JOHN KIELY HAILED his players’ tactical intelligence as “a very rare quality in elite sport” after Limerick’s landslide All-Ireland final triumph over Galway.

The Treaty manager also heaped praise on the “extraordinary” game plan put together by his right-hand man, Paul Kinnerk, to deliver the county’s 13th Liam MacCarthy title – and sixth in nine years.

Speaking about the players’ capacity to absorb detail, Kiely harked back to his first year as Limerick U21 manager, where nine of the 20 players who featured on Sunday won their first All-Ireland.

“I can take you back to 2015, to the under-21 campaign we had back then,” he began. “Back in those days, we just had a projector, my laptop, and some very, very flimsy software, that was free, compared to what we have available to us now.

“But what I can tell you is, those video sessions that we took them through, sitting on a concrete floor, in the upstairs of our dressing room area, I knew then that these men had an ability to take a piece of footage, have it broken down, discuss it, take a learning from it, and go and apply it, and you didn’t have to come back to it again, because they were able to take it and carry it forward.

“They are an incredibly intelligent bunch of men when it comes to taking a tactical awareness piece, applying it, and consistently applying it, and doing it under the most duress.

“That is a very rare quality in elite sport, to be able to apply things consistently for years and years, so that’s a level of intelligence that they have.”

Following such a tactical masterclass, the first man Kiely paid tribute to was his long-time coach, Kinnerk.

“To produce that level of performance in a final takes an incredible level of preparation. Paul deserves an incredible amount of credit for the manner in which he had the team prepared.

“Galway bring a very difficult, tactical challenge to the table, and we’ve seen the last two games what that can look like when you don’t control it or impact it in any way.

“They have so many feathers to their bow and that meant we had a multifaceted approach to trying to deal with Galway.

“It is a credit to Paul how we were able to gain control of the game, keep control of the game, and limit Galway in the areas that they’re strongest in. It was just extraordinary, the detail that he got to and how he nailed it, so I’m really pleased with that.”

Kiely also referenced the sense of disappointment in falling short of their potential in the past two seasons.

“It’s just great satisfaction, a shared sense of joy. God Almighty, I was a part of ‘94, ‘96, and that hurt never leaves you. It scars you. Anyone that was involved will tell you that those days never go away.

“You want to see the team achieve their potential. The last two years, I felt we left a bit of ourselves after us. We just didn’t produce the quality in those key moments to get across the line.

“That bunch of men, their identity is based around how hard they work, on the training field, in matches, and how committed they are to doing the right thing for the group at all times. That’s what it takes. That’s what they’re willing to give. That’s what makes them special.”