SHANE DOWLING HAS lauded Limerick after completing an historic six-in-a-row in the Munster senior hurling championship.
“It’s magical times,” the former Limerick hurler said on The Sunday Game after John Kiely’s side became the first team to achieve the Munster SHC feat.
They beat Clare in the final for the third consecutive year to lift the Mick Mackey Cup.
It finished 1-26 to 1-20 in Thurles.
“Incredible,” Dowling told The Sunday Game presenter Jacqui Hurley.
“The kids that are growing up in Limerick now know no different [to success]. I know when I was growing up, Limerick were struggling to win a game in Munster hurling, let alone six-in-a-row.
“The way it’s gone now, Munster is so gruesome. Even getting out of Munster is an achievement, not alone winning six-in-a-row. Listen, it’s magical times.
“They’re so consistent every single day they go out. People are saying, ‘What do you think of the game?’ and you’re saying, ‘Ah sure Limerick are going to be favourites in the majority of the games they play,’ but they never have a lull. Even if they do have a lull in-game, like down in Cork, they come out in the second half and they pull it back. They’re just so consistent.”
“John Kiely – 14 finals, 14 wins, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” he added.
“They’ve been faced with adversity as well: Sean Finn, Peter Casey, Darragh O’Donovan and Seamus Flanagan out injured, Cian Lynch was taken off after 52 minutes today.
“Four incredible players not on the field of play and just being able to replace them and just keep on doing the same thing, it’s really incredible.”
💬 "They've been faced with adversity as well"
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 9, 2024
Shane Dowling reacts to Limerick's Munster SHC six-in-a-row success"
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Former Wexford camogie star Ursula Jacob and Galway legend Joe Canning joined Dowling on the programme.
Jacob questioned if Clare had regressed.
“It’s a huge psychological blow; it’s a seventh Munster final loss since they won their last one in ’98 and a third final defeat to Limerick,” she said.
“The big question now is can Clare recover from this? Looking on today’s performance, have they gone back a little bit?
“They couldn’t handle the pressure, maybe today. There was more pressure on Clare and they struggled in the key moments today and they’ll be very, very disappointed because Limerick by far were the better team overall and they fully deserved the win.”
Can the Banner bounce back and have a say in the All-Ireland championship?
“It all depends on what way they look at it,” Canning explained.
“They can look at it as a poor performance in the Munster final after losing to Limerick again, or look at the chances they missed and take positives out of the creation that they had.
“Brian Lohan and these lads will try and put a positive on it as much as they can; that probably is the only way they can go about things if they want to progress further in the championship.
“They have to try and put out a positive spin and fix little things. At the end of the day, they didn’t feed Shane O’Donnell as much as they should have. He’s their best player all year. Tony Kelly didn’t get to the pitch of the game because Shane O’Donnell wasn’t involved as much. It’s not Shane O’Donnell’s fault or Tony Kelly’s fault, it’s coming further out the field.”
John Kiely is such an impressive manager. Always speaks so well, no ego and seems like a real father figure to those players. There was a Mayoral election in Limerick on Friday – if he ran he probably would have won, I’m guessing!
Limerick don’t have the 6 in a row or 14 leinster title
@Alan Moloney: They will soon enough, Cork the only team capable of even staying with them or deposing them over the next few years.
@Alan Moloney: Can’t take anything away from the Dubs 6 in a row, but the 14 leinsters come with a big asterisk. No competition whatever, in comparison to Limerick, who have to play 4 of the top 5 in the country every year just to win a munster title.
@The Firestarter: Cork beat limerick in PUC in a game they had to win and needed a last minute penalty to do so. Try beating Limerick in a different ground. Different task doing so in Croke Park. They’ve it all to prove in my opinion.