 National League after a defeat of Monaghan in the final, he later won a third Munster Championship medal in five seasons after Cork's 2–06 to 0–11 win over Limerick.
While trying to recover from the amputation, he started experiencing bad back pains, only later to find out that his cancer had spread and further chemotherapy was required.
[2] There were numerous tributes from O'Connor's former teammates, including Conor Counihan and Eoin Cadogan, the Cork County Board and the GAA president John Horan, as well as people from the world of politics and other sports, such as Davy Russell.