Home We Are Laois 2019 Remembered: New Laois senior football manager revealed

2019 Remembered: New Laois senior football manager revealed

We can reveal the new Laois senior football manager
We can reveal the new Laois senior football manager

Back in 2017, we broke the news that John Sugrue was going to become the Laois football manager.

We repeated the trick again in September with news of Mike Quirke.


LaoisToday understands that the selection committee have reached a decision on the new Laois senior football manager.

It’s believed that Kerry native Micheál Quirke will be sent forward for ratification in the coming days.

39-year-old Quirke, who is a four-time All-Ireland winner, played in midfield for the Kingdom from 2003 to 2011 where he also won four Munster titles.

Quirke has got a connection to Laois as his brother Sean is the manager of the Leisure Centre in Portarlington.

He comes from the Kerins O’Rahilly’s club – the same club that produced players like David Moran and Tommy Walsh.

Like his former Kerry teammate Kieran Donaghy, Quirke is also a talented basketball player and has won two basketball National Cups with the Abrakedabra Tralee Tigers.

He is a columnist with the Irish Examiner and a coach in the GAA centrally with a Masters in Performance Coaching.

LaoisToday contacted Football Board chairman Laurence Phelan, who was is on the selection committee with Fergal Byron and Ger Slevin, and although he could not confirm the appointment, he said that an announcement would be made in the coming days.

LaoisToday understands that Micheal Quirke will now go before the executive in the coming days before then being presented to County Committee for ratification.

If chosen, Quirke will become the third Kerry native to be managing a Leinster team in 2020. Paul Galvin is over Wexford while Jack O’Connor has the reigns in Kildare.

Micheal Quirke

Quirke will succeed John Sugrue in the role and become the fifth Kerry manager of the Laois footballers in recent times – following on from Mick O’Dwyer, Liam Kearns and Tomas Ó Flatharta.

And it also looks likely that Quirke will be in place before the senior football quarter finals this Sunday which it is understood had always been a long term goal.

Former Kerry Senior Footballer Micheál Quirke 

His appointment will bring to an end a period of uncertainty in Laois football following the departure of Sugrue after Laois’s Round 4 loss to Cork in the summer.

SEE ALSO – Check out more from the 2019 Remembered Series