By Ciaran Gallagher

Having surrendered their county, provincial and AIB All-Ireland titles last year, Na Piarsaigh’s Shane Dowling was delighted to reclaim one of the three lost crowns with their recent Limerick SHC final victory over Kilmallock.

Yet the 24-year-old sharpshooter is not content to let the 2016 All-Ireland champions’ redemption mission end there.

While Dowling is awaiting the final prognosis on a knee problem, which may rule him out of Na Piarsaigh’s AIB Munster club SHC semi-final against Blackrock of Cork on Sunday week (Nov 5), he believes the Limerick champions are fully focused on maintaining their formidable provincial record.

Since claiming their maiden senior county title in 2011, the Northside club have not tasted defeat in three Munster campaigns and Dowling is eager to keep that run going as they aim for a fourth provincial title.

“Listen, I always say make hay while the sun shines and the sun is shining in Limerick, the sun is shining in Na Piarsaigh and we don’t want any clouds to come over it,” Dowling says. “We want to stay going as long as we can.

“We’ve got a good bunch of players there with a very professional and home-grown management team and we want to keep our record in Munster the way it is.”

The Limerick champions regained the county title with a five-point victory over Kilmallock, with only two late goals from the opposition taking some of the gloss off a convincing performance.

“It was the first time in Limerick that we put in a performance where we can say we played to our potential,” Dowling claims. “To produce it on county final day was very special.

“We hit form at the right time. We didn’t give away a whole lot of frees – very few in the second half – and our scoring efficiency was very high as well, so we just hit good timing on the right day.

“I think the winning of the game was the first five minutes of the second half. We went 10 or 11 points up and it seemed to knock the wind out of their sails and after that we just kept the scoreboard ticking over, but for whatever reason the shape fell asunder in the last few minutes and they got a couple of goals. We’ll just have to look back and see why.”

That will keep the Limerick side on their toes as they prepare to face a Blackrock team coming off the back of a disappointing county final defeat to East-Cork divisional side Imokilly.

“It’s definitely unique,” Dolwing says on Blackrock’s entrance into Munster following their loss. “We obviously wouldn’t have come across it, but as far as we’re concerned we have to play a Munster semi-final in the Gaelic Grounds and we just want to do ourselves justice because we have a good side and we won’t be thinking about Blackrock.

“Whether they won, lost or drew the county final, to us it’s just another team and we just have to go out and play to our potential.”