Some regular Shannon watchers described them as ordinary. The opposition coach, Brent Pope, on meeting them for the first time, described them as awesome. Maybe the secret of their success is that they can be both at the same time.
The conundrum about watching Shannon's treble winners regularly over the last three and a bit years is that even awesomeness can become ordinary. Thus, like all domineering sides in any league, they don't always appear to be playing that well when winning.
This conundrum for Shannon folk is particularly acute at Thomond Park where the home side haven't been beaten in three-and-a-half years in the AIB League. So, when they moved 246 ahead after 52 minutes, the home crowd settled back in expectation of a rout. A voice from the crowd roared: "C'mon Shannon, give us a few more."
That the home side only delivered one more converted try, and that was fully 26 minutes later, constituted a relative disappointment. The previous week's 50-0 mauling of Old Crescent had set newer, even more impossible benchmarks. What that unanswered half-century proved, however, was merely how well nigh unplayable Shannon are when they click for 80 minutes. By the same criteria, the slipshod, error-prone opening quarter at Thomond Park on Saturday also showed they were human.
Clontarf, still full of post-promotion optimism and roared on by a boisterous contingent in the smallish if noisy 2,000 crowd, pluckily pushed up into Shannon's faces in a blue and red line. It was epitomised by the aggressiveness of their pack's tackling around the fringes and the ever-willing midfield partnership of Gareth Ahern and Matt Smith. They helped to force an inordinately high number of handling mistakes from Shannon, and Richie Murphy was comfortably out-kicking Andrew Thompson. But even then it was always going to be a case of when, rather than if, Shannon cut out the handling errors. Many of these guys have been around the block, and when the going gets tough they don't panic.
Some interesting little side-plots then contributed to the inevitable change in the storyline. Three times in one sustained passage Clontarf had relieving kicks charged down, and thus were penned in their half despite having the wind behind them.
It was as much Shannon's collective will that turned the screw as anything else, although, of course, they were led from the front by the big men, Mick Galwey, Eddie Halvey and Anthony Foley. Galwey and Foley were at the heart of a sustained drive that earned an foothold from which Foley's tap penalty and lay-off enabled Gavin Russell to squirt over for the lead.
Intriguingly, minutes before Alan Quinlan had been summarily substituted. "At the end of the day we work off a squad system, and don't be surprised if other (big name) guys come off during games," warned Shannon coach Pat Murray.
The form player in Munster earlier this season was more culpable than most for Shannon's surfeit of early mistakes and seemed more intent on finding someone to fight with than play ball. Quinlan is way better than that and, with time on his side, will surely learn.
The performance of Quinlan's replacement, Colm McMahon, underlined Shannon's pool of back-row talent. Quick and elusive, he had an impressive game and made a telling contribution to the pick of Shannon's five tries: he looped around the ubiquitous Halvey, sprinted into a gap and took two men in the tackle to flick a pass over his shoulder, Campese-like, for Lacey to plunder his second try.
In a one-sided second period, the visitors had to wait until injury time to produce their most notable effort, a near 15-man, right-to-left and back again passing move which underlined Clontarf's willingness and spirit, and drew appreciative support from the home crowd.
Then the outstanding Halvey nailed Robert Noble from behind. Halvey won line-outs, made tackles, stormed through bodies over the gain line and linked well.
Galwey has rarely played badly and often played well in his previous 66 league games out of the 69 played by Shannon, and number 67 was no exception.
Foley is, according to Murray "revelling in the captaincy; he just leads by example". Leading from the front, Foley scored one try and set up another, and also demonstrated his footballing abilities with several astute grubber kicks.
And yet, supposedly, Shannon didn't play that well.
"They're like Auckland, they treat every game the same," ventured Pope. "Eventually the wave just wore us down. Their ball retention is excellent and they just keep coming. "I'm very proud of our lads. They showed their bravery out there. I'm positive but realistic. We came here today to earn respect from Limerick rugby people, and I think over three games we've achieved that. We've got two points, which is a fair return, and now we have to target teams."
Shannon, he seemed to be implying, along with other "super clubs" in the First Division's elite, are out of their league. But as Pope concluded: "I don't know how anybody is going to stop them, especially here."
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Murphy penalty (0-3); 13 mins: Lacey try (5-3); 19 mins: Murphy penalty (5-6); 35 mins: Russell try (10-6); 43 mins: Foley try, Thompson conversion (17-6); 52 mins: Lacey try, Thompson conversion (246); 78 mins: Keane try, Thompson conversion (31-6).
Shannon: Jason Hayes; J Lacey, P McMahon, R Ellison, A Thompson; J Galvin, G Russell; N Healy, M McDermott, John Hayes, M Galwey, K Keane, A Quinlan, A Foley, E Halvey. Replacements: C McMahon for Quinlan (33 mins), B O'Shea for Jason Hayes (62 mins), M Horan for Healy (62 mins), F McNamara for Russell (70 mins).
Clontarf: M Woods; R Noble, M Smith, G Ahern, M Fitzsimons; R Murphy, S McCarthy; T Hannigan, B Jackman (capt), D Fulham, M Coughlan, M Meredith, A Dignam, C Brownlee, I Stewart. Replacements: S Guerin for Dignam (47 mins), P Noble for Fitzsimons (64 mins), R Benson for Fulham (72 mins), R O'Reilly for McCarthy (73 mins), D Kyne for Stewart (75 mins).
Referee: R McDowell (Munster).
