Clare U21 hurling coach Paul Kinnerk has described the three-in-a-row side as "once in a lifetime".

The Banner County defeated Cork at Ennis on Wednesday night to claim their third successive Munster U21 crown and this same crop of players also won the 2010 and '11 provincial minor titles.

Kinnerk, who coaches the all-conquering Clare crew on behalf of co-managers Gerry O'Connor and Donal Moloney, admits it has been an unbelievable journey:

"It has been incredible," he says in The Irish Examiner. "If you told us five years ago down in Walsh Park when we were beaten by Waterford by eight points in the first round of the Munster minor championship that this team would go on and win five provincial championships in a row I would have thought that you were mad.

"With this group of players they have got it. Their standards are so high. Cork came into it in the second half but I still thought our lads were relentless in their efforts. The blocking and hooking was immense and any score that Cork got they had to work so hard for. They are an incredible group, a once in a lifetime group.

"We have a panel of 37 players and it is the boys that didn't even get to tog out that are making sure that the lads who started are being pushed to the wire in training. We try and train 30% harder than what we are likely to face in a match so that our boys are so well prepared. That is what we try and do. It needs 37 players to pull that off." Tweet

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