Kilkenny handballer Shane Dunne may be regarded as a 60x30 specialist but that hasn’t stopped the Clogh man gatecrashing the 40x20 party, writes Paul Fitzpatrick.
Dunne, a Health and Leisure student at IT Tralee, came from off the pace to take first place in a stacked U19 draw at the Irish Junior Nationals back in late April. His U21 Doubles success (with Padraig Cooney riding shotgun) over Tipperary the previous week marked him out as a player in form but Dunne still had to do things the hard way in overcoming number one seed Diarmuid Mulkerrins from Galway and, in the final, former All-Ireland minor champion Sean Kerr of Tyrone.
And with his place on Team Ireland secured, Shane has been working hard on his small court game in the interim.
“I knew what I needed to work on and that’s what I did, I knew I was an underdog and I played my best and I suppose I got lucky,” he said modestly.
“I am definitely more of a 60x30 player, I have won more in the 60x30 and I always probably enjoyed the 60x30 more but once I started training for the small alley, I started to fall in love with it as much as the 60x30. Clogh is a 60x30 stronghold, we’re brought up in the big alley but I’m loving the 40x20 now too.”
Dunne’s big alley game (he won the All-Ireland Minor Singles title in 2016) has always been strong and he has carried some of the key strengths from the traditional code – power, a dominant underhand, excellent conditioning – with him into the small court, while adding a few more strings to his bow, too.
“I knew what I needed to work on, even from previous years, my sidearm maybe wouldn’t be as strong coming from the 60x30 but I focused on that and tried to build my game, watching games on YouTube, seeing how the senior lads play and trying to bring that into my game,” Shane told GAAHandball.ie at last Saturday’s Team Ireland squad training in Kingscourt.
“I think my roof game is strong, I have a good underarm and I am consistent, I wouldn’t say I’d miss much and I have that drive to keep going. I was never a great, consistent killer of the ball but I have really worked on that and it is a small difference which has brought me on that bit further to compete with the best.”
The 19 and Under Singles will be one of the most fiercely contested grades at the Worlds, with the likes of Mulkerrins, Kerr, recently-crowned Minor Singles champion Tiarnan Agnew, Galway’s Peter Donohoe all hoping to crown their juveniles careers with a prestigious world title.
Also in the mix from Ireland are David Walsh (Cork), Jerome Cahill (Tipperary), Cian Conneely (Galway), Ben Devlin (Louth), Patrick Murphy (Mayo), Adam Walsh (Wexford) and Conor Walsh (Cork).
See next week’s Kilkenny People for more on Shane’s preparations for the World Championships.