This weekend in San Diego, Eamonn O'Hara will celebrate joining a unique selection of people.

The Sligo man was selected on the Vodafone All-Star team at centre forward and joins Barnes Murphy and Mickey Kearns on his county's All-Star list.

"It's something you never really think you would get until you won a medal or something like that," he said yesterday.

"I think it is a recognition of how far the team has come on. There was a Jekyll and Hyde element to our performances this year, but I think overall we regard the year as one of progression and it is nice that that has been recognised through this award and I gratefully accepted it."

Despite having played most of his games at midfield, O'Hara was selected at centre-half forward.

"Well, there was talk about that and I won't lie about where I played. But most of the games I did play I lined out at centre forward. People did say it was a surprise, but I'm not going to go into Sligo tactics but there were times when myself and Kieran Quinn would swap positions to try and drag centre backs out of there.

"But midfield is my favourite position, you know. But to get any position as an All Star, be it goal or anywhere else, is great."

O'Hara's eye-catching and sometimes virtuoso performances were one of the highlights of the summer.

Athletic and highly motivated, it seemed he single-handedly dragged Sligo back into contention during a miserable Connacht final against Galway and he was highly prominent in the famous Croke Park win against Tyrone in the All-Ireland qualifying series.

"Against Galway, we were quietly confident and it just was a flop on the day.

"The conditions were chronic, but for us, it was another statistic of Sligo losing in Connacht finals. We had a bit of an 'honesty set up' afterwards when we admitted that not one of us performed.

"We let ourselves down badly and everybody stood up and said their piece. So when the draw was made for the Tyrone game, we felt we had a lot to prove to Peter Forde and to the Sligo supporters.

"And we played well, but again we had nothing to show for it. I feel we are at the stage now where we need to win medals of some sort instead of just getting a couple of good results."

Looking ahead to this year's championship, O'Hara reckons Laois under Mick O'Dwyer might well be the new Sligo.

"There is certainly a bit of a buzz in the county since his arrival and they might cause a surprise.

The back-door system has opened things up, but it also means that the top teams, if they are caught early on, have their guard up throughout the qualifiers and you will still see those counties coming through towards the All-Ireland semi-finals.

As for the league, he is circumspect.

"You look at the experience of teams in the league. Why kill yourself in the league if you are trying to go the distance.

"Look at Cavan; they worked so well and then in the championship - were they burnt out? I don't know.

"We will try to play well in the league, definitely and if we win five or six games, we will go for it then.

"But we won't set it out as a goal or put pressure on ourselves from that point of view."

Meanwhile, Gareth Doherty is due to arrive in San Diego tomorrow after encountering some visa difficulties at Dublin airport on Wednesday.

And veteran referees John Bannon and Aodhan McSuibne were yesterday presented with the Vodafone GAA All-Star awards for 2002.

The officials handled last year's All-Ireland football and hurling finals respectively.