Beary now proving a perfect fit for revitalised Shannonsiders

When Donal O’Grady stepped down from his position with Limerick on April 22, there was panic in the county, real fears that the vacuum created couldn’t be filled in time for the challenge they faced against Tipperary in Thurles in the Munster semi-final.

Into the first breech stepped TJ Ryan, taking full control. His first major solo managerial act? Appointing Paul Beary as coach.

Outside of Limerick, the reaction was ‘Paul who?’ Inside Limerick though, it was a popular appointment, the Na Piarsaigh clubman well known in local circles, having coached the club team to its first senior county title and following it up with a Munster success in 2011. That feat was repeated last year, and it made him the obvious choice to come into the management team as a selector.

“I’m Na Piarsaigh through and through, the same vintage as Damien Quigley [veteran former Limerick player, still playing senior with Na Piarsaigh],” he said. “We were on the same team. We won all the underage county titles, U12, U14. We won the All-Ireland Féile too that year. We won U16, minor, U21, junior, intermediate... the only medal I don’t have that he does is senior, but he thanks me enough for it!

“I stopped playing senior around nine years ago, played a bit of junior after that but I always had an appetite to train and coach teams. I wanted to do it with the right credentials, I got a qualification through Setanta College. After that it was pot luck. I think it was January 2011 our chairman Timmy O’Connor asked if I’d help Seán Stack with the training of the senior team and that was my first involvement with coaching.”

Though this was indeed a step-up to the big leagues, Beary wasn’t fazed.

“It’s not too dissimilar, actually. As a coach, you’d have your own principles in terms of training and coaching, and they wouldn’t be too dissimilar to what I had with Seán Stack with Na Piarsaigh.”

Not a hit-and-hope appointment then by TJ. He knew what he was doing and the fact Beary was already involved with the team was an advantage. Another advantage was the quality of the players he was working with. As reigning Munster champions, this is now a seasoned and talented group, determined to go one better than last year.

“Similar to my time with Na Piarsaigh, I’ve been very lucky. When I got involved with Na Piarsaigh in 2011, it was my first involvement with a senior team, and it’s been the same with Limerick. Those players maintain their own standards. They actually put demands on the management team, they’re looking for the best of the best in terms of training standards, nutrition, mental side of the game.”

So they’re pushing the coach as much as he’s pushing them?

“Absolutely, they’re leading the charge and it’s up to the whole management team to make sure we respond to that, giving back the best standards we possibly can.”

To that end Beary uses all the new technology and analysis aids that are now out there. That’s all they are though, he stresses: aids. “There’s a lot there. We have our statisticians, video analysis and all that but what I like to do, maybe a couple of nights after a game, is to look at the full game very slowly in my own time and draw my own conclusions. What I’m looking for more than anything else is something I can take from the match, take a few layers backwards and convert it to something I can do on the training pitch, convert it to something I can use in the next match.”

So it is that over the last five weeks, players will have been poring over DVDs of their own individual performances and viewing snippets of their likely direct opponents in Cork.

“Yeah, it’s down to that detail. It’s all coded now, you can get out individual performances there and then or you can pick out the opposition in the lead-up to matches, look at the guy you’re potentially marking and his performances — all very detailed and chronicled.”

Just like the man himself, not that well chronicled yet, but detailed, very detailed. Just what this team needed.