IN ALL FAIRNESS - The late Liam Kearns

When I first got wind on Sunday night that Liam Kearns had died, my first reaction was, there must be another famous Liam Kearns that I didn’t know of. Sadly, that wasn’t to be the case and two days on it is still difficult to process that a man who was still so active, indeed taking training with the Offaly footballers last Sunday morning, was no longer with us just a couple of hours later.

His impact on Gaelic football, particularly on teams and counties away from the limelight was incredible. As a player, he won an All-Ireland minor title with Kerry in 1980, including scoring a hat-trick in a narrow Munster semi-final win over Tipperary. He was unfortunate that he came through in an era of the great Kerry team at senior level and it was hard to break into it in the 1980’s, even when many of those great players were past their best.

However, it is in coaching where he really made his mark, firstly with the Limerick under 21’s in 2000 whom he guided to back to back Munster titles plus an All-Ireland final appearance. That Limerick team contained many of the same faces that won a three-in-a-row of All-Ireland Under 21 Hurling titles including Stephen Lucey, Conor Fitzgerald and Brian Geary.

It was no surprise to see him go on to manage the Limerick seniors and in 2003 I can still recall watching their 0-16 to 0-6 demolition of Cork in the Munster Championship in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. He guided them to two Munster Finals, losing narrowly to Kerry on both occasions, and also helped Limerick into division 1 of the National League.

His one mistake as a manager was agreeing to be the successor to Mick O’Dwyer as manager of Laois in late 2006. You were on a hiding to nothing there. However, Liam’s connections with Laois were strong as his mother was from there, plus they still had a strong team that won a Leinster title in 2003 and he guided them to another provincial final in 2007. However, his time there lasted just two years.

His first link with Tipperary began in 2008 when he took over the Aherlow senior footballers whom he guided to the county title in 2010 and were good enough to claim a Munster title but were narrowly pipped by Colm Cooper’s Dr Crokes in a Munster semi-final. That was one defeat that hurt him.

Kearns got back involved at senior level with Roscommon as coach under manager John Evans, and through his time with Aherlow and John Evans involvement with Tipp, he had all he needed to know when he went for the Tipperary job in 2015. He refused to take no for an answer from the Tipperary Football Board and thankfully they came to the right decision.

To get involved with Tipperary at that time was a no brainer, just four years before the county had won an All-Ireland minor title and in 2015 they reached an All-Ireland under 21 final, losing to Tyrone, so the talent was there. However, the cards he thought he had were not the ones he was dealt come his first campaign with so many key players either opting off the panel, were injured, gone travelling, called into the hurling panel or going to Australia as Colin O’Riordan chose to.

It would be fair to say that what Liam Kearns achieved in 2016 in reaching an All-Ireland semi-final was nothing short of a miracle. He brought that winning mindset from Kerry, and never was that more in evidence than in the Munster semi-final when they defeated Cork, a game in which they gave up a big lead and it looked as if it was going to be another heart-breaking loss, but they kicked two points in added time to win.

From there, he and the players gave the supporters some ride and as big as the All-Ireland senior hurling win that year was, I got as much enjoyment out of the footballers progress to the semi-final. The win over Derry in Cavan ensured Tipp would be going to Croke Park and playing with the big boys in an All-Ireland quarter final. One wondered could be mix it, but what we got that day against Galway was the most complete performance from any Tipperary football side. They played with skill, style, confidence and a swagger that left everyone from Tipperary with immense pride. They also performed in the semi-final against Mayo but didn’t get the rub of the green and one still wonders what if Robbie Kiely hadn’t been harshly black-carded.

There were other great days, including raiding the Orchard in Armagh in 2017 to pip the home side to promotion, beating Cavan in Cavan in the same year in the championship with an amazing second half performance with a depleted squad, while in 2018 he was a late Cavan winning point away from guiding Tipperary to division 1 football for 2019.

His final year in 2019 might have petered out but what Liam Kearns gave Tipperary football for four years was nothing short of incredible and the only disappointment is that we never got to welcome him back to Semple Stadium since. Next Saturday’s meeting with his Offaly team will now prove to be a wake, but for premier county supporters it will be one of happy memories for a man whom we can anoint as an honorary Tipperary man! May he Rest in Peace.