The Western Force will fancy their chances of cracking through for a maiden finals berth next season after convincing star Wallabies back James O'Connor to remain at the Perth-based Super Rugby franchise.

O'Connor is set to stay at the Force for at least one more season, with the deal to be formally announced after he finalises his contract with the Australian Rugby Union.

The 20-year-old's management team has already told the Queensland Reds, ACT Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels that he will not be coming their way, while NSW Waratahs were never in the hunt.

The 12th-placed Force have posted just four wins and two draws from 14 games this season, with their inability to close out a host of tight games costing them any chance of finals action.

But with key forwards David Pocock, Ben McCalman, Matt Hodgson, Nathan Sharpe, Sam Wykes and Salesi Ma'afu locked in for next season, and a backline featuring O'Connor, Brett Sheehan, Cameron Shepherd and Nick Cummins, the Force are well positioned to finally break through for a finals berth in 2012.

In Pocock, Hodgson and McCalman, the Force boast the best backrow in the country.

Sharpe is in career-best form, fellow lock Wykes has come on in leaps and bounds this season and Cummins and Shepherd are proven performers.

But O'Connor provides the X-factor, with his inventive chips, spot-on goalkicking and dazzling runs transforming the Force from an honest group of toilers into a team capable of achieving anything.

O'Connor starred at five-eighth earlier this season and could even take on the key playmaker's role full-time next year if that's his wish.

The fleet-footed back has also been a go-to man with the boot, tallying 164 points from 45 penalties, seven conversions and three tries to sit fourth in the competition for points scored.

It is rumoured O'Connor's new commitment will be for just one year, much like the deal his good friend Quade Cooper negotiated at Queensland earlier this year.

That would free up the pair to join forces in 2013, where they would be a mouthwatering package in either Super Rugby or NRL ranks.

At different times in the past month O'Connor was reportedly ready to join Wallabies teammate Kurtley Beale by signing with the cashed-up Rebels, while the table-topping Reds were also confident of luring him home.

New Brumbies coach Jake White and former Wallabies playmaker Stephen Larkham also pulled out all stops to lure the gifted Gold Coast product to Canberra.

Reds coach Ewen McKenzie admitted on Wednesday morning that O'Connor had notified the Queensland Rugby Union he would not take up their offer.

"I know he won't be at the Reds, but where he's going to be I don't know," he said on announcing the Reds squad to take on the Force in Perth on Saturday night.

"I've been suspicious he wasn't coming our way for some time because it's been dragging on."

O'Connor, who can play almost anywhere in the backline, made his debut for the Force against the Reds aged 17 in 2008 and played his first Test just a year later.

The incumbent Test winger kicked the Wallabies to their first trans-Tasman victory in 11 Tests against the All Blacks last October when he slotted a last-gasp sideline conversion in Hong Kong.

O'Connor has spent the past two weeks receiving treatment on a shoulder/neck injury but is set to return against the Reds.

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