Laois boss John Sugrue admits not getting to play inter-county football for Kerry still ‘irks’ him
More than a decade on, The O'Moore County gaffer admits his own stubbornness cost him the call-up he craved
MISSING out on inter-county football as a player still rankles John Sugrue.
The Laois boss is a native of Renard in Kerry and looks back on his playing days with a touch of regret.
Sugrue starred at midfield for the South Kerry divisional team as they bagged senior county titles in 2004 and 2005, a time when Jack O’Connor was at the Kingdom helm.
More than a decade on, he admits his own stubbornness cost him the call-up he craved.
Sugrue said: “My ambition was to play inter-county and I never achieved it.
“I had my own faults and they were fairly glaring when I look back at it.
“At the time, I was a little less open to suggestion and it’s one of those things that irks me a little now.”
OFF THE LAOIS
He hung up his boots and turned to coaching.
And he did finally end up in a Kerry senior dressing room — in 2007 and 2008 as team trainer under O’Connor’s successor, Pat O’Shea.
Work commitments brought him to Laois and he became the O’Moore County physio when Justin McNulty was at the helm in 2012 and 2013.
From there, he went on to guide his own South Kerry to county glory in 2015.
And when Peter Creedon left the Laois hotseat in 2017, Sugrue jumped at the chance to manage at inter-county level.
He led the O’Moore men to the Leinster final last summer and they have gone from Division 4 in his first season in charge to playing in the second tier next season.
Ahead of Sunday’s Leinster quarter-final with Westmeath in Tullamore, management is more than making up for what he missed as a player.
Sugrue said: “When you finish up playing, it’s great to get into coaching, you are involved with guys who have lots of energy.
“The chance just came to do the county team in Laois and I’m really appreciative of getting that chance and it’s good to do it, but only if we are productive.”
SETTING STANDARDS
Laois fell to the Lake County 1-13 to 0-13 in the league final at Croke Park last month.
Despite their short stay in Division 3, a heavy 3-8 to 1-9 loss against Louth and a round 4 defeat to Sunday’s opponents still bother Sugrue.
And he believes Laois do not deserve any plaudits until they do the business in Tullamore.
He said: “Have we been productive to date? Yes. Have we been as productive as we’d want to be? No.
“It depends on what you are happy with.
“If you are happy with a mediocre season where we have got ourselves out of Division 3 into Division 2 — if that fulfils your appetite, then we won’t beat Westmeath.
“We are trying to gather a bit of momentum and touch wood, we have a little bit.
“This year hasn’t been as good as last year but in saying that, we are still trying to move forward and it takes a lot of energy from a lot of people.”
KEEPING THE HEAD
Sugrue believes discipline and sticking to the game-plan were their biggest league lessons.
Kieran Lillis was sent off against Louth and Martin Scully saw red in the third round against Sligo.
They lost their way in the decider and Sugrue hopes that those problems have been resolved.
He said: “Discipline and an inability to stick to structure, maybe a little bit of balance between defensive play and forward play.
“They’re fairly simplistic things but if they weren’t addressed, we weren’t going anywhere.
“We’re still not complete in terms of what we need to improve on — even in those areas, moving between attack and defence and our ability to stick to structure.
“That’s what undid us a little in the league final.
“If you don’t have structure, you’ll have chaos.
MOST READ SPORT
“If you send people out in the morning to do a job in an office or on a farm and let all 15 people interpret what job needs to be done in their own way, you’re going to have chaos — 15 people will look at one job ten different ways.
“And you only get two or three people who share an opinion on it.
“You need structure and an expectation of how the team is going to play and how we are going to do things as a group. The jury is still out on it.”