New Hibs defender on the 'wow' call behind all-in commitment

SNS Group

If Warren O’Hora is as decisive on the pitch as he is in making potentially career-defining choices, the Irish defender certainly won’t be caught dawdling at the heart of the Hibs back line. Once he’s clear on his course of action, the big fella goes for it. No holding back.

From what he calls the “pinch me moment” of taking that first call from Hibs, to agreeing terms and diving straight into life as a resident of Edinburgh, the 25-year-old has gone all in on this move at a crucial stage of his career. Which helps explain why, as soon as he got ‘home’ to Brighton after signing a three-year deal, he and partner Hannah decided not to take the suggested few days to pack up the house and make the move north.

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A long drive up the road, with the car packed to the gunnels, followed immediately, O’Hora explaining part of the motivation for moving fast as he said: “Hannah and I have a little one on the way, hence why we’re trying to sort this out pretty quickly and get to know the area. We’ve already looked at a couple of places and we’re happy with the way it’s going; the club have been great, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

“The baby is due in October. Our first one. I’ll see how it pans out and if I need to miss any games - can’t exactly say: ‘Have it now …’ can I? We’ll see how it goes.”

The ball-playing centre-half, already settling into the squad on the pre-season training camp here in the Netherlands, sounds genuinely excited to be stepping into Scotland’s top flight after a career that has taken him from Bohemians to Bournemouth’s youth system and then, most recently, three seasons with MK Dons.

He said: “When that phone call came, I was really thinking: ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening.’

A historic club of Hibernian’s magnitude coming in and wanting you to play for the first team at a packed Easter Road. That's the pinch-me moment. The difference I felt when I got that call to say that there was interest there and I could come up and have a look around...

“It’s a long way from Brighton, where Hannah is from, so it was a big, big move but she was very happy with the news as well. It was a no-brainer in the end, and we just went full steam ahead with it.”

O’Hora has some pretty clear objectives in mind when it comes to building a career at Hibs. The free agent signing makes no excuses for training his sights on breaking into the Republic of Ireland national set-up.

“I’d like to think I’m still at a good age,” he said, adding: “I’m 25 and it’s a dream for anybody to play for their national team.

“You have to have that type of goal to keep you going. You need to have something to chase and if you make it there, you pick something else to chase and you keep going.

“I need to focus on my club football first to get to that milestone and this is definitely a club that can improve me as a player.

“If I do my stuff on the pitch and we do our stuff as a club then maybe that call will come and it would absolutely be a proud moment for me and my family, no doubt about it.

“It’s definitely in the back of my head - it has to be. I wouldn’t be pushing myself if it wasn’t. You have to see it as a challenge to get into the squad or get the call and it can definitely happen.

“There are boys who have played in Scotland who are in the squad now so it’s not impossible.

“It needs to happen for you, but you need to get a lot to get it, and I understand that. 

“But I’m still at a good age; who knows if it will come? Maybe it won’t but I’ll still chase it until someone says you can’t.”

All of that seemed like a very distant dream when, having joined Brighton as a teenager, the small matter of a global pandemic but the ambitions of so many bright prospects on pause, O’Hara recalling: “Going to Brighton at 18 really helped me. I played 23s or reserves for two years and then Covid happened, and I was sent home.

“I was sent back to Dublin for weeks upon end because of Covid and nobody knew what was going to happen. My contract was running out and I was thinking: ‘If this doesn’t go right for me, this is where I’m going to have to come back to - back to Dublin and back to where I started.’

“When Covid cleared up and Brighton had me back, I was into the last year of my contract and David Weir, the loans manager, was brilliant for me.

“I couldn’t keep playing 23s; it wasn’t doing anything for me anymore and I felt I could go out and play men’s football again. It worked out well; I went out on loan for six months then signed a contract with MK Dons, had four good seasons - a rollercoaster of emotions, but it was something I had to do.

“I had to go out and play and it was so important for me because it was completely different. You need to go out and cut your teeth, earn your stripes, and I felt I did that enough. I played 200 games for them. I’ve got huge respect for MK Dons for helping me.

“With MK, in the four seasons we had one really good year, and one really bad year when we got relegated and it really affected the whole club. We missed out on the play-offs last year and sometimes you just think: ‘Yeah, I need a change.’

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“I just felt like I’d given everything to MK Dons, and to be fair they’d given everything back to me. That was it; we shook hands, and we went our separate ways.

“Maybe it was for the best. We’ll see. But I’m going to give everything to Hibs. The standards here are different to what I’m used to so it’s something I’m really looking forward to and I’m really excited by it.

“I know a few who have played in the league; I spoke to them and coaches I’ve had who have played in the league before, so they were definitely conversations I wanted to have. They all spoke very highly of it, said it’s a different challenge and one you can’t take lightly. It’s a tough league, it’s high tempo, it’s aggressive and it’s what I needed. I needed a change. We just went for it.”