TJ Ryan: Shane Dowling's Limerick comeback story is 'incredible'

Anthony Daly said Dowling's achievement "won't hardly be repeated".

COMEBACK: Shane Dowling started in goal for Limerick nearly five years after he was forced to announce his retirement from inter-county hurling. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

TJ Ryan said Shane Dowling's return to Allianz Hurling League action for Limerick nearly five years after he was forced into early inter-county retirement due to a knee injury is a remarkable feat.

It was announced in November that Dowling would be part of the Limerick panel for the 2025, coming in as another goalkeeping option for John Kiely in Nickie Quaid's injury enforced absence. Dowling started for Limerick in Sunday's league victory over Tipperary, nearly six years after his last game for the county, the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilkenny. 

"The Shane Dowling story is incredible," former Limerick manager Ryan said on the Dalo's Hurling Show, an Irish Examiner podcast. 

"What he did in 2018, obviously scoring the goal and helping Limerick win the All-Ireland for the first time in 45 years and the celebrations afterwards. Then his career is cut short because of a knee injury, and he's told he can't really play anymore. He goes and gets his operation, gets a bit of rehab done, goes off pursuing a coaching career. He's obviously an RTÉ for the analysis. 

"Then he gets a little bit of good news that the injury's kind of healing a little bit better. He thinks, 'Maybe I can go back and help my club and play in goals'. He went back playing for the Na Piarsaigh second team. Started to play really well, hitting long-range frees.

"Then decided he wanted to play in goals for the Na Piarsaigh first team the following year and knuckles down and gets that done. Obviously, with Nickie Quaid's news, he gets a break, gets a call from John Kiely. You'd have to give him credit to have a cut off it."

Anthony Daly said it's an achievement which "won't hardly be repeated". Mark Landers added that he, Daly and Ryan met Dowling at the Listowel Races one year. He was playing with the Na Piarsaigh intermediate team at the time, unsure if he'd even make it to the standard required for the club's senior side. Dowling was just 27 when that chronic knee problem forced him into retirement. 

"There's an awful lot of people," Ryan continued, "they might get injured and they blame and they don't do anything about it. Given what he had done, how many people like him would have gone back and played in goals for the second team in your club? Very few."

In Nickie Quaid's absence, Jason Gillane and Dowling have featured between the sticks for Limerick.

"He didn't do anything wrong," Ryan said of Dowling's performance, "his puck outs are very good. He has that outfield brain and he could read the runners."