Being a inter-county hurler is fun again, says Limerick's Shane Dowling

As Limerick’s players walked out onto the pitch for a look and feel on Sunday, Irish music played over the tannoy.

On hearing it, Shane Dowling attempted to entice Declan Hannon into a Siege of Ennis-like jig.

If Limerick were nervous, they weren’t showing it.

Earlier in the summer, Cian Lynch had mentioned how he had rediscovered the fun element of being an inter-county hurler.

A character as much as a hurler, Dowling never lost it, but he couldn’t praise John Kiely enough for allowing and trusting players to enjoy themselves.

“Ten years ago, you wouldn’t touch a drop of liquor from January ’til nearly the end of the season. None.

“Now, after every Championship game, we all go and enjoy ourselves, management included.

“The whole enjoyment side, which I believe was gone for the last number of years, because of how serious it went, that’s after going full circle again, and people are after buying back into the amateur, enjoyment side of it, which is very important.

“Especially with this group of lads. You’d want to see them, half an hour, 40 minutes before throw-in, if you walked into the dressing room, you’d genuinely say to yourself: ‘Are these boys actually going hurling in an All-Ireland final?’

“Myself and Cian would be very similar. I knew him before he came on the scene, and the one thing we said was about the whole enjoyment side, and for a while it was gone, and we kept trying to bring it back in.

“Even small things — like the ice cream van would pull into training at the Gaelic Grounds, and everyone was just chilling out on the field, having a 99. That would not have been heard of five or six years ago.”

As it did when they returned to the dressing room to celebrate, music has played a major role in the team’s preparations this season.

“After every game, there’s chilling inside the dressing room,” Dowling explains.

“We’d be playing music, some lads would get up singing, some get up dancing, and that’s what I mean by the fun element and the great craic. It was brilliant to be involved with all of that.”

He expects more than he hopes that this success won’t go to their heads.

“People can call me whatever they like but the one thing I can say is that I’ve a head on my shoulders. The Shane Dowling that was in this life last week, last month, last year, will be Shane Dowling next week, next month, next year. This is not going to change me.

“It’s something we spoke about after the game. I don’t want it to change anyone else’s life. It’s brilliant, it’s fantastic — we’re amateurs. What we’ve done is forever in the history books. And people in Limerick I’m sure will be forever indebted to us. But the show must go on. Hurling, fine. Life as well. I’d hate to think anyone will get carried away. Not in hurling — but in life. That is something we’ll all be trying to focus on.”

At the same time, he calls the triumph for the spectacular one it was.

“What makes me smile as well, and I’m probably being biased here, but it’s probably the greatest All-Ireland ever won. It has to be. Look at the teams Limerick have beaten.”

“How hard it is to get out of Munster this year. To beat a Kilkenny team with Brian Cody at the helm. And then to beat the Munster champions. It adds to the whole thing.

“There is nothing worse than if you were to win an All-Ireland and go the easy route as such. To go down the route where there is only one way, and that’s forward, and to win it that way…”

After starring as a substitute in the semi-final win over Cork, Dowling quipped that he had given Kiely something to think about for the final.

He knew for a while that he wasn’t going to be in the parade but had convinced himself it was a good thing.

“What I’ve been saying to myself in the last couple of weeks is to take it as a compliment, that the game’s in the melting pot with 20 minutes to go and I have to go in and try and finish it off, that’s the way I was looking at it. It’s the only way to look at it.

“I have to sit down and have a chat with myself. People know me long enough to know what Limerick means to me. You want to be doing everything that you can. It was what it was. I was only talking to John afterwards and, last November and December, Na Piarsaigh’s success could have been a massive burden considering how many players were missing but it was probably the greatest blessing in disguise.

“Unfortunately, a lot of us got the wrong end of it because the county team developed there (while we were away) but it was what it was.”

While Dowling, Peter Casey, and William O’Donoghue came on, Mike Casey was the only one of the All-Ireland senior club runners-up that began the final.

Dowling feels they were victims of that run to March.

“100%, I believe so. If you were there at the start of the year, some lads mightn’t have got opportunities that got opportunities, and they took them, which was fantastic, don’t get me wrong.”

Casey and Dowling combined for the latter’s goal but Dowling wasn’t so thankful for the pass.

“I owe him for the shite ball he gave me — I told him that last night as well! No, it was great.”

Faith or superstition, Dowling would lean towards it.

“I knew straight after the Tipp game this year we were on to something. It’s weird, you just have this feeling. This belief.”