It was the goal that should have put the final nail into Galway’s coffin.
Limerick were leading by five points, Kyle Hayes and Seamus Flanagan had combined brilliantly to get the Shannonsiders going in the second-half, Tom Morrissey pounced on a mistake from Gearoid McInerney and punished Galway with a well taken goal, and then Dowling had the chance to sink the defending champions chances with one last strike.
GOAL LIMERICK! Shane Dowling with a great finish! pic.twitter.com/rerNCWfwik
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 19, 2018
The substitute forward showed great instincts to evade the challenges of the covering Galway defenders and send the Limerick fans into ecstasy with his side’s final goal of the game.
RTE did a good job of capturing the fans reaction but new fan footage from Cody Keenan, a speechwriter for US President and honourary Limerick fan Barack Obama, shows just how much the score meant to supporters from the Treaty County.
OK I’m a hurling fan now pic.twitter.com/xd260bvkvb
— Cody Keenan (@codykeenan) August 19, 2018
Dowling revealed that he was praying for Galway forward Joe Canning’s last ditch free not to find its way to its intended target but that Limerick’s resiliency can be attributed to early instruction during the season from manager John Kiely.
“Anyone who knows me knows I’m not short of words,” Dowling said in his post-match interview.
“I just can’t believe it. It’s all I’ve ever wanted since I was a young fella, and we’ve got there.
“I don’t know how many prayers I said when Joe Canning sent in the last ball. I just can’t believe it. It means the world.
“It’s a long time waiting, I remember going into the boxing ring with this man Kyle Hayes in St Francis’ last October, the end of October, and we were going in, literally bating the heads off each other.
“John has been saying it all year, we have to fight with ourselves before we fight with anyone else. We have to respect ourselves.
“John is always saying that about training, if you were to come up to some of our training sessions you would think lads wouldn’t be talking to each other.”
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