Shane Dowling: 'I was a part of it and for that I’ll be forever grateful’

A PREMATURE retirement through injury can unfairly age a sportsperson.

When the body fails in some such way as it did for Dowling, they can suddenly seem older than they actually are. His authoritative manner and self-confidence, such as we have seen during his frequent appearances on The Sunday Game, also informs this untimely assessment. He simply carries himself like an older man than he is.

Moreover, our perception of him is tied up in his final few years as a Limerick hurler. It was in this period that he became the county’s all-time top scorer in championship hurling. While having to content himself largely with appearances off the bench, this magnificent achievement almost came to seem like an inevitable landmark that a long-serving player had reached. The reality is though that Dowling was still only 25 years old when he surpassed Gary Kirby’s record in the summer of 2018.

Injuries notwithstanding, he was maybe at the mid-way point of his inter-county career. With all that he had already achieved, it can be forgotten that he had so much left to offer. To their immense credit, this is something John Kiely and his management team understood. ‘When a big moment was required Shane was a player you could depend on to produce a piece of magic,’ read a statement on behalf of Kiely and his team after Dowling announced his retirement. ‘These moments of leadership are what separates the good player from the great player.’ Despite becoming a ‘super sub’ years before age would have warranted that transition, Dowling remained a great player.

Although it was not to his liking then or now, he has since come to appreciate the effectiveness of Kiely’s plan for him.
When the 2018 season got underway, Dowling was at the other end of his rushed recovery from a first knee injury. In February, he scored a goal of breathtaking individual brilliance in the All-Ireland club semi-final against Slaughtneil. A second All-Ireland title for Na Piarsaigh was within grasp the following month but it ultimately went the way of the Leinster champions Cuala.

These club commitments resulted in Dowling playing no part in Limerick’s promotion from Division 1B in the National League. Following the first two games of the revamped round robin Munster Championship, he had yet to make an appearance. Thanks in no small part to the red card Aaron Gillane picked up against Cork in that second outing, however, Dowling was given a chance against Waterford which he seized, and another against Clare which did not quite go his way.

Hoping that he might get a chance to redeem himself against Carlow in a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final, Dowling was overlooked in favour of the returning Gillane.

‘I would get very low on a Friday night in terms of team selection,’ he admits, somewhat coming to terms with what he could still do for Limerick by Saturday morning. ‘I remember actually meeting John Kiely the following year and we sat down for a cup of tea together. We were chatting away, and I just said to him, “I really thought that I would be starting against Carlow, John.’”Not sure what to expect by way of a reply, Kiely’s response bewildered him. ‘He just looked at me and went, “Yeah Shane, so did I,’” Dowling recalls.

‘I was just like thinking to myself, What are you on about? You pick the team!‘ But he explained that when they all sat down together, there was a trust there in me that I could come off the bench to make an impact.
‘What do you say to that?’

SHANE Dowling's Extraordinary contribution to Limerick can be boiled down to about half-an-hour of hurling. When he reflects on that All- Ireland semi-final defeat of Cork in 2018, it is with the satisfaction of one who has experienced a lifetime’s worth of effort rewarded in an almighty flash of brilliance.

‘Everything I touched worked,’ he recalls, ‘and that rarely happens.’

Trailing Cork by six points, Diarmuid Byrnes uncharacteristically missed a chance to score from range moments after Dowling’s arrival. ‘Sometimes you need a game like this in Croke Park to learn from it for the following year,’ Michael Duignan mused on RTE commentary, the bulk of Limerick’s young panel experiencing a first big day out with major expectations upon them. One of the few who could call on 2013 and ’14 to steady any pre-match nerves, Dowling had reckoned from a while out that he would be starting on the bench.

No nerves for him, not that it was ever really an issue. ‘Myself and Sean Finn had gotten into a habit of heading off for a sleep before the games,’ he admits, Limerick’s routine base in the Crowne Plaza Hotel a hive of activity from which they were happy to take their leave. ‘Everyone was different and that’s where Caroline Currid was so important. She would encourage you do whatever was necessary to get in the right frame of mind.’

Emerging in time to make the bus journey to Croke Park, there was no fear of Dowling becoming overawed by the occasion. ‘Not starting allowed me to relax that bit more,’ he admits, ‘but I liked having a bit of craic and messing with lads on the bus.
‘You just have to know who you can mess with... and who you’re better off leaving alone!’

This was part of what made Dowling such an impactful substitute. Unquestionably talented, the luxury of calling on such a player safe in the knowledge that he was ready is obvious. ‘I’d still be having the craic on the bench with whoever is around me,’ he explains, keeping a close eye on proceedings all the while, ‘but then I can change my mood in an instant, for good and sometimes bad.

‘I remember Peter Casey saying about me that I could be acting like a three- year-old for two hours straight and then, all of a sudden, I’m a different person. Some lads need to be in the zone for hours beforehand to be ready, but I’ve always been able to do it instantly.’

‘Limerick: A Biography in Nine Lives’ is published by Hero Books and is available in all good bookstores (and also on Amazon as an ebook €9.99, paperback €20, and hardback €25