Shane Dowling discusses the “importance” of Na Piarsaigh’s Limerick Intermediate Hurling triumph for the club

The Caherdavin outfit completed a county double this year, with triumphs in both the Limerick SHC and IHC.

Na Piarsaigh were crowned Limerick Intermediate Hurling champions following their 1-19 to 0-14 final win over Croagh-Kilfinny in Ballyagran yesterday.

The City side were in control for the majority of the game, leading the contest 0-9 to 0-6 at the interval but Croagh-Kilfinny remained in contention throughout the game and levelled the scoring after forty minutes.

However, Na Piarsaigh began to pull away as the games reached the closing stages and found the back of the net to ensure the victory through Kieran Daly and former Limerick star Shane Dowling believes this killed the game in their favour.

“In early doors we went four or five points up and Croagh had a purple patch in the last seven or eight minutes of the first half they brought it back to three and they started things the exact same way but I kind of said at half-time if a chance came for the goal, it was a crucial score and I think when we got that goal, the game was dead but up to that it was nip and tuck.”

Following their triumph, the Caherdavin outfit will now look forward to their first season at Premier Intermediate, meaning there’ll be a Na Piarsaigh team in each of the top two divisions in Limerick hurling.

Dowling is aware that many of the other clubs would have been rooting for Croagh-Kilfinny ahead of the game but believes the importance of their second team is based around the opportunity it gives to younger players rather than one team dominating the honours throughout the divisions.

“I would imagine that if you’d ask any person from any other club in Limerick today, they were probably going for Croagh and if the shoe was on the other foot I’d have been the same as well you know you’d love to a club like that beat a club’s second team but that’s us here in Na Piarsaigh.

“I suppose, the reality underneath it all is we need people to try break into our senior team. You know, we played Ballygunner, we didn’t win you know we need an injection of youth coming and the reason why this is so important to us is not for me, not for the lads that are there years, but to give the younger lads a very high standard to play at and that they can build on that next year.”

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