Limerick GAA - it's Box Office - Always Has Been, Always Will Be

You said the same last year. You could be right this year. If we’re winning, well and good. I don’t think it’s the best use of resources, I think Dowling should start, our loss if he doesn’t.

@anon32894817 Seems to have an awful chip on his shoulder with regards Dowling,Gillane is not a better free taker than him.It’s FF or nowhere for Dowling be it starting or as a sub but he is a very talented hurler who will be a valuable addition to the panel when he does return.

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I suppose they’ve been on the go a long time

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The club finals in Croke Park on 17/03 are a relatively recent thing . The whole thing is utterly nuts at this stage . The club championships should be over in calendar year .

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Dowling has very little training since last October . This may surprise some people here but he is not a natural athlete and has to work very hard to reach a level of fitness required .

He is Limerick’s best free taker since Gary Kirby .

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@anon32894817 has far too many chips on his shoulder to be a proper judge, despite being an astute observer of the game in general,

Dowling is cute and can pull a goal out of nowhere. I’d certainly have him in my plans.

Aaron Gillane is a work in progress and has done very well so far. I still have my doubts, though.

Exactly, lads shouldn’t be losing the run of themselves.

I’ve been very impressed with Gillane over the past year. I think he’s a great addition to our forward line and he seems to be a very good free taker.
If there was one player in the country though that I’d want standing over a free, it’s Dowling

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I don’t agree with plenty of things AppleCrumbled says but I would say that he is correct in that Dowling at full-forward does not suit the way we are currently playing. The full-forward has been used to drag the full-back out of position and to turn and run at goal wherever possible, while mainly dealing with low ball into space. We tried this last year too but Kyle isn’t a natural full-forward, and neither is Hegarty, both of whom were tried there at times.

Dowling is just a different type of player completely to Flanagan (or Gillane or Nash who could also fill that role imo). That’s why I liked the idea of Dowling at wing-forward last year but he wasn’t in the best of form.

A serious player, a superb freetaker but I can see him only being a sub tbh.

Think Dowling will be under pressure for a starting place this year. Full forward or nothing for him.

Excellent free taker but he just doesn’t have the legs to be played out the field at intercounty level. Edge of the square or the bench.

Even look at the penalty that we scored on Saturday. Flanagan out in front, burns the full back, tears in and lays off the pass to Murphy who was fouled. Dowling can’t do that. Flanagan is only a young lad and is still just potential but you just can’t beat that raw pace.

The flip side of leaving Dowling out is that you’ve a very reliable free taker not on the pitch. The system we are playing now isn’t conducive to lumping it into the big man on the square and hope the whipper snappers in either corner feed off the scraps. We’re going for a more fluid system with constant rotation and that’s not suitable for Dowling. Imagine him out wing forward marking pure athletes like Seadna Morey…

Dowling hasn’t a hope of starting.

From 2015 onwards, we have played 18 games against top 9 opposition in League and Championship.

We have scored just 14 goals from play in those games. Hannon, Mulcahy, Breen and Dempsey have scored 2 each. Then 1 for WOD, Hayes, Fitzgibbon, Downes, Morrissey and Lynch.

Dowling has none, although has scored from both frees and penalties. None for Nash either, who I would consider the best goalscorer in the squad,although he has very limited gametime.

And if you remove the Wexford league games in 2015 and 2016 from the equation, it’s just 9 goals from 16 games (removes 2 Hannon goals and 1 from Mulcahy, Breen and Fitzgibbon).

We need to start scoring goals.

Mark Keane was limericks best free taker since Gary Kirby maybe even better. He was fuck all use otherwise though :sweat_smile:

We now have two players Hegarty and Hayes who can turn, run at all their men, ride tackles and still have the presence of mind to lay off the ball. It’s almost impossible to create goal chances without creating and overlap/breaking a tackle. For the first time in my life time we’ve lads that break the tackles and create the overlaps. Casey, Gillane and Flanagan will start scoring goals.

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Jesus Christ the backs mark the forwards not the other way around. Whatever about picking half our wing backs in the forwards if we start picking our forwards on the basis of who can mark Seadna fucking Morey, who probably wont even be wing back for fucking Clare of all teams, then limerick hurling is well and truly fucked.

Dowling was one of our best performers against Kilkenny is the last game of the championship last year. What position was he in again? :rollseyes:

Full forward rotating out to half forward would suit him perfectly. Wing forward tracking back to wing back does not, although he still made a good job of it and chipped in 2 points from play against kk.

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Dowling was absolutely abysmal in the first half in kk. One of the worst performances he’s ever put in for limerick. He had a good game in the second half but was far from our best player.

Dowling has to be first name on the team sheet.

See you’ve no understanding of the game plan. Our half forward will have to cover insane ground and will need to track back. Clogging up the space.

Wrong thread kid, here you go Munster, celtic league, heineken cup, general and tag rugby thread

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