EAMONN O’HARA CERTAINLY didn’t hold back in his criticism of Sligo manager Kevin Walsh on The Sunday Game last night.
O’Hara recently announced his retirement after a long and storied career with the Yeats County.
But after his county’s shock loss to London in the Connacht championship yesterday, the former Allstar called on Walsh to step down on RTE last night.
In a damning assessment of Sligo football, O’Hara outlined the problems in the county board, Walsh’s results record and the standards of training sessions for the Sligo squad.
Here’s what he had to say:
Kevin Walsh
“I think he will (resign) and I think he should do the county board a favour. Kevin Walsh made big calls this year and last year. Every one of them has come back to backfire against him.
“For me I think he lost the players throughout the year. I think going forward Kevin should make the right decision for the sake of Sligo football and not anybody else.”
O’Hara’s own retirement
“Kevin Walsh came at the start of the year and he decided that he wanted full commitment from everybody from 1 November. He was asking players for commitment and a big commitment at that stage but he hadn’t accepted the Sligo manager role at that stage.
“There were reports he had shown interest in the Roscommon job and he was waiting for that to come through, in terms of would he get it, or would he get an interview.
“For me, he was asking me at 37 years of age to commit to a training regime of four nights a week collective sessions on November 1st, it was crazy as far as I was concerned. Unfortunately work and everything else conspired against me committing to that and I said I would be available from 1 January.
“Kevin made it quite clear throughout the year he was going to stick with the panel of players that trained from 1 November and you have no problem with that. But he opened the door to James Kilcullen, a Mayo man, and rightly so. James is a fantastic footballer and contributed a lot to the league.
“But unfortunately James was playing club football for his club yesterday Ballaghdareen. So he wasn’t first choice midfielder as he was throughout the year.”
Sligo’s Eamon O’Hara.
Pic: INPHO/James Crombie
Training Sessions
“These players deserve an awful lot more, to be honest with you. They have worked very, very hard and they have trained extremely hard. I know that first hand.
“But they deserve better training sessions. They deserve better quality in terms of tactical awareness and stuff like that and that hasn’t come. Kevin Walsh has a lot to answer for.”
County Board
“There are a lot of problems within the county board from the top down. There is a lot of infighting and a lot of resignations at county board level. We have a centre of excellence that is at a standstill. The keys should be handed over on 1 June and that is not going to happen.
“There are a lot of problems there and Kevin Walsh’s results over the last two years have gone unnoticed because of this infighting. He hasn’t been held accountable to this. We got to a Connacht final last year but we’re papering over the cracks.”
Watch the full interview with O’Hara here.
