Inside Track
O’Hara’s hatchet job on Sligo manager leaves sour taste
THAT was some hatchet job new Sunday Game panellist Eamonn O’Hara did on Kevin Walsh on prime time television on Sunday night. The former long serving Sligo midfielder opened up both barrels in his strident criticism of the current Yeats County boss after their shock Connacht football championship to the exiles of London in Ruislip earlier in the day.
It smacked of settling an old score and O’Hara, who admittedly served his county loyally for 17 years, didn’t hold back in condemning the Sligo manager for his role in their provincial championship exit to London. He had fallen out with Walsh last November over a proposed winter training schedule of four nights a week and was subsequently dropped from the panel when he felt unable to meet those demands. Sunday night, however, saw a clearly embittered O’Hara go way beyond the bounds of fair comment.
He was shooting into an open goal too as The Sunday Game anchor Des Cahill gave O’Hara the perfect opportunity to blow his gasket on Walsh after posing the question why he was no longer involved with Sligo? At 37 years of age, O’Hara’s days in the black jersey were surely numbered anyway, but the manner in which he tore strips – more or less unchallenged – off his former manager made for unsettling TV viewing.
O’Hara claimed that the former Galway midfielder, who was such a pivotal figure, in the county’s last two All-Ireland triumphs in 1989 and ’91, had lost the support of the Sligo players, labelled Walsh’s winter training programme as “crazy” and suggested that the dedication demanded by the Sligo manager at the time was not reciprocated by the Killanin native himself who, O’Hara alleged, had been interested in the vacant Roscommon managerial position.
The former All Star also insisted that Walsh’s standard of training, tactical awareness and selection policy were not up to scratch, while he insisted that the problems in the Sligo County Board had masked the team’s poor results over the past two years. O’Hara said that the manager should resign in the wake of the London defeat and that he would be doing the County Board a favour.
O’Hara wasn’t finished yet: “We got to the Connacht final last year but we’re papering over the cracks. These are players that deserve better quality of training and management, and I think going forward Kevin should make the right decision for the sake of Sligo football and not anyone else. Kevin Walsh made big calls this year and last year – and every one of them has come back to backfire against him. For me, I think he lost the players throughout the year. Kevin Walsh has a lot to answer for.”
There is little doubt that O’Hara remained resentful over being axed by Walsh after being unable to commit to the squad’s early season training schedule and though he may have been entitled to offer some explanation as to why he was no longer lining out for Sligo, he shouldn’t have been given what seemed like five minutes to character assassinate one of the greatest Galway footballers of all-time. To this day, you will often hear the comment that the Tribesmen have never adequately replaced Kevin Walsh in midfield.
To allow a panellist go off on such a personal and spiteful rant does not reflect well on RTE. There are two sides to every story and Walsh was presented with no opportunity to defend himself. It’s his fourth year in charge of Sligo and while, obviously, Sunday’s result against London was a huge disappointment, this was a fixture which had danger written all over it for the visitors. Last year, the exiles ran Leitrim to a point and, in 2011, Mayo were lucky to force extra time before escaping Ruislip with their title hopes still intact.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
SOMETHING very odd happened to Tyrone in the Ulster championship in early April. On their home turf of Healy Park, they were doing nearly everything expected of them when leading Monaghan by five points at half-time. You couldn’t say for definite that the match was done and dusted, but the 2021 All-Ireland champions were in pole position.
You would have expected them to drive on against an honest if limited Monaghan outfit. Instead, Tyrone didn’t score for the opening 16 minutes of the second-half and in an enthralling finale, were left stunned by defender Ryan’s Toole’s stoppage-time goal snatching the honours for the Farney men on a 2-17 to 1-18 scoreline.
A couple of weeks later, Monaghan themselves had exited the Ulster title race when Derry comfortably got the better of them (1-21 to 2-10), leaving us more puzzled than ever by Tyrone’s dramatic decline since overcoming Mayo to claim Sam barely 20 months previously. Last year, they crashed out of Ulster by 11 points to Derry and subsequently came up six short against Armagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
Against that background, their recent loss to Monaghan shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. Tyrone may have made a shambolic defence of the All-Ireland title, but there is still a lot of quality in their ranks. They have an adventurous ‘keeper in Niall Morgan, while the long-serving Peter Harte, Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry, Cathal McShane, Conor Meyler, Mattie Donnelly, and Conn Kilpatrick are all top-class performers when in the mood.
There’s hardly been a word about them for the past six weeks. Tyrone are lying low, desperately trying to rediscover the verve and cohesion which took them all the way in 2021. Their pride is on the line. It makes them dangerous opponents for Galway in the opening round of All-Ireland group matches at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Inside Track with John McIntyre
GALWAY footballers won’t get much credit for their easy victory over Sligo in Sunday’s Connacht Final in Castlebar, but when a team achieves something that hasn’t been done for 20 years, perhaps we should be a little more appreciative of the Tribesmen retaining the JJ Nestor Cup for the first time in two decades.
To be honest, if Galway were to live up to their standing as serious All-Ireland contenders, they needed to be doing a number on Sligo. In this year’s National League, the counties were three divisions apart and though Tony McEntee’s team achieved promotion and were on a nine-match unbeaten run, a serious rise in class faced them at MacHale Park.
Granted, Sligo made a bright start with three points in the opening five minutes from Pat Spillane, Sean Carrabine and the accurate Darragh Cummins, but they would only manage two more by the break despite having the wind behind them. Though wing back Luke Towey was catching the eye with his runs up-field, Galway rarely looked under pressure.
Sligo were bravely committing numbers to the middle third, which meant they were a little light in numbers around their own posts. They couldn’t afford to lose possession coming out of their own half, but that’s what happened in the build up to Galway’s second goal. Damien Comer overturned Cian Lally and from his counter-attack, Matthew Tierney expertly finished to the net at the near post.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
IS the Leinster hurling championship something of a sham compared to its Munster counterpart? Everybody knows who will end up in the provincial final in the east, but nobody knows the two teams who will feature in the ultimate battle for supremacy down south.
All-Ireland champions Limerick aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the province, never mind reach the Munster final, after their narrow loss to Clare in Saturday evening’s epic at the Gaelic Grounds. Everything is still on the line for the five counties involved, although Waterford are again under serious pressure after losing their opening two matches.
In Leinster, there is little of that drama. Galway and Kilkenny are miles ahead of the rest; the only thing at stake is whether Dublin or Wexford – they meet in Croke Park on Saturday – will be the third team to emerge for the All-Ireland series. It’s a game which is hard to call. Wexford are going backwards while Dublin look callow as Micheál Donoghue is trying to build the nucleus of a new team.
Though Antrim are improving – they held the Dubs to a draw and only lost to Wexford by four points – the men from the Glens would be out of their depth in Munster; while Westmeath are proving cannon-fodder for everyone else. Since Galway headed east in 2009, they have clashed with Kilkenny in seven Leinster finals and another showdown is inevitable next month.
In contrast, every match in Munster is virtually do-or die. When Clare rolled into Limerick last Saturday, they knew another defeat after losing to Tipperary in the opening round would leave them on the precipice of exiting the championship. There’s a real dog-eat-dog appeal about all the games. In Leinster, there are two big hounds, and the rest are chihuahuas.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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