John Kiely and Aaron Gillane have praised Limerick coach Paul Kinnerk for taking apart Galway’s gameplan in the All-Ireland SHC final.

Kinnerk, who has been by Kiely’s side since he became manager in 2017, showed his value to Limerick once again after they imposed themselves on the Leinster champions from the throw-in.  

“Paul Kinnerk deserves an incredible amount of credit for the manner in which he had the team prepared for the challenge,” Kiely said.

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

“They’re incredibly good on the ball. They get numbers behind the halfway line. They’re strong on opposition puck-outs. They’re brilliant at shooting from distance.

“They have a target man who is super at holding up the ball inside. They have so many feathers on their bow. That meant we had a multi-faceted approach trying to deal with Galway.

“It’s a credit to Paul in terms of the result that we got on the pitch, in terms of how we were able to gain control of the game, keep control of the game and limit Galway in the areas they’re strongest in.

“A huge well done to Paul on that. It was just extraordinary, the detail he got to and how he nailed it. I’m really pleased with that.”

Speaking on RTÉ, sharpshooter Gillane said of the Monaleen tactical genius: “He literally broke everything down to a tee for us during the week.

“He made it as simple as possible for us, all we had to do was go out and work hard. Whatever way he had us set up, that looked after the rest.”

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