Minefield in Ulster for Paddy
going to have big boots to fill but, like every player before him, everyone is replaceable.
“I suppose his strength was his scoring ability. He got some cracking goals at vital times when Limerick needed them.
“I think it was against Cork in the semi-final two years ago, he came on as a sub and within a few minutes he took a free from nearly 100 yards, put it over the bar. Then he scored a point from play again.
“That lifted the team. To be able to come on to a team with 10 minutes to go, 15 minutes to go and be able to do that is a great sign of a player.”
As they prepare to move on without Dowling, Limerick have been handed a Munster quarter-final pairing with Clare in October, which will also double up as the League final, though Kirby feels the extra game in the province will stand to them.
“I think it’s an advantage that they are playing a first round game against Clare. Win or lose, at least they’ll have a match underneath their belt and they can take it from there.
“As the draw goes, you’re talking about five matches to win an All-ireland, possibly.
“With the squad that Limerick have it won’t be that much of a handicap on them because they have a strong squad so they can rotate players.”
DOWN boss Paddy Tally reckons the revised football Championship structure isn’t fair on Ulster teams who must march through a ‘minefield’.
Cavan and Monaghan will need four wins to claim the Ulster title – compared to teams in other provinces needing just two.
Furthermore, Ulster has three Division 1 teams and three Division 2 teams, which contrasts quite sharply with other provinces.
Speaking to the ‘Load of Balls’ podcast about the setup, Tally said: “I wouldn’t be overly delighted, I think this was a missed opportunity.
“I think in the year it was, this was the opportunity to throw it open.
“The reason we moved away from the old system was to increase the level of opportunity and fairness throughout the country.
But we’re back to that again. It seems a retrograde step in my opinion.
“Okay, we are
constrained by the pandemic and the way things are this year.
“But I felt the GAA just went back too quickly to the older system without exploring, ‘Was there an easier way to do this?
Could we have done this with an open draw system?’.
“Because really the
Ulster Championship becomes a minefield and a battlefield now.
“We look across Ireland and we see that some teams win two matches and are in an All-ireland semifinal whereas in Ulster you could possibly have to win four.
“The amount of teams in Division 1 in Ulster, compared to the amount of teams in Division 1 in other provinces, it doesn’t (equate).
“It isn’t really fair.”