The SUNS not-so-secret prized recruit had a hernia operation recently but re-joined the main group in the second week of the training camp at Arizona and now has the green light to continue at pace when the club resumes training on the Gold Coast this week.
The SUNS football manager Marcus Ashcroft said the club was very pleased with the way O'Meara has progressed in 2012, who is likely to play senior football next year.
However Ashcroft said it was impossible to predict what the exciting talent would achieve in 2013.
"All we can be confident in is we know he is prepared mentally and physically and we know he is itching to get out there to play so what that translates to out there on the field we're not quite sure," Ashcroft told AFL.com.au.
"He is a very level headed young man. I think he has got high expectations of himself but also realistic ones at the same time.
"I think you'll see him going out next year pretty confident in his ability to play senior footy but also realistic that playing AFL footy is a tough caper. He knows that but he is well prepared."
The SUNS claimed the 18-year-old as a 17-year-old in last year's mini-draft, which meant he was not allowed to play senior AFL football in 2012.
O'Meara played games in last year's NAB Cup and then performed well in the NEAFL before undergoing a season ending groin operation midway through the year, with the club keen to ensure he was right to join the start of pre-season training in preparation for 2013.
O'Meara and Adelaide's Brad Crouch were the only two players selected in last year's 17-year-old mini-draft. Both are expected to make their AFL debuts in 2013.
Melbourne chose Jesse Hogan while the SUNS claimed Jack Martin in this year's mini-draft. Hogan and Martin are not eligible to play senior football until 2014.
Ashcroft said the SUNS had been determined to be patient with O'Meara to ensure the foundations were put in place for a long career with the club, and would take the same approach with Martin.
"The overriding philosophy was more of a long-term view so we're always in the mode of developing Jaeger and obviously Jack (Martin) next year to make sure they are both physically developed enough to handle the rigours of AFL the following year," Ashcroft said.
The slightly built Martin is expected to spend more time in the gym this year than O'Meara did in 2012 but the philosophy underpinning his development will be exactly the same as it was for O'Meara.
Ashcroft admitted the club imagined at times early on in 2012 it would be ideal if O'Meara was able to play AFL football immediately but as the season wore on it became clear there were benefits to him being ineligible.
"There was that thought we'd love to see him [play senior football] but I guess as the year went on and we knew how long the year was and what we had seen with the other boys in previous years that it does take a toll when you are not developed," Ashcroft said.
"I think as the year went on we were glad that Jaeger had the year to develop at a lower level and get himself right for this year."
Now the waiting is over and the patient approach has proved right, O'Meara will prepare alongside everyone else with a view to playing in the first round of the NAB Cup game, which happens to fall by coincidence on O'Meara's 19th birthday on February 23.
"[There is] four weeks training between now and Christmas and then come back on the seventh (January 7) and it will be full steam ahead," Ashcroft said.
