How much does Seanie Johnston really want to play for Kildare, I mean really?

Seanie Johnston might have to go to extreme lengths to finally play for Kildare and there could be a reason for the pessimism of Limerick fans so abhorred by Shane Dowling.

How much does Seanie Johnston really want to play for Kildare, I mean really?

Someday in the not too distant future, Seanie Johnston will eventually play for the Kildare footballers.

Whatever your thoughts on his controversial transfer – and I wouldn’t be a big fan of it by any means – such are the amount of hoops he’s had to jump through that many wouldn’t begrudge him getting a game for Geezer’s gang at this stage. Given the length of his absence, he might have to knock out a few thousand sit-ups before he’s in the same shape as the machine-like Dermot Earley and others, but that’s neither here nor there for now.

After all he’s been through; however, Johnston isn’t good to pull on the Lilywhite jersey just yet. Seanie won’t get the green light to play for the county seniors until he represents his new club, St. Kevin’s, in the championship. But with no club football championship games scheduled between now and Kildare’s Leinster Championship opener with Offaly on June 17, Johnston faces postponing his debut until a likely meeting with Meath on June 1.

Unless...

It’s a crazy notion, but Johnston would be eligible to play for Kildare against Offaly if he represents St. Kevin’s in the club hurling championship later this month, although the folks at Kevin’s are fairly adamant that that won’t happen.

"That (Johnston playing hurling) is just what is being speculated - it hasn't been discussed by us at all,” St. Kevin's vice-chairman John Noone told the Irish Examiner.

“As far as we're concerned, we're not looking at that.

"The first I saw of it was on Facebook when some bright spark came up with the idea. The transfer has gone through for St Kevin's and everything else is up to Kildare - that's the way we'd be looking at it."

We’d imagine that the man has some authority at Kevin’s and that no-one would tell No-one where to go, but having gone this far, surely they could just throw him on for 30 seconds at the end of the match and be done with it once and for all.

Problem is, it would probably lead to even more speculation linking Johnston with a sensational transfer to the Kildare hurlers. And do we really want to go down that road again?

We can suggest a reason for Limerick's pessimism

It’s a couple of weeks ago now, but Limerick’s performance against Tipp in the Munster Championship showed that many pundits were wrong to write off the Treaty County’s chances so readily heading into that game.

Tipp were such heavy favourites heading in that not many Limerick fans even fancied their chances of causing an upset and that’s something that justifiably didn’t sit well with young tyro Shane Dowling, who was mightily impressive on the day in Semple Stadium.

Dowling had a bit of a rant about the pessimism of many Limerick supporters in the Irish Examiner today, basically bemoaning the negativity of his county’s hurling followers.

While we back Dowling’s claims to the hilt – if your own people won’t support you, then who will? – he would have been barely able to talk (he was born in 1993) on possibly the darkest day in the history of Limerick hurling, back in 1994 when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Offaly in the All-Ireland Final.

We’re not simply throwing dollops of salt into old Limerick wounds for no reason, but merely suggesting that Dowling’s memories of the game can’t possibly be as vivid as those of an older generation and he is perhaps lacking a little empathy as a result.

Ridiculous theory maybe, but at least it gives the hard-up Offaly fans a chance to relive that glorious day once again.