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Seán Óg Ó hAilpín in action for Cork against Galway in 2010. INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Being dropped from Cork panel by Denis Walsh in 2010 - Seán Óg book extract

The former Cork hurler writes in his new book about his relationship with ex-boss Denis Walsh, who dropped him off the Rebels squad in 2010.

I’D PLAYED WITH Denis (Walsh) at the very end of his career. But I couldn’t say I knew him.

Denis’s training drills were good – he was definitely more drills-orientated than Gerald (McCarthy) – but the flip side was that training would go on for well over two hours.

Sometimes in training Denis would tog out himself. I thought it was a way of showing off that he still had it. I wasn’t buying that, anyway. Another thing I wasn’t buying was the couple of times he said to me, ‘You know I was finished with Cork when I was your age.’

I took it that he was implying that he had been wronged by the selectors and he should have stayed longer. Or maybe he was dropping me a hint!

One comment from Denis at the start of 2010 certainly didn’t go down well – not with me in any case. While giving a long speech before training, he said: ‘This new squad is a creation of two different teams. One team that went on strike. It mustn’t have been easy taking on the establishment. I have good time for ye.

‘Then you have the other team who played when the strike was on. I have more time for ye. It was harder for ye.’

Still to this day I don’t know what he was trying to achieve by coming out with that. I knew there and then that it was going to be a rough year ahead.

2010 league final v Galway

On the morning of the league final, I woke up at 5 a.m. Setanta was playing for Carlton against Collingwood that morning, and I wanted to watch the game. Setanta scored five goals, and I was delighted I got to see it. But the league final we played later that day is a game I’d want to forget in a hurry. I had a stinker. I was on a very good player, Damien Hayes, who was red hot. I was rightly hauled ashore in the second half.

At the next session Denis pulled me aside and said, ‘You didn’t have a good game and we pulled you off last weekend.’ I said, ‘Look, that’s your call, I didn’t do myself any favours and gave ye no choice.’ Five weeks out from championship, he told me at that training session to get my focus right because I’d be playing against Tipperary no matter what.

My relationship with Denis was never great during the two seasons I played under him. But it would be wrong of me to forget the support he gave me after my League final disaster. It meant a lot at a time when people were writing my obituary as a hurler.

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Seán Óg Ó hAilpín in action against Damien Hayes in 2010
Pic: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

2010 All-Ireland semi-final v Kilkenny

We went up to Dublin the day before and stayed in the Burlington, and Denis said that he had organized a guest speaker to come to talk to us that evening. We looked forward to hearing from guest speakers – it definitely beat listening to Denis rambling on.

Denis said, ‘This man needs no introduction. He coached me and ye all know who he is.’ Billy Morgan walked in. And proceeded to give the greatest speech I’ve ever heard. Without exception. Started off quietly, but he was unbelievably passionate by the finish.

‘They’re writing ye off tomorrow,’ he said. ‘They’re writing off the Rebels. Let me tell you something, lads: no one writes off the Rebels.’

Jimmy Barry-Murphy had spoken excellently in dressing-rooms and before games over the years, but Billy was on a different level altogether that night in the Burlington. We gave him a standing ovation that lasted for thirty seconds if not more. What a man.

After fourteen years playing senior hurling, you develop a pretty good sense of what a particular manager or coach might say before a big match. That was never the case with Denis. He was capable of saying anything, and his speech before the 2010 semi-final was an example.

He started off by talking about a person he knew that had played for Cork. This same player had become very frustrated with being asked to play here, there and everywhere. This frustrated player found himself in an All- Ireland final against Kilkenny.

He had reached the stage where he was so fed up that in an act of frustration he gave away a penalty just before half-time. Kilkenny scored a goal and the rest is history. The frustrated player was taken off in the second half.

A few of us in the room knew which All-Ireland he was referring to. It was the 1992 final. I remember it vividly because I was at the game as a spectator. Denis continued, saying that that same frustrated player who gave away the penalty had waited for a chance to redeem himself.

Unfortunately the chance never came for that player – until today. He’d been waiting nearly twenty years. Wait for it. That frustrated player ‘was me, lads. It was me.’ I don’t know if the hurling gods were punishing us for past sins, but to listen to that was pure punishment. I was thinking, ‘Is this the best you got, mate?’

After Denis’s inspiring entrée, we did cover some technical stuff on Kilkenny, but it was nowhere near enough. It seemed more important to Denis to address what he felt went wrong in his own career.

We got what was coming to us. We were pummelled by Kilkenny and the white flag was up long before the end. Denis took off Aisake at half-time, which I couldn’t believe. Aisake was our only goal-scoring threat.

I could see Aisake fuming over the decision, so I went over to him to calm him down. We were heading out for the second half and when most of the players had exited the dressing room Aisake asked politely, ‘Denis, what’s that about?’ ‘Not the time, Aisake,’ Denis said.

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Aisake Ó hAilpín in action for Cork against Kilkenny in 2010
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

The second half was a hammering. The dressing-room was like a morgue, as you might expect. I was wondering how we were going to bridge the gap – to what was admittedly an exceptional Kilkenny team – when Denis spoke.

He told us the management team was baffled, as they’d done everything they could think of andthey’d left no stone unturned. You can imagine how well that went down with the players. That was 2010 over and done with.

The week after the All-Ireland final, the management called an end-of-year debrief meeting for the entire panel. After the meeting Denis said he’d be conducting one-to-one meetings with us after the conclusion of the local county championship. I started back doing pre-season work in early October, with focus on my troublesome hamstrings. Deccie O’Sullivan was eager to get me started before the panel resumed training in early December.

Showdown

My one-to-one appointment with Denis was on a Saturday morning in mid-October at the Rochestown Park Hotel.

I got to the hotel as Anthony Nash was coming out of his one-on-one and he seemed like someone who hadn’t received good news. I learned later that he’d been told that his position wasn’t secure for the next season.

When I went in, Denis Walsh and Jerry Ryan, one of the selectors, were sitting down. There was a bit of small talk and then Denis got to it: ‘Coming to your position, Seán Óg, management have sat down and looked at your performances over the past year. We feel your performances have slipped downwards. Do we see you having the ability to turn it around for next year? We don’t.

‘We have other people in mind – we’re looking at William Egan, or maybe bringing Shane O’Neill out from the full-back line. We have options. We don’t see you in our plans.

‘This is probably hard for you to hear. You’ve been a great servant, you’ve had a decorated career, your commitment to training has been second to none and you’re still in great condition. I’ll leave you talk now.’

When he’d said I wouldn’t be part of their plans I decided that I wasn’t going to cause an ugly scene or let it develop into a heated argument.

‘Look, Denis, I’ve had a good innings,’ I said. ‘I’d love to stay involved, but if I’m not part of your plans there’s no point in discussing this further.’

He agreed with that. He went on to say that, apart from the Tipperary match, I hadn’t had a good game. I knew that was bullshit, but I said, ‘Grand, is this over so?’ I said to myself that I’d keep my dignity, though in all honesty I was stunned by the decision.

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Former Cork manager Denis Walsh
Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan

(At least I didn’t get the ‘hurling graph’ – I learned later from Tom Kenny that Denis asked him was his hurling graph going upwards or was it going downwards, because Denis wasn’t sure where it was at. He told Tom that he had been extremely lucky to make the cut and if there wasn’t an improvement on his graph for next year, he wouldn’t be around. Denis will be glad to know that Tom’s hurling graph skyrocketed when he moved on as manager.)

As I was leaving the room, Denis said: ‘By the way, this is going to be big news, you retiring’ – retiring? – ‘and how best we deal with it. Have a think about it and get on to me and we might discuss about issuing a joint statement. I won’t say a word till you get back to me.’ I just said, ‘Yeah, let me think about that one.’

Cathal Naughton was the next man in. I wished him the best as I left, headed out, and to this day I don’t know how I got home. I just remember pulling up in the car outside my house: no memory of how I got there.

Reaction

Despite Denis’s assurances, by the Sunday night I was getting texts and calls from journalists. The news was filtering out. I spoke to Eddie O’Donnell and we decided not to wait for a statement to come from the Board or the team management.

We got the GPA to release a brief statement on my behalf on the Monday: I wished the players all the best but I wanted to make my point, too – that I wanted to continue playing, but I’d been dropped.
The flood of phone calls, text messages and letters from family, friends, team-mates, former managers and hurling supporters all over the country that followed was phenomenal and truly humbling.

Aisake was supposed to have his review meeting a few days after mine, but he didn’t bother going. I told him that whatever had happened to me had happened, but if he wanted to continue playing, then he had my blessing to drive on. But he went back to Australia with Setanta to resume playing Aussie Rules. Being taken off against Kilkenny, with no explanation given, had turned him off. He also said he couldn’t go back and play under Denis after what he did to me.

The lads who were retained on and off throughout 2011 weren’t long saying that 2011 was worse than 2010. That wasn’t much consolation to me, though. I was gone.

Tonight on TheScore.ie: Seán Óg’s recall by JBM and his retirement in 2012

**********

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Seán Óg Ó hAilpín: The Autobiography is published by Penguin Ireland. More details can be found here

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    Mute Roberts Mel
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:46 AM

    And this is the club that people on here defend. Wonder what religion the dole scroungers from Govan think their top scorer is. Can’t see Kris Boyd being as vocal on this one

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    Mute Brian Stafford
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    Feb 21st 2019, 9:55 AM

    @Roberts Mel: That’s a fact! You’d need to have a long hard look at yourself if your support or defend that club in any way, shape or form. Xenophobic bunch of knuckle draggers.

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    Mute Joe
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:55 AM

    @Roberts Mel: you are just as bad as them you know. Condoning the coin throwing the other day. Always the victim

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    Mute Roberts Mel
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    Feb 21st 2019, 11:11 AM

    @Joe: please point our where I condoned the coin throwing? I never even mentioned it! So how did I condone it?

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    Mute Cian Nolan
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:11 AM

    Well done Steve Clarke. Needs more players and officials who aren’t from Celtic calling out that crap for what it is.

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    Mute The Bloody Nine
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    Feb 21st 2019, 11:11 AM

    @Cian Nolan: the only way anything will ever be done is if players and coaches keep highlighting it to the media. Good on Steve Clarke and Kris Boyd for calling out what he was subjected to last week.

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    Mute David Garland
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    Feb 21st 2019, 11:17 AM

    @The Bloody Nine: “Good on Kris Boyd” Haha that’s a laugh.. He’s a bitter Rangers fan that forgets another football club is actually paying his wages. He’s been talking Rangers up all season even though is plays for Killie..

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    Mute The Bloody Nine
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    Feb 21st 2019, 11:56 AM

    @David Garland: I can’t believe you think sectarian abuse and coin throwing is ok because of what team a guy supports. It’s wrong no matter who it’s aimed at.

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    Mute Roberts Mel
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:00 PM

    @The Bloody Nine: Didn’t see David mention anything about coin throwing or sectarian abuse never mind David saying it was okay for these things to happen. He just made reference to Kris Boyd and how nice of a fella he is.

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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:18 PM

    @Roberts Mel: why is telling me how nice Kris Boyd is? I don’t envisage any scenario where I’ll be meeting the lad so his personality is irrelevant to me, as is who he supports or pays his wages.

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    Mute David Garland
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:36 PM

    @The Bloody Nine: Show me where I condoned coin throwing and show us how Kris Boyd has been a victim of Sectarian abuse? Also my point is Kris Boyd is quick to talk up Rangers telling everyone Celtic are in crisis and they’re is a split in the dressing room while all the time he’s playing for Killie.. As I said he’s a bitter Rangers Fan who never comes out giving out about the sectarian chanting coming from Ibrox..

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    Mute Anthony Connery
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:41 PM

    @David Garland: he was called a fat orange b*****d by the Celtic fans

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    Mute Roberts Mel
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:58 PM

    @Anthony Connery: well they ain’t lying

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    Mute The Bloody Nine
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:04 PM

    @David Garland: my apologies David if I misunderstood your comment. However, I can’t see how it’s relevant to my point that the more people experience sectarianism in football the more it needs to be spoken about and highlighted. And that’s regardless of who you play for or support. I’m at a loss as to why you’re arguing with me about this!

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    Mute David Garland
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:48 AM

    Normally at this stage of the comments we’d have someone on blaming the Celtic fans for the huns sectarianism.. With Neil Lennon gone I suppose they have to get someone else to racially abuse.. But clearly Sevco don’t know the meaning of the word “Fenian”

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    Mute Trevor Beacom
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:11 AM

    Rte have a lot to answer for the showing of “British” games when the english teams were banned from Europe. I know quite a few lads who are rangers fans from that influence. All rangers games were shown live as a substitute for the uk games.

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    Mute Ciaran Rice
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:12 PM

    @Trevor Beacom: any Irish person supporting The Rangers clearly has some sort of mental health problem.

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    Mute David Garland
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:20 PM

    @Ciaran Rice: You get an awful lot of Irish people who will support them out of spite because they can’t get their head around Irish people supporting Celtic, that’s how idiotic some football fans are in this Country.. The same people think nothing of supporting Clubs like Chelsea who we all know love Rangers and the UVF

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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:23 PM

    @Ciaran Rice: Knew a guy at work who used to wear sevco shirt and England one during internationals. Was done purely for attention and the wind-up. Would not go out in public dressed like that, though.

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    Mute Nick Condon Sen
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:32 PM

    @Ciaran Rice: Yea I know a few Irish Rangers supporters and they ain’t mental.
    Ive been a long time Celtic supporter neigh on 55 years and ive witnessed plenty sectarian stuff in the Old “Jungle” which is probably well before your time.
    That said Rangers have an ultra toxic lot that are very vocal.

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    Mute ColmD
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    Feb 21st 2019, 10:00 AM

    Is Steve Clarke not a Rangers fan.. Can’t understand why they called him that

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    Mute Ciaran Rice
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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:11 PM

    @ColmD: Clarke and his entire family are Celtic fans.

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    Feb 21st 2019, 12:56 PM

    @Ciaran Rice: I didn’t know that.. Like him even more now..

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    Mute Nick Condon Sen
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:20 PM

    @Ciaran Rice: Yes he was touted as a Celtic Manager at one point.

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    Mute Ciaran Rice
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:26 PM

    @Nick Condon Sen: he’ll be the next Celtic manager when Brendan leaves I’d say.

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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:33 PM

    @Ciaran Rice:

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    Mute Tricksy
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    Feb 21st 2019, 3:36 PM

    The newest club in Scotland , reminds us all of a previous old one , same sectarian dribble , coming from bitter begrudgers .

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    Mute Don Dealgan
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    Feb 21st 2019, 4:09 PM

    Huns

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    Mute Michael Anthony
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    Feb 21st 2019, 3:11 PM

    I wonder do Rangers fans watch Braveheart and think” thank god we got William Wallace. Long life longshanks”

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    Mute Michael McGrath
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    Feb 21st 2019, 1:59 PM

    Seriously Rangers fans have to be the most confused idiotic bunch.. they havnt the slightest clue of their own national identity or heritage

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