Rest and fun — the Roe recipe for success

IT’S six years since Pat Roe first tried his hand at inter-county management but the most important lesson the Offaly manager ever learnt about football was when his own playing career was ended cruelly in 1995.

Save for three seasons in Boston, Roe played with his native Laois from 1982 on, but that came to an abrupt end with a knee injury in an O’Byrne Cup match.

“The surgeon told me after the operation that I didn’t need a brace because, as a new knee, it was actually far better than the old one, but of course, I didn’t listen.