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Laois

Sport:	Football
Irish:	Laois
Nickname(s):	The O'Moore County
County board:	Laois GAA
Manager:	Justin McNulty
Captain:	Charlie Donnelly
Home venue(s):	O'Moore Park, Portlaoise
Recent competitive record
Current All-Ireland status:	Leinster (QF) in 2024
Last championship title:	None
Current NFL Division:	4 (1st in 2024; promoted to Division 3)
Last league title:	1985–86
First colours Second colours

The Laois county football team (/liːʃ/ LEESH) represents Laois in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Laois GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.

Laois's home ground is O'Moore Park, Portlaoise. The team's manager is Justin McNulty.

The team last won the Leinster Senior Championship in 2003 and the National League in 1986. Laois has never won the All-Ireland Senior Championship.

History

Laois contested the second ever All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) final in 1889.

In 1926, the county won the final of the first National Football League competition, defeating Dublin.

Laois's only other appearance in an All-Ireland SFC decider was in 1936.

Laois defeated Monaghan by a point in the 1985–86 National Football League final. Liam Irwin and Colm Browne both won All Stars for their performances that year. However, Wicklow knocked the team out of the Leinster SFC.

During the 1990s Laois had a number of successes at minor and under-21 level, including All-Ireland Minor Football Championships in 1996 and 1997.

During the mid-2000s Laois football became a strong force at all age levels.

Under former Kerry and Kildare manager Mick O'Dwyer, Laois finished as National Football League runner-up and Leinster Senior Football Championship winner in 2003. Laois would go on to contest the Leinster Senior Football Championship Final again in 2004 (lost after a replay) and 2005 (lost by one point). During the same period the minor county team won the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship again in 2003 and the Leinster Minor Football Championship in 2004, 2005 and 2007, while the under-21 county team won the Leinster Under-21 Football Championship in 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, Mick O'Dwyer's management of Laois ended and former Limerick manager Liam Kearns replaced him. Laois reached the finals of both the O'Byrne Cup and Leinster SFC in his first season as manager: calls for Kearns to be sacked after one season, with former players and club delegates saying "the man has to go", went unheeded.

Seán Dempsey replaced Kearns as manager after two years in 2008. Despite a poor first season, with disciplinary problems surfacing in the panel, Kildare knocking the team out of the Leinster Senior Football Championship and Down knocking the team out of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Dempsey was unexpectedly retained as manager for one more year. Dempsey had led the Laois minor team to the 2003 All-Ireland title and had commenced a major re-building exercise in 2009 but without success.

Justin McNulty replaced him for the 2011 season. After three seasons in charge, McNulty stepped down to be replaced by Tomás Ó Flatharta.

Ó Flatharta lasted until 2015, resigning after a Leinster SFC quarter-final loss to Kildare and an All-Ireland SFC qualifier exit against Antrim. Mick Lillis from Clare replaced him. Lillis led Laois to the bottom of Division 2, a Leinster SFC quarter-final exit and then an All-Ireland SFC qualifier exit to Clare before he resigned in 2016. He also used seven substitutes in a win, causing the game to be replayed, complained about a fixture against Dublin being held at Nowlan Park and dropped Gary Walsh when he cursed at him after being substituted. Peter Creedon was the next manager; he too did not last long, exiting under heavy criticism from county board delegates, with Mick Lawlor claiming the county would be set "back by five or six years" if Creedon were not ousted. He went, amid allegations of a drinking culture within the squad, Laois having been relegated to Division 4 and knocked out of the All-Ireland SFC by Clare.

John Sugrue spent two seasons managing the team, guiding them to two promotions that brought them from Division Four to Division Two of the National Football League, making Round Four of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers in both years and bringing Laois to the 2018 Leinster Senior Football Championship final before departing after the 2019 season.

Current panel

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2022)

Team as per Laois vs Dublin in the Leinster SFC semi-final, 15 November 2020

Currently abroad: Stephen Attride

Player has had an injury which has affected recent involvement with the county team.
Player has since retired from the county team.
Player has since withdrawn from the county team due to a non-injury issue.

Current management team

• Manager: Justin McNulty
• Coaches: Vacant

Managerial history

Laois have a history of appointing "foreign" managers, with Mick O'Dwyer proving to be the most successful; O'Dwyer led Laois to the 2003 Leinster SFC (a first in 57 years) and then to three All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals in his four years in charge. However, by 2015, Laois had also acquired a reputation for appointing managers who lasted two years or less, with journalist Martin Breheny commenting that "there seems to be an inflated view of self-worth in the county" and that the manager "becomes the easy scapegoat" as a result of those heightened expectations.

Players

Notable players

Records

Most appearances

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2022)

1st and 2nd: Ross Munnelly, Michael Lawlor

3rd: John O'Loughlin: 167 appearances

All Stars

Laois has 5 All Stars.

1986: Colm Browne, Liam Irwin
2003: Fergal Byron, Joe Higgins, Tom Kelly

Progression by player and year

Player	1986	2003
Colm Browne		—
Liam Irwin		—
Fergal Byron	—
Joe Higgins	—
Tom Kelly	—

Honours

National

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
  • Runners-up (2): 1889, 1936
• National Football League
  • Winners (2): 1925–26, 1985–86
  • Runners-up (1): 2003
  • Semi-finalists (5): 1952, 1978, 1994, 1995, 1997
• National Football League Division 4
  • Winners (2): 2018, 2024
• All-Ireland Senior B Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 1993
• All-Ireland Junior Football Championship
  • Winners (1): 1973
• All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship
  • Runners-up (3): 1964, 1998, 2007
• All-Ireland Minor Football Championship
  • Winners (3): 1996, 1997, 2003
  • Runners-up (3): 1932, 1967, 1998

Provincial

• Leinster Senior Football Championship
  • Winners (6): 1889, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1946, 2003
  • Runners-up (15): 1929, 1940, 1943, 1947, 1951, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1981, 1985, 1991, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2018
• O'Byrne Cup
  • Winners (5): 1978, 1987, 1991, 1994, 2005
• Leinster Junior Football Championship
  • Winners (5): 1907, 1941, 1968, 1973, 1993
• Leinster Under-21 Football Championship
  • Winners (8): 1964, 1969, 1982, 1987, 1994, 1998, 2006, 2007
  • Runners-up (4): 1975, 1986, 1999, 2009
• Leinster Under-20 Football Championship
  • Runners-up (2): 2019, 2020
• Leinster Minor Football Championship
  • Winners (9): 1932, 1966, 1967, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2007
  • Runners-up (7): 1933, 1964, 1968, 1973, 1995, 2003, 2016

References

1. Keys, Colm (13 May 2014). "'Aughrim? I'd prefer to forget about that ambush' — Mick Dempsey". Irish Independent.
2. "Kearns reappointed as Laois manager". RTÉ. 10 August 2007.
3. "Laois stick with Dempsey". RTÉ. 12 August 2009.
4. "Dempsey given one more year". RTÉ. 5 August 2009. Laois SFC manager Sean Dempsey will remain in charge of the county's football team for one more season pending ratification.
5. Foley, Cliona (5 October 2013). "Laois opt for Ó Flatharta as O'Grady linked with Treaty job". Irish Independent.
6. "Tomás Ó Flatharta steps down as Laois senior football boss". The42.ie. 24 June 2015.
7. "Laois confirm Lillis appointment". Hogan Stand. 6 October 2015.
8. "Mick Lillis announces Laois resignation in statement". Newstalk. 25 July 2016.
9. "Mick Lillis Steps Down As Laois Football Manager". Pundit Arena. 25 July 2016.
10. "Mick Lillis' Departure Leaves Laois In An All Too Familiar Position". Pundit Arena. 25 July 2016.
11. "Laois manager Peter Creedon heavily criticised at county board meeting". RTÉ. 18 July 2017.
12. "Laois boss Peter Creedon steps down amid allegations of a drink culture in the squad". Irish Independent. 27 July 2017.
13. "Laois announce surprise Sugrue exit". RTÉ. 30 July 2019.
14. "Former Laois captain Attride hopes to represent county again when Down Under journey ends". Laois Today. 5 November 2020.
15. Breheny, Martin (24 November 2012). "The import and export business". Irish Independent.
16. Breheny, Martin (24 June 2015). "O Flatharta departure leaves Laois in search of eighth manager since 2000". Irish Independent. And since Mick O'Dwyer presided for four seasons and Justin McNulty for three, the high rate of attrition for Laois managers is apparent, if not explained... That leaves O'Dwyer as the only manager to make an impression in Laois, steering them to a first Leinster title in 57 years in 2003, as well as All-Ireland quarter-finals, via the qualifiers, in 2005 and 2006... The manager becomes the easy scapegoat, leading to a high turnover and a recurring cycle of two-year terms, broken only by O'Dwyer and McNulty in nearly 20 years.
17. Scanlon, Shane (5 November 1998). "Cribbin shock choice as new leader of Laois". Irish Independent.
18. O'Riordan, Tom (10 November 1998). "Cribbin gets Laois job on split vote". Irish Independent.
19. O'Riordan, Ian (25 August 2000). "Laois look to Browne". The Irish Times. The Laois County Board has ratified Colm Browne as senior football manager
20. Shortt, James (8 July 2002). "Brown[sic] quits as Laois manager". RTÉ.
21. "O'Dwyer confirmed as Laois manager". The Irish Times. 17 September 2002.
22. Breheny, Martin (6 September 2006). "O'Dwyer's reign with Laois comes to an end". Irish Independent.
23. "Kearns appointed in Laois". Hogan Stand. 26 September 2006. Liam Kearns was ratified as the new Laois football manager at a county board meeting on Monday night, September 25.
24. "Kearns steps down as Laois boss". RTÉ. 7 August 2008.
25. Foley, Cliona (15 September 2008). "Dempsey named new Laois boss". Irish Independent. Sean Dempsey will be installed as the new Laois senior football manager tonight, writes Cliona Foley.
26. "Laois name football and hurling managers". RTÉ. 15 September 2008. Sean Dempsey has been ratified as the new Laois senior football manager at a meeting of the county board.
27. "Laois confirm McNulty as new football manager". JOE.ie. 2010.
28. "Justin McNulty steps down as Laois manager". RTÉ. 20 August 2013.
29. "Laois appoint Ó Flatharta as football manager". The42.ie. 22 October 2013.
30. "Tomás Ó Flatharta steps down as Laois senior football manager". Sky Sports. 25 June 2015.
31. "Clare Man Appointed Laois Football Manager". Clare FM. 6 October 2015.
32. "Cooraclare man Lillis steps down as Laois boss". Clare Herald. 2016.
33. "Laois turn to Creedon". Hogan Stand. 26 September 2016.
34. Lawlor, Damian (27 July 2017). "Peter Creedon steps away from Laois role". RTÉ.
35. "Kerry native confirmed as the new Laois senior football manager". The42.ie. 27 September 2017.
36. Barry, Brian (31 July 2019). "Laois manager John Sugrue departs role after two years". Sky Sports.
37. "Ex-Limerick boss added to Laois backroom team". The42.ie. 15 October 2019.
38. "Mike Quirke quits as Laois manager". RTÉ. 5 July 2021.
39. "Laois veteran O'Loughlin calls it a day". Hogan Stand. 31 May 2022.
40. Callanan, Neil (4 May 2003). "Tyrone retain National Football League title". RTÉ.
41. "Cork 2–10 Laois 0–15". RTÉ. 5 May 2007.
42. Proby, Johnny (12 October 2003). "Laois claim All-Ireland Minor Football title". RTÉ.
43. Whyte, Barry J. (20 July 2003). "Laois claim dramatic Leinster final victory". RTÉ.
44. O'Brien, Kevin (24 June 2018). "Dublin blow Laois away with 18-point victory to land record 8th Leinster crown in-a-row". The42.ie.
45. "Laois take O'Byrne Cup honours". The Irish Times.
46. McKenna, Conor (19 July 2019). "Archer's 3–8 steers Dublin young guns to first-ever Leinster U20 crown against Laois". The42.ie.
47. Hartnett, Alan (6 March 2020). "Leinster final defeat for Laois again as Dublin claim U-20 glory".
48. Cahill, Jackie (17 July 2016). "More Leinster minor glory for Kildare as they enjoy 11-point victory over Laois". The42.ie.

• Laois county football team
• County football teams