A tribute from back in May to mark the end of John O’Loughlin’s time as an inter-county player.
Long-serving Laois footballer John O’Loughlin has announced his inter-county retirement.
O’Loughlin has represented Laois in each of the last 15 seasons, first making his debut for the county in 2008 in his first year out of minor.
He informed the management and colleagues of his decision earlier and confirmed the news to LaoisToday.
An exceptional young player he played both hurling and football for Laois at underage level and for an amazing four years at U-21 in both codes.
In all he made 167 appearances for Laois in his 15-year career, third in the overall list and behind only Ross Munnelly and Michael Lawlor.
O’Loughlin made his championship debut against Wicklow in the Leinster championship in 2008 under Liam Kearns before later playing under Sean Dempsey, Justin McNulty, Tomas O Flatharta, Mick Lillis, Peter Creedon, John Sugrue, Mike Quirke and Billy Sheehan.
The 33-year-old was a second-half sub in Sunday’s Tailteann Cup loss to Westmeath though started all of Laois’s league games this year and Leinster championship loss to Wicklow.
As well as winning minor and U-21 Leinster football titles in 2007, he played in the 2018 Leinster final as well as Division 2 (2011), Division 3 (2019) and Division 4 (2018) National League finals.
He played in all four divisions of the league with the county.
He also represented Leinster in the Railway Cup and Ireland in the International Rules in 2015.
O’Loughlin will continue playing with Rosenallis in the senior football and hurling championship in Laois.
