That would not have been so bad had she played well.
But the 22-year-old did not shoot as well as she had hoped or expected, landing just 35 of her 50 attempts during the Steel’s 54-48 loss to the Magic in Dunedin on March 16.
Covid-19 meant the tournament had to be suspended and her redemption had to wait.
The Premiership will restart on Friday and the Steel will play the Tactix the following evening.
O’Connell is looking forward to replacing any angst with a much warmer feeling.
"Personally, it was a bit of a sour note to leave on," she said.
"I felt like I did a lot of good work in the pre-season, so to start the way I did was very disappointing. I definitely don’t think it was a reflection of the work I’d been doing and how I had been feeling going into the competition.
"I’ve had a lot of time to think about that and I guess it has definitely driven me to practise even harder. I can’t wait to, hopefully, restart the way I wanted to start."
O’Connell spent lockdown on her own in Invercargill. She was lucky enough to have a netball hoop at the property.
"It was too short but I managed to make do."
She also ran up and down the driveway a lot and there were parks nearby. But she quickly got bored training on her own.
"It has been nice to get back into the ILT Stadium. We’ve got our own court, so I can just go in outside of team training and practise. It’s been good."
The 1.93m shooter stayed loyal to the Steel when the franchise opted to call in South African shooter Lenize Potgieter last season.
O’Connell had made wonderful progress in 2018 and was influential in the Steel’s title run. She got better as the season went on and was selected in the New Zealand A side and named in the 2018-19 Silver Ferns Development Squad.
But after the introduction of Potgieter in the shooting circle her court time dried up.
From a player development viewpoint, O’Connell would have been better served looking for opportunities elsewhere.
"At the end of the day there is more to life than netball and that is why I chose to stay," she said, adding she had no regrets.
"2018 was huge for me and that is what I aspire to get back to
... I’d love to get back the sort of confidence I had a couple of years ago and progress on from there."
While O’Connell was hard on herself after her last performance, it is worth noting import shooter Kalifa McCollin put up just 12 shots during the game.
The Trinidad and Tobago international will need to carry a heavier load.
