LAST UPDATE | 30 Nov 2020

LIMERICK ARE BACK in the All-Ireland senior hurling final, and that’s all that matters to John Kiely and his side.

After a gut-wrenching semi-final exit last year, the Treaty will be hoping to repeat the feat of 2018 and get their hands on the Liam MacCarthy Cup once again. 

Yesterday’s last-four battle with Galway was a repeat of the Croke Park decider two years ago, Limerick once again surviving a late onslaught to seal a 0-27 to 0-24 win.

And having ended a 45-year wait for All-Ireland glory in 2018, the county are certainly hungry for more as they gear up to face Waterford in a unique All-Ireland final.

A supersub and goalscorer that day two years ago, Shane Dowling was in jubilant form on The42′s GAA Weekly, mapping just how far Limerick have come over the past decade or so.

While the return to the biggest day in the inter-county hurling calendar is certainly a welcome one, and one to be celebrated, it’s bittersweet for Dowling, who was forced to retire aged 27 due to injury this summer.

But the Na Piarsaigh man didn’t dwell on that.

“It’s phenomenal,” Dowling told former Kerry star Marc Ó Sé.

People of Limerick certainly won’t forget, only 10 years ago in 2010 there was a big strike in Limerick. Between players being thrown off the panel via text and players walking away in their support, 10 years ago Limerick hurling was on the floor, to put it mildly.

“At the time I was 18 and all I wanted to do was play with Limerick, I was looking on and first of all, I saw my heroes dropped and then I saw a lot of their buddies going with them. It wasn’t nice.

“Donal O’Grady came in in 2011 and steadied the ship a bit, but didn’t do anything. John Allen came in in 2012, got to a quarter-final, well beaten by Kilkenny. Okay, we won a Munster in ’13. But from ’16 back, Limerick hurling wasn’t consistent.

“The players were there, we were getting big wins, but what Limerick hurling is now, I hope people really enjoy it because it could be short for years, could be long for years — hopefully it’ll be long for years. But Limerick will not [always] be able to contest All-Irelands and Munster championships because players will move on, injuries will hit, new bodies will come in, there’ll be a regrouping phase.

I just hope people aren’t taking it for granted because what we have now is just incredible. For me, some of my best friends were playing there today, I have green running through my veins, I was absolutely delighted that they got over the line.

“It’s obviously disappointing and upsetting that I couldn’t be there with them, but just totally honoured and proud to be from Limerick because what they’ve done over the last few years has really highlighted that when the people of Limerick come together and have the right people involved, this is what we can do and long may it last.

“To be back in an All-Ireland final, they’re few and far between for us down here and it’s just great to be looking forward to it again.”

Dowling also got into the nitty-gritty of the three-point win over the Tribe, and gave a deep insight into how the game was ultimately won — referencing his club’s 2016 All-Ireland final defeat to Cuala, and how the same tactical plan from Shane O’Neill fell just short then too.

Galway boss O’Neill was in charge of Na Piarsaigh at the time and hatched a plan for their main attacking threat, Con O’Callaghan. He did the same for Aaron Gillane yesterday. 

Both players had been left one-on-one very close to goal, with space either side of them free as corner forwards and their markers — or sweepers — drift out the field, allowing them to cause havoc inside.

Daithi Burke and Aaron Gillane. Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

“What we decided to do was one of our players who was selected to play corner back stayed in the corner back position, didn’t move,” Dowling explained.

“Mike Casey, who was our full-back, marked Con O’Callaghan at the other side of him so when Cuala got the ball, if they hit it down to one corner we had a corner back there waiting for it, and if they hit it to the other corner, Casey was able to get in front of Con O’Callaghan.

“Alan Dempsey should have got man-of-the-match and we should have won that game, only for mise here made an absolute feck-up of a free to put us four points up going into injury time and they came back and got a goal. Con O’Callaghan didn’t puck a ball for the whole game.

“No team has ever done that before or since, in my opinion and from what I’ve seen. I said it before then game today that I had a sneaky feeling he [O'Neill] might do it.”

So what too had been working a treat for Gillane was hampered.

What Galway did, they played a man in the number two position and the Galway full-back was able to play on the other side of Aaron Gillane.

“If they hit it down to the number two position, there was a spare man, and if they hit it to the other corner, Daithi Burke was able to get there first. That’s what happened. So Seamus Flanagan, Aaron Gillane, Graeme Mulcahy; all taken off. Between the three of them, Seamus got two points from play. So did the tactic work? It did.”

“Another interesting point is Alan Cunningham, who’s a Limerick selector, was Na Piarsaigh coach in 2016,” Dowling added.  “He would have seen very quickly what Shane O’Neill was up to and would have got word down to John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk what was going on.

“What did they do? They played the ball through their half forward line because they couldn’t hit it in deep. What did the Limerick half forwards do? Score 11 points from play. That was the winning of the game.”

First published today at 10.00

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