Liam Kearns is a Gaelic football manager and former player. He has managed Offaly since 2022. Kearns previously managed the Limerick, Laois and Tipperary county teams, as well as several clubs in different counties. He led Tipperary to a 2016 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final, the county's first since 1935. After leaving Tipperary and before being appointed Offaly manager, Kearns managed Clann na nGael GAA (Roscommon). Early life Kearns's father Ollie captained Kerry to an All-Ireland MFC final in the late 1950s. His father Ollie was then a wing-forward on the Graiguecullen team that won their last Laois Senior Football Championship title in 1965. Playing career As a player, Liam Kearns was a member of the Austin Stacks club and played for the Kerry minor team for two years, winning an All-Ireland Minor Football Championship (MFC) with them in 1980. He graduated to become a member of the Kerry under-21 and senior football panels and won a Kerry Senior Football Championship medal with Austin Stacks in 1986. Managerial career Limerick Kearns coached the Na Piarsaigh club to the Limerick Under-21 Football Championship in 1997, the club's only under-21 county football title. That team included Declan Lynch (Head of Sports Medicine Bath Rugby), Mike Prendergast (FC Grenoble assistant coach), Ian Costello (former Munster Rugby backs coach) and Comdt Joe Mullins, who captained it. Kearns turned Limerick into the second team in Munster as they outflanked Cork. He managed the Limerick under-21 team to successive Munster titles and to an appearance in the All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship final. In 2003 he led Limerick to a Division 2 National Football League (NFL) final, where they were beaten by Westmeath on the same day that Laois lost to Tyrone in the Division 1 decider. The following year he led Limerick to a defeat of Laois in a Division 1 NFL tie at the Gaelic Grounds, and, that year, Limerick reached the Munster Senior Football Championship final, which they lost on a replay to Kerry. He spent six years managing Limerick and helped to raise the county's profile. Laois Tralee man Kearns (whose mother is from Laois) was appointed as Mick O'Dwyer's successor as senior Laois county football team manager in September 2006. In being appointed he saw off the challenge of former Laois player Pat Roe, who had a successful spell in charge of Wexford. Laois reached the finals of both the O'Byrne Cup