John Sugrue: 'You can’t say we made progress by just getting out of Division 4'

It was notable that John Sugrue was the man the Laois players wanted to succeed Peter Creedon as manager.

A native of Kerry who has been based in Portlaoise for eight years, Sugrue was known to a lot of them from a spell under Justin McNulty that saw his role as physio expand to include coaching.

He left an impression then and has created an even stronger one now.