Laois manager John Sugrue admitted that his side could have done without the furore surrounding Gary Walsh's tweet about the Belfast rape trial in the build-up to Saturday's Allianz Football League Division 4 final against Carlow.

Laois GAA immediately disassociated themselves from the tweet, while Walsh was dropped for the final despite issuing an apology. However, he was part of the match-day group in Croke Park and Sugrue stressed that Laois now want to put the controversy behind them.

"These things are unfortunate and they are unnecessary for the team and the individual," the Kerry native told the Irish Examiner after the O'Moore County's four-point win.

"For that, I'd like to say that we apologise for any offence caused, it wasn't intentional on behalf of the Laois footballers, so we'll move on from that now and I thought the lads showed good clarity of thought, a good focus and good will to win.

"The price he paid, people can decide that themselves. We spoke to the team about how we wanted to behave ourselves during the week. It was a breach of that, and they are just the consequences. It's unfortunate. We'll move on."

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