Dowling left 'disappointed' by fans

TEENAGE SENSATION Shane Dowling has expressed disappointment with Limerick supporters for their lack of faith in the county hurlers.

It was one of those rare moments when a burgeoning sportsman ignores the option to provide clichéd responses, instead calling it as he sees it.

“Personally, this is my first year in the senior panel and I was very disappointed with the Limerick public,” said Dowling yesterday at the launch of the Bord Gáis Energy under-21 hurling championship.

“Some of the stuff that you’re being told or hearing or seeing, it didn’t make any difference to us as everyone could see from the performance , but it was just disappointing to see and to hear.”

Dowling is one of hurling’s brightest young talents. Despite only being 19 years old, he’s already an irreplaceable member of John Allen’s team, having also guided Na Piarsaigh to county and provincial club championship titles in 2011.

Remarkably mature for his age, Dowling interestingly touched upon the wide-ranging reach of multimedia in the modern era and the pressure the likes of Twitter and online forums can heap upon sports people in Ireland.

“It doesn’t mean anything to the players. Because if it did we’d have been beaten by 30 points in Thurles. It would have been a waste of time turning up.

“As someone said to me, it must have been an awful feeling going up knowing you were going to get a trimming. Why do you have to listen to this? We knew we weren’t going to get a trimming.

“I’d just ask the Limerick public to leave us do what we can because at the end of the day, some of us are full-time workers, some of us have families with kids and don’t get paid anything for it. We try our best and I hope that they realise that.

“We were eight points up against Clare and regardless of whatever happened it shows that we’re there or thereabouts.

“It showed against Tipperary, we’re there or thereabouts. Now, there or thereabouts isn’t good enough. We have to get over that.

“It’s nice to hear positivity coming from your own people. Maybe it’s just my inexperience coming in the first year but even these online forums, thank God I don’t go near them but some of the stuff that I do hear is ridiculous. People behind keyboards writing stuff about you, it’s ridiculous.

“You just ask for patience. It’s a learning curve and maybe in another two or three years if nothing happens then maybe it’s time to start talking.”

Dowling landed 0-8, four from play, in his Munster championship debut at Semple Stadium a fortnight ago and despite many onlookers concluding Limerick’s fitness down the straight proved their undoing – they led the game by seven points with 20 minutes left on the clock – he saw it differently.

“Absolutely not. It’s just all rumours. It’s just people looking for excuses. You look at Séamus Callanan, the Bonnar Maher, Shane McGrath, these are All Star guys coming on, All-Ireland winners, with 10 minutes to go.

“Any team might get a small bit lethargic in the last 10 minutes and then when you have these guys running at you it’s just a bit hard. Maybe if we were in Division 1A the experience would tell a bit.

“If we got a goal during our spell , regardless who came on, I think we’d have got there. But that’s the way it was and that’s the way it ended.”

Dowling is adamant Limerick hurling is making progress and feels this has been evident since they won the Division Two title last year.

“In 2011 Donal O’Grady came down and did a great job, John Allen is doing a great job; we’re slowly getting there. Just hopefully people will buy into that. I think people have now realised that we aren’t at it – but we’re not too far off it. Hopefully we’ll get there but we need every bit of support that we can get.

“Maybe, I’ve been lucky in the fact that I won the Harty Cup with the school and then last year with the under-21s , this year we’ve been having a good run with the club.

“I’ve lost a lot of things as well, two All-Ireland finals with the school and many other things. It’s something that, I suppose, there’s a few of us going into the senior set-up and unless we win, unless we win a Munster or an All-Ireland the year’s going to be a failure.

“We haven’t reached a Munster final but the All-Ireland is still there and we’ll make a go at it and see where it takes us.”