Limerick All-Ireland winner Shane Dowling backs criticism of 'new rules'

ALL-IRELAND winner and former Limerick hurler Shane Dowling has backed up John Kiely after he hit out at new rules effecting the flow of the game following Limerick’s loss to Galway last Sunday at Pearse Stadium.

The Na Piarsaigh man was speaking to BoyleSports’ Leon Blanche this week and claimed that the issue has become more pressing due to the condensed nature of the schedule.

He said: “We are in May now and if this was the second game of the league in the first or second week of February, people would be saying it’s still early and give it time. But because we are in May and the Championship is not far away, people are getting carried away. But I would agree with what John Kiely said in his post-match interview.”

“I’m not blaming the referees here and I don’t think John is blaming the referees either. It’s more about coming down hard on the people behind the scenes. Let’s not forget that for every match, a referee has an assessor and is scoring them on what they want.

“Sometimes referees are calling games on how the assessor wants them to, rather than what’s being played in front of them. That’s why Brian Gavin and Barry Kelly were fantastic referees, because to my mind it looked as if they didn’t care about the assessor and they were going to referee the game in front of them.”