IN THE WINTER of 2010, Paul Kinnerk considered parking his burgeoning hurling coaching career.
That season the Clare minors, powered by future stars like Tony Kelly and Podge Collins, had lost the All-Ireland final to Kilkenny.
A chunk of the team were still eligible for the grade in 2011, but their young hurling coach was thinking of shifting his focus to his own playing career.
A prominent midfield role for the Monaleen that had lifted the Limerick senior title had put him on the radar of the incoming county football boss Maurice Horan.
His services were in demand. If it looked like some role was going to have to give, the Clare minor management were intent on not letting him go easily.
Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor sat down with Kinnerk that December and brokered a deal to keep him involved. At the start of every week for the 2011 campaign he would inform them of his Limerick football itinerary and the Clare minor hurling activities were slotted in on the free nights.
There were some head-spinning clashes. On one weekend in May 2011, Limerick travelled to Swords on a Sunday morning to face Down in a challenge. Kinnerk drove up on his own to play in the game, before pointing his car afterwards in the direction of Ballinasloe. The Clare minors were playing Dublin at six that evening and Kinnerk fulfilled his promise to be present.
When he arrived home to Cratloe that evening, he had covered over 500km of road in a whirlwind cross-country trek.
Somehow his juggling act kept all the balls in the air in 2011.
Part of the Limerick squad that reached the All-Ireland football last eight.
Coaching Clare to a second successive Munster minor hurling title.
And midfield as Monaleen completed back-to-back Limerick senior triumphs.
Muiris Gavin was the attacking figurehead of those Monaleen teams, still going strong with years of inter-county football experience lodged in the bank, observing his team-mate’s hectic schedule.
“It kind of just crept up on us really,” recalls Gavin of that time.
“When Paul was coaching in school (St Caimin’s in Shannon), that was like his day job and he’d be training with us in the evening. All of a sudden we saw Paul involved with a Clare team. We knew they were pretty good and were going places.
“It became clear quickly that it was going to be a tall order to do both. But like he was coaching teams that were going for All-Irelands. It wasn’t as if it was just the local club team he was coaching.
In some ways he was a victim of his own success and the success of those teams as well. He gave it a go and kept it going as long as he could.”
Over a decade later, Gavin finds himself marvelling at what Kinnerk did then and what he is doing now.
Today Kinnerk aims for his ninth All-Ireland hurling win as a coach. To date the sparkling record reading three U21 final victories with Clare, one senior with Clare and four senior with Limerick.
All those collective glories with teams and individual plaudits for his coaching acumen, achieved by someone who won’t turn 38 until December.
His GAA journey is rooted in playing football. Gavin knew him as a youngster emerging in Monaleen. There was some hurling in his underage days but it was as a footballer he became known as a teenager.
“He’s 10 years younger than me.When we won our county in ’02, that was a huge win for the club. It was the first won in 24 years and Paul was the youngest player on that panel, he was 16.
“We got a run that winter and we went to the Munster club final and we were beaten by Nemo.
“So that was his first exposure to it. He came in at a time of huge excitement in the club. We won another one in ‘05. He wasn’t making the team then but was still part of it.
“Then we won two more counties by 2010 and 2011, he was midfield with Brian Geary and was a mainstay for us by then.”
Injuries had erected roadblocks in Kinnerk’s playing journey. He smashed his shoulder in a club game in the summer of 2007 and it took a long time to get right. Another dislocation was suffered in 2008 and after a comeback for keyhole surgery, it went on him for a third time.
In November 2009, Dr James Colville, who had previously worked with Ruby Walsh and Brian O’Driscoll, operated on Kinnerk’s shoulder in the clinic in Santry. The operation worked and he went back playing.
“His biggest problem was staying fit,” admits Gavin.
“He just had awful trouble with injuries and breaking down. He never seemed to get a really clear run at it, which is unfortunate.
“But when he did get a run at it, he was an excellent player.
“A great man to just make the right decision. He’d rarely give the ball away. He played with his head up. Brian Geary beside him would bring a bit of the steel to it and had so much experience from Limerick.
“When the ball was on to play it on inside, Paul was a proper footballer, like he could nail a 30-yard pass into someone in space if the run was on. Get up and down the pitch, no problem. But just keeping himself fit was the biggest challenge.
“John Galvin was still there at the time, Jim Donovan too, it would have been a difficult Limerick midfield to break into. But he did play with Limerick and he had no problem playing at that level.
“What happened then was it coincided with the coaching success. That was difficult and ultimately that probably held him back a little bit in really making the inter county breakthrough.”
In 2012 he started for Limerick at midfield in the Munster championship, proof that a time uninterrupted by injuries could see him prosper.
By then Davy Fitzgerald had drawn him into the Clare senior camp. He performed coaching roles with the Banner flagship side and their U21 counterparts for the next three seasons, accumulating four All-Ireland wins.
Playing had to be put on the back-burner, but was not entirely ignored. In September 2016, John Kiely was ratified as the new Limerick hurling supremo, Kinnerk riding shotgun as the coaching director.
A month later Monaleen were crowned Limerick football champions again, their most recent senior final success, Kinnerk coming on as a substitute to help seal the win over Dromcollogher-Broadford.
At that stage Gavin was the club manager. He utilised Kinnerk as a playing option and tapping into his coaching genius.
Ger Lawlor had previously managed Monaleen and on occasions asked Kinnerk to direct training sessions.
It was clear to all of them the influence he could exert.
“The coaching he was doing was another level completely for players to be involved in,” says Gavin.
“That was a conundrum we had then because he wanted to be training himself, but at the same time if he wasn’t able to, we had no problem with him taking a part of a session because it was very enjoyable.
“In 2016 he came back late that season and again injuries were an issue but he was really motoring well by the time of the county semi-final. He got a great goal that day to beat St Pat’s. I would have leaned on him heavily around that time about planning sessions and even in big games, the match ups, tactics, game plans.
“Just trying to learn from him. Going back to earlier years, he always had the brain for it, the game intelligence was always there. He had no problem as a player saying it, he coached players on the pitch, he’d be vocal and well able to spot how to approach a game.
Any manager who has guys like that, they’re worth their weight in gold. You just rely on them.”
Gavin was part of a golden senior era for Limerick football. They were regular participants in Munster finals, challenging the Kerry heavyweights. It is twenty years since the sharpshooter shot nine points in a famous Munster win over Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Almost a decade ago Limerick football was in need of a reboot at grassroots level. Gavin was recruited to help with the rejuvenation project.
“I was asked by Mike Riordan (county secretary) to set up this (Limerick) football academy underage in 2014 and Paul was the first call I made
“He was coaching Clare at the time and it sounded like a daft thing, would you come in and set up a football academy in Limerick?
“But he jumped at it completely.
“The reason he was the person I wanted involved was because I knew how good and different he was.
“And also then loads of other upcoming coaches would absolutely jump at the chance to work with him. He was outstanding. He had been exposed in Limerick to good coaches as a player like Donie Buckley and Cian O’Neill.
“He took bits from those and then had his own mindset and developed his own thinking.
“When he changed over to hurling then, he changed the game. He added so much to the coaching of it, a lot did come from the background of football.”
Once Limerick made that breakthrough in 2018, they exploded as a hurling group. Their dominance has been remarkable, their relentless accumulation of trophies admirable.
Kiely labeled Kinnerk ‘world class’ this week in his coaching approach and how he steers the group to constantly reach the heights demanded of them in pressured championship scenarios.
In Monaleen their pride at his achievements continues to grow. Last January they won the All-Ireland club intermediate title in a wonderful final against Mayo side Tooreen. Tipperary’s Eoin Brislane managed Monaleen yet they naturally drafted Kinnerk in for a few sessions, drawing on his expertise.
Goalkeeper Jamie Power and forward Donnacha Ó Dálaigh have got run outs with the Limerick hurlers this year, adding another layer of local interest.
Kinnerk is the spearhead. Limerick aim to carve out more history today. The hurling greatness of all connected is already assured.
Immediate focus is on this Croke Park assignment but the future direction of Kinnerk is worth considering.
“That’s something he’s going to have to think about himself,” reflects Gavin.
“Firstly, when is the right time to step away from Limerick? The same will go for John Kiely.
“Paul could go into other sports. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. He’ll have to see what’s best for him. It’s the job Paul did want, it’s his home county.
“Does he go into football? Could he take a team and try and win Sam or does he go into professional sports? I think he’ll just weigh it all up. He won’t be short of offers whenever he does decide.
“That decision is for down the road, it will be very interesting to see what he does.
“But at the moment, one game away from four-in-a-row, if they do that, it’d be very hard next year not to just keep going.
“What he’s done has been incredible, just amazing for us to watch.”
