Laois benefiting from football Gospel according to John
While Peter Keane enjoyed a successful first league campaign of sorts in charge of the Kingdom, another manager from the depths of South Kerry was quietly going about his business far from the glamourous spotlight of the top division.
Laois finished as runners up in Division Three this season and were bested by a craftier Westmeath side in Saturday’s final in Croke Park.
The O’Moore County manager, John Sugrue, played his football in a former life for a small rural club just outside Caherciveen in the deepest heart of South Kerry. He was as smooth a ball player as Renard ever produced — one of those footballers that stood out for the way he struck the ball so gracefully and accurately with the outside of the boot.
A physiotherapist by profession with a now well-established business in his adopted Leinster home, Sugrue was first exposed to the high-performance world of inter-county football management by Pat O’Shea when he took over the Kerry hotseat back in 2007.
John was brought in as the physical trainer/coach to a group that had just won the ’06 All-Ireland. It was a daunting gig for anybody, let alone a guy who was still south of 30 and was training players he was effectively still competing against at club level within the county.
In truth, it was an uncomfortable dynamic at the beginning, not helped by the fact that if there was an odd number in training, John would jump in and play, and was well capable of holding his own in those spurts of football.
But that only succeeded in pissing players off, and he quickly became the biggest target during every football session he played in to ensure he quit the practice sooner rather than later.
In fairness, it didn’t take him long to realise his place, he was only a young man at the time feeling his way through an awkward situation.
But once he became more comfortable in his role, he very quickly gained the respect of the group for the way he dedicated himself to them.
From that point forward, you were left in no doubt about his motives. He wasn’t for joking around or making friends with players who were essentially his peers.
Sugrue had a similar gift of that stubborn South Kerry streak like former gaffer Jack O’Connor, the same kind that made Declan O’Sullivan such a special footballer, for long after his body was screaming for him to stop, he just refused to listen.
John plotted Kerry’s physical conditioning through the second leg of those back-to-back All-Ireland titles in 2007, and back again to the final in 2008.
He was dealing with some living legends of the game in that dressing room, and many of those big personalities were older than their rookie physical trainer.
His age and lack of experience mattered little when compared to the quality of his work on the training field.
His stoic personality very rarely gave anything away but his passion and ability for cultivating high standards shone through in everything he did.
As recently as 2015, Sugrue managed his native South Kerry to an unexpected county championship title on home soil which greatly enhanced his coaching and management CV and ultimately helped him secure the Laois job.
Last season he led his young squad to promotion from the depths of Division Four, capped off a with final victory over Carlow.
This year was a second successive promotion that will now see them rubbing shoulders with the big boys in Division Two in 2020.
Westmeath had their number last weekend and were the better side over the 70-odd minutes.
But Laois are playing the type of ball their young manager has long espoused since his time spent learning his trade in Kerry.
Some of their long kick-passing into their forwards and scoretaking was great to watch and bore all the hallmarks of a coach with the ability to clearly spell out his vision for how he’d like his team to play ball.
Sugrue is still only in his infancy of coaching and managing at that level, but he is building the type of CV that is fast becoming the envy of all those on the circuit.
Unlike many others, perhaps the key difference is that Sugrue sees Laois as far more than a whistlestop tour on the managerial merry-go-round. He is settled there, it’s his second home now.
He has more of a vested interest in developing something sustainable for the future as opposed to a smash and grab and it speaks volumes to the character and vision of the man when you read his
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We are trying to get a bit of structure at underage with regard to strength and conditioning and the scheduling of training. We have started cross-the-board meetings with seniors, U20s and U17s with the county board, getting updates on how the younger squads are doing and giving updates on how our squad is doing and trying to tie it up altogether.
The idea of creating a type of community of practice with the other coaches of the county teams in Laois is a clever way of cultivating an environment with more joined-up thinking and could well help to improve the quality of coaching across the board within the county.
A rising tide and all that.
You’d imagine for Laois, securing a second promotion was the big goal for this season, and while they’ll find it a considerable step up in pace and quality in Division Two, its only by exposing themselves to that level of the game that they will become more comfortable against the top opposition in the the province and beyond.
Whatever the championship, and yet another impending showdown with Westmeath on May 26 will bring, Laois are a team and county going in the right direction and it will be an interesting project to watch in the next few years to see if they can eventually challenge in Leinster, or even push for a place in the Super 8s.
It won’t happen this season, but in John Sugrue they’ve got one of the most progressive young managers in the country, and someone who is trying to raise the whole county instead of just his team.
