Paul Kinnerk (born 12 December 1985) is an Irish

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

coach and

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er who plays as a midfielder at senior level for the Limerick county team.

Playing career

Born in Monaleen,

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

, Kinnerk first played competitive hurling whilst at school in Ardscoil Rís. He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of twenty when he first linked up with the Limerick under-21 team. He made his senior debut in the 2011 championship. Kinnerk went on to play a cameo role for Limerick over the following few seasons. At club level he has won five

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

medals (2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2016) with Monaleen.

Managerial career

Kinnerk has also been heavily involved in team management and coaching, with his first involvement in senior inter-county hurling being with the Clare county team. Over a number of years he served as coach and selector to the Clare minor, under-21 and senior hurling teams. In his time with as a coach with the Clare minor hurlers, the team won successive (2010, 2011) Munster titles. The following three years (2012 - 2014) saw him serve as both coach to the Clare U21 and Clare senior team; roles he fulfilled while also playing senior inter-county football with his native county Limerick. The Clare U21 teams were undefeated during this period, winning three munster and three all-Ireland titles. Under his guidance, the senior team won the

2013 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The 2013 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was the 126th staging of the All-Ireland championship since its establishment in 1887. The draw for the 2013 fixtures took place on 4 October 2012. The championship began on 5 May 2013 and ended o ...

title. In 2017, Kinnerk took up a role as coach to the Limerick senior hurling team. In the following season, Limerick won the

2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (SHC) was the 131st staging of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1887. It is the first tier of senior inter-county champions ...

for the first time since 1973. Under Kinnerk's guidance, the team would go on to win another four All-Ireland SHC titles in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 along with six Munster SHC titles (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and three National League titles (2019, 2020, 2023).

References

1985 births Living people Clare county hurling team Hurling coaches Hurling selectors Irish schoolteachers Limerick county hurling team Monaleen Gaelic footballers Limerick inter-county Gaelic footballers Monaleen hurlers 21st-century Irish sportsmen {{Limerick-gaelic-football-bio-stub