Eamonn O'Hara retires

[Mano]

http://gaelicplayers.com/home/844-sligo-legend-ohara-announces-retirement-from-county-football

Sligo greatest player of the last 30 years has announced his retirement. Legend of a player who scored the goal who helped to end our Connaught Championship drought in 07. Best of luck in retirement

[rodney trotter]

Very good player for Sligo, strange time to announce he is leaving after it was mentioned yesterday that he wasn't ruling out a return http://www.hoganstand.com/Sligo/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=192162f.Maybe he wasn't selected for the championship panel, didn't play any part in the league due to work reasons.

[tommysmith]

He prob will be back tomorrow 

[Crete Boom]

 Great player who I think might have been discarded by Walsh a little to hastily!

[orangeman]

Top, top player.

Will you ever forget "that" goal in the final in 2007 v Galway ?

[thejuice]

Seems to be a bit pre-mature to be cutting him from the panel.

Great player that was certainly admired in Meath footballing circles. 07 instantly comes to mind when his name comes up.

Great day even for the neutrals.

[Mano]

Seems to be a bit pre-mature to be cutting him from the panel.

Great player that was certainly admired in Meath footballing circles. 07 instantly comes to mind when his name comes up.

Great day even for the neutrals.

Reason he was discarded along with 1 or 2 others was he couldn't commit to training in Nov/Dec. 2 or 3 others didn't make the commitment either during that period either but were welcomed back along with injured players like Kelly. Walsh has defended O'Hara omission saying he couldn't commit which is lies and hypocritical. Its a disgrace the way the manager has handled this and forced 1 of Sligo's greatest players into retirement.

If the panel was extremely strong you could understand the omission however its the weakest squad of players Sligo have had since the early 90's. Won't be long until Walsh himself is finally forced out

[magpie seanie]

Seems to be a bit pre-mature to be cutting him from the panel.

Great player that was certainly admired in Meath footballing circles. 07 instantly comes to mind when his name comes up.

Great day even for the neutrals.

Reason he was discarded along with 1 or 2 others was he couldn't commit to training in Nov/Dec. 2 or 3 others didn't make the commitment either during that period either but were welcomed back along with injured players like Kelly. Walsh has defended O'Hara omission saying he couldn't commit which is lies and hypocritical. Its a disgrace the way the manager has handled this and forced 1 of Sligo's greatest players into retirement.

If the panel was extremely strong you could understand the omission however its the weakest squad of players Sligo have had since the early 90's. Won't be long until Walsh himself is finally forced out

Every word Mano says there is true. It's a complete scandal what Walsh has done to our greatest ever servant. The sooner he is ran from our county, the better. If we had a county board at all he'd be long gone but all we have is a group of clowns and politicians (not mutually exclusive).

On Eamonn's retirement I'm almost lost for words because I'm so keen to pay a fitting tribute. Undoubtedly the greatest Sligo player I've ever witnessed. I've seen him give performances in the face of adversity that would be unbelievable unless you'd seen them. The big days on the national stage will be familiar to all - the goal in 2007, terrorising Tyrone and Armagh in 2002 - but his greatness is from the way he prepared to performing at ridiculous levels with such consistency for so long. I'm really sad I won't see him in a Sligo jersey again. Just last summer he changed the game in the Connacht final against a team that got to the AI Final.

Thanks Eamonn for all the effort and the memories.

[rodney trotter]

Poor form by Walsh, as was said not as if it's a very strong Sligo panel where they could afford to let good players go

[Syferus]

Let's be fair, Big Emmo was a bit player at this stage and even though he managed to make an impact in the Connacht final he did look pretty upright and immobile.

If anyone knows what you need in the middle it's Walsh and he snagged a gem in James Kilkullen (who's going to have a far bigger say in how Sligo's season goes than EO would have) and sadly for such a great servant of Sligo it made O'Hara expendable, even as a bench player.

[Crete Boom]

Seems to be a bit pre-mature to be cutting him from the panel.

Great player that was certainly admired in Meath footballing circles. 07 instantly comes to mind when his name comes up.

Great day even for the neutrals.

Reason he was discarded along with 1 or 2 others was he couldn't commit to training in Nov/Dec. 2 or 3 others didn't make the commitment either during that period either but were welcomed back along with injured players like Kelly. Walsh has defended O'Hara omission saying he couldn't commit which is lies and hypocritical. Its a disgrace the way the manager has handled this and forced 1 of Sligo's greatest players into retirement.

If the panel was extremely strong you could understand the omission however its the weakest squad of players Sligo have had since the early 90's. Won't be long until Walsh himself is finally forced out

Every word Mano says there is true. It's a complete scandal what Walsh has done to our greatest ever servant. The sooner he is ran from our county, the better. If we had a county board at all he'd be long gone but all we have is a group of clowns and politicians (not mutually exclusive).

On Eamonn's retirement I'm almost lost for words because I'm so keen to pay a fitting tribute. Undoubtedly the greatest Sligo player I've ever witnessed. I've seen him give performances in the face of adversity that would be unbelievable unless you'd seen them. The big days on the national stage will be familiar to all - the goal in 2007, terrorising Tyrone and Armagh in 2002 - but his greatness is from the way he prepared to performing at ridiculous levels with such consistency for so long. I'm really sad I won't see him in a Sligo jersey again. Just last summer he changed the game in the Connacht final against a team that got to the AI Final.

Thanks Eamonn for all the effort and the memories.

Jeez why the hell do managers do this especially in an amateur sport defined by county boundaries. It's not as if he can just increase the Sligo playing pool at the click of a finger! If it is just an ego thing there must be a smarter way to assert their authority. It's not just Sligo either with a certain blond genius was moved along in similar fashion by their near neighbours .

p.s. The blond genius isn't from south Mayo

[Hardy]

He was one of those players who'd be a first choice on every team in the country. He had a great warhorse, battling attitude to add to his tremendous skills and bottomless well of energy. A complete player.

[Rossfan]

Best wishes on your retirement Tanman no.2 .
You were a good one but you never had a good word to say about us buckeens.

[SLIGONIAN]

When i think of Eamonn O Hara i think of those ball carrying skills, those scores, those catches, those hits, etc.. he put everything on the line for us, everything, there was no holding back, no fear, no mercy, no respect of the oppositions, he changed our mentality, our hopes and dreams rested on his shoulders. Boy were we lucky he was a Sligoman. I feel blessed to have witnessed him play for us but today i am so sad, this is a travesty, our best player since mickey kerins has been forced into retirement by a manager who in my opinion has disgraced the county in the last 15 months and should be long gone but enough wasted words on him.

I remember Eamonns first championship game in 1994 away to Mayo, he got taken off at ht, in fact i remember him playing against Antrim in 93 league before christmas, there were 3 supporters at that game in total..i have many memories of eamonn, but the main one is surprising, my favourite one is not is his mazy runs against mayo in 2000, or his one man show in 2002 first half against tyrone or armagh, or his awesome goal against galway in 07 which does justice to his skill...my favourite memory of ohara was when i felt most proud of him more than any other day in a sligo jersey, a day of darkness when his heart and desire shone brightly in the face of certain annihilation, i am talking about breffni park 2010, down v sligo, in the second half when most threw in the towel, O Hara was still competing as gamely as ever, still catching, still takling, still running, in the face of certain heavy defeat O Haras effort never dropped, the other 14 had given up long ago, stopped trying but O Hara, no, not acceptable to him, once he has that jersey on his back he gives it everything all the time, even when its toughest, even when its impossible he's still there putting his body on the line, what a hero, for us Sligofans THAT is always enough (pity we still dont get that too often) but it was always guanrteed with him, because hes cares about Sligo and more importantly he shows his love for Sligo every time he wears that jersey, he's lifted my heart so many times, hes always given me hope, now he is gone, thank you, thank you, doesnt even come close to the gratitude i feel for being lucky enough to watch you through the years. U owe Sligo nothing, it would be great for us to give you the send off you deserve and see you in black and white again but a last if not best of luck in all your future endeavours. Sligeach abu....

[5 Sams]

Great player and an even better tan! Seriously I really enjoyed watching him play .........apart from P O'Rourke's last game in charge obviously.