Shane Dowling is as honest as the day is long.
The man will say what’s on his mind, he doesn’t care about the reaction and you can take it or leave it from there.
The Na Piarsaigh forward was absolutely sickened not to get the start in Limerick’s first All-Ireland final appearance since 2007 on Sunday and he’s not even going to try and hide that.
Let’s just think about it for a second. This is Shane Dowling we’re talking about, a man who’s been the Treaty County’s main attacking weapon ever since he burst onto the scene as a nineteen-year-old back in 2012.
He was the key man under Donal O’Grady, the free-taker under TJ Ryan, he’s always been the main man for Na Piarsaigh and he sure has hell never known anything about life on the sidelines, until this year.
Whatever it was about Na Piarsaigh’s club run to the All-Ireland final this year, it didn’t seem to help men like Kevin Downes, David Dempsey, Peter Casey or Shane Dowling with their Limerick aspirations.
While Aaron Gillane, Hayes , Flanagan and co. came of age in the League, the Na Piarsaigh men were left behind and bar Mike Casey at full back, none of them nailed their spot on the team.
That was tough to take for Shane Dowling, he’s man enough to admit that but he was also man enough not to feel sorry for himself. He had to make-do with the role of supersub and he went onto make it his own.
He turned the semi-final with 1-4 off the bench, he scored the crucial goal in the final.
SportsJOE’s Colm Parkinson caught up with him on Monday morning in the City West and with his thick Limerick accent flowing, he came to glorious life.
“I would have loved to have started,” he said passionately.
“All you’ve ever dreamt of is the 15 players going around for the parade…
And he was upset not to be involved in that. So in order to distract himself and in order to prevent any feelings of self-pity, he decided to step away from it all and house himself in the sanctuary of Limerick’s dressing room toilets.
“Even the whole Michael D thing, I went into the dressing room, into the bathroom. I wanted to stay away from it to get my own head right, that’s being selfish and I’m a selfish bugger.
“All this circus is going on outside, and I just went away from it and then came back out focused when the teams came back around. I didn’t want that negative stuff, to be feeling sorry for myself…it was just to leave whatever disappointment, fire it into the sink and get back out.”
He got back out there alright.
GOAL LIMERICK! Shane Dowling with a great finish! pic.twitter.com/rerNCWfwik
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 19, 2018
And just like everybody else he thought it was all over after that. But then Galway came.
“After the goal I did get carried away. You were celebrating like, ‘that’s it, job déanta.’ Do you know what I think was a massive thing? 8 minutes of additional time – it gave them a boost, their fans that were quiet for most periods of that second half seemed to come to life for it…That was huge,” he said.
And haunting flashbacks of 1994 when Limerick were pipped by Offaly at the death of an All-Ireland final went through his head, they went through everybody’s head he says.
“After the game, I was standing in the middle of the field with Paul Kinnerk and I said Paul, ‘honestly did 94 go through your head?’ He said it did.”
“It went through everybody’s head, and even though it has absolutely nothing got to do with anyone, it was such a significant defeat that to eventually put it to bed, thanks be to God.”
“A draw yesterday would have been a defeat. The initial feeling after the game would have been disaster.
“The minute he hit it, I knew it wasn’t going over. I was like ‘go over or go wide, don’t drop into the square.’ I was never so relieved to see Tom come out with the ball.”
He was delighted to see his fellow old soldiers Richie McCarthy and Tom Condon get some game-time.
“For them two lads to get on the field, to get game-time, to make a difference, that was massive for me.
It was a great day all-round.
