I THOUGHT WE’D HAVE MORE DAYS LIKE THESE
As a dual underage star, John O’Loughlin was sure he’d feature in several Leinster finals with Laois– that’s why he’ll make the most of this one
THREE years ago, John O’Loughlin went back to the books. He was 26 years of age and, as Games Promotion Officer for St Brigid’s in Castleknock, he was a vital cog in ensuring no child within the urban sprawl was left behind by the Dublin machine. It’s the sort of job that he reckons has ‘a sell-by date’ though, especially if you play for one of those counties who are getting dust blown in their face by the All-Ireland champions.
Primary school teaching had always interested him but the way into any course in this country was blocked by not having honours Irish. He knew people who had gone to the UK to study it, but football commitments made that a non-runner. So, he went back and sat the Leaving Cert honours Irish exam. And got it. O’Loughlin’s determination and dynamism aren’t restricted to a football field.
‘It was tricky enough trying to study Irish again. But I got plenty of good help, put my head down and lucky enough, I got it,’ the powerhouse midfielder recalls in the Laois GAA headquarters in Portlaoise. It’s a wet Wednesday evening in June, but the office is a pleasant hive of activity. Players are asked to sign a team poster between interviews discussing just how the midlanders made it here from the depths of Division 4. Even allowing for the blue wave that will wash over them in Croke Park, there’s a sense that they will savour every moment of being Leinster finalists.
It only takes a few minutes with O’Loughlin to understand why. He’s soldiered with Laois for a decade now, playing his 100th competitive game in the recent successful Division 4 campaign. But he has never played in a provincial decider. When he joined the senior panel in 2008, his new team-mates in the dressing-room had just played two finals in three years, most of them had won a Leinster medal under Mick O’Dwyer. The only survivor from that 2003 team now is Ross Munnelly, his house-mate in Dublin.
O’Loughlin was a teenage prodigy in both codes. While still a pupil at Cistercian College, Roscrea, he was playing both minor and Under 21 hurling and football for Laois.
These days, working as a primary school teacher in Castleknock, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, so he has no idea how he did it back then. But he didn’t give it a second thought. O’Loughlin was seized upon as Exhibit A for how young GAA players were being burned out, but it never bothered him.
‘I’ll always look back on 2007 with really fond memories,’ he insists. ‘We won a Leinster minor and U21 titles, could have possibly won the All-Ireland U21 title as well. I was on the minor and U21 hurling teams, too. It was a great year for me personally, winning those underage titles, playing before Laois [seniors] in the Leinster final.
‘The burnout thing was brought up, but I never had an issue with that. I always felt that if you had accommodating managers that you can play both codes at inter-county level. If managers worked together and looked out for the player, and not just their team. I hate hearing now of young fellas having to pick between the codes at minor level. It’s unique in the GAA that players can play both and players shouldn’t be made to pick, certainly not at underage level.’ Only four years after O’Dwyer had led Laois to an emotional Leinster title, the conveyor belt was still firing out raw talent in the O’Moore County, spearheaded by the teenage O’Loughlin.
‘Yeah, back then you are thinking it is going to be like this all the time,’ O’Loughlin sighs as he remembers the Leinster minor and U21 double he won while still at school. ‘It wasn’t to be but, look I enjoy playing with Laois.’
There’s no quick or easy answer to what’s wrong in Laois. Managerial upheaval didn’t help. John Sugrue, the impressive and under-stated Kerryman who took the helm in the winter, is the seventh different county boss O’Loughlin has played under in the past decade. Players came and went through the same revolving door that managers did.
‘You wouldn’t believe how disappointing it is when you go out of the Championship early, or with a bad beating. And you could ask yourself “Where are you going?” But what else would you be doing?’ O’Loughlin says.
‘There are enough years when you can ask yourself questions like that. You are not going to improve it if you don’t get involved. You are not going to change anything if you throw in the towel and say it is not for me. The only way you will improve things is if you get in there, put your head down and try to the right thing. And if you do, you will get rewards eventually.
‘Any manager there at the time, any player there at the time, they were doing their best for Laois but the collective didn’t work for whatever reason. It should have happened with all the strong underage teams we had, but sport doesn’t work like that. ‘For success you need so much to come together, good strong leaders, lads need to perform consistently. It just didn’t happen. ‘But it’s happening now and hopefully, this is the start of what can be a bright few years for Laois football,’ O’Loughlin observes. It has been six years since Laois last promised to harness all the potential within the county under Armagh’s All-Ireland winner Justin McNulty. Sugrue was part of that back-room team and O’Loughlin was a vital pillar around which McNulty built his spine. They pushed Dublin, then coming off their first All-Ireland in 16 years, to the brink in Croke Park, O’Loughlin unfortunate enough to score an own goal when deflecting Michael Darragh Macauley’s effort into the net. Dublin won by three
Burnout was brought up but I never had any issue with that
points and won four of the next six All-Irelands. Laois gradually slipped from the radar.
‘I don’t think we got enough credit for that performance,’ O’Loughlin says. ‘Dublin were the reigning All-Ireland champions and we had them on the rack.
‘But again, we didn’t get credit because we went out in the Leinster Championship the following year and Louth hammered us in Portlaoise. We needed to be consistent after that performance against Dublin. I thought we needed to push on and make a Leinster final the following year. And we lose in the first round. We never built on any good performance.’
There’s a sense that under Sugrue, there are solid foundations being set, though. Laois are unbeaten in 2018 and while that record is likely to come to an end in Croker this afternoon, it shows that the Kerryman has developed some consistency within the team.
‘Yeah, we have won 10 games in a row. Look, we have only played Division 3 and 4 opposition and have been favourites for all the games, bar Westmeath. But we still had to go out and win them. I think we are playing as a team and we are growing in confidence with each game. Simply winning games does wonders for confidence.’
And O’Loughlin agrees that there is a common purpose under the current management team that may have been missing in recent years. ‘For any successful team, you need togetherness, you need spirit and you need unity. A team is not going to be successful without those. We haven’t been winning matches the last few years, or we have only been winning sporadically. We might win a match that we are not expected to win, and then lose a match we are expected to win.
‘This year, we have had that consistency and with consistency comes the wins and with the wins, comes the togetherness and the unity.
‘Lot of young lads in the dressing room now have a good attitude and sport is really about attitude. They are feeding off the older lads and we are feeding off them. It is a happy dressing room, it is a good place to be. And we are looking forward to a Leinster final in Croke Park. What more could we want? We just have to capitalise on it now, go out and do ourselves justice.’
No matter what awaits him in Croke Park, John O’Loughlin is going to enjoy the experience. Leinster final days were supposed to be part and parcel of his playing days with Laois, but it’s better to get one than none at all.