ALL-IRELAND SHC FINAL:SOME DAYS you wonder what it all means to Brian Cody. And some days you find out. He is notorious for his unbending obsession. His reputation is forbidding. But behind it all is a childlike enthusiasm for winning. It wouldn't matter if Kilkenny had never won an All- Ireland hurling title before Sunday's four-in-a-row. The sense of satisfaction is the same.
That’s how it was when Cody emerged from the team hotel yesterday morning. He was glowing; he was giddy, like a teenager who’d just had his first kiss. The scary thing for every other hurling county, is that he’s showing no signs of fatigue.
The drive for five starts now.
“I stood here last year and felt it would never be as good again,” he said “This year I think it will never be as good again. That’s the feeling after an All-Ireland every year. You can never dilute it. It’s crazy, really, the fact that we’re talking about four- in-a-row.
“All we feel is very privileged. There is no sense of superiority or anything, because as soon as that happens the whole thing falls apart.
“The brilliant thing about our players is that what they’ve done is legendary, but when you see them in a couple of days you wouldn’t realise they’d even won an All- Ireland medal. They’re grounded, solid. They’ll go back to their clubs and give it everything there as well. Because they just love playing hurling. There’s nothing mysterious about it. You love your sport and you drive it on.”
That’s the next question - can Kilkenny continue to drive on so relentlessly, continue to rewrite hurling history? “Why not? Success shouldn’t limit your potential to do something in the future. We had a panel of 32 yesterday. We also had four or five lads regularly in with us at training, putting in as much effort. There are fellas beating down the door to get into the panel, and that’s healthy.
“You can put limits on yourself if you like. Your career will end. There’s a natural limit for everybody. But while it’s there then there should be no limits put on you whatsoever. The reality is months will go by and the competition will start again and they’ll just drive it on.”
With this Kilkenny team it has clearly reached the stage where history has become a driving force as much as hunger - to go where no hurling team has gone before.
Cody doesn’t deny it: “All those things, combined, drive you, to the end of the earth, I suppose, to try and achieve those things. To win the All-Ireland itself is always huge motivation.
“But, inside, these players realised that winning this All-Ireland was going to put them on a massive level, a historical level, and they deserve that, in my opinion. But deserving it doesn’t come into sport. They earned it, and that’s the great thing about it.
“Earned it in a serious way. In a massive game of hurling, full of skill, strength and spirit, and full of physicality in a great sense.”
Surprisingly, Cody doesn’t flinch at the mention of the five-in-a-row. It’s never been done before, in hurling or football, so there’s simply no avoiding it now.
“I remember well when I came into the job first, it was being said that two-in-a-row won’t be done, or it would never be done again. So it’s mad, it’s crazy. It’s just a phenomenal testament to the team. Skill won’t do that for you.
“Power won’t do that for you. Strength won’t do that for you. But character pulling the whole thing together and spirit pulling the whole thing together. That did it for us.”
He jokes around a couple of topics - such as his inevitable decision to stay in charge for another year (“You’ll be the first to know lads! I’ll e-mail ye!”); and his autobiography, due out later this month (“I’m bearing my soul to all of you at every interview so why would I change now?”).
But Cody turns serious again when asked about the line of questioning RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey took in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s win - and the suggestion the Kilkenny penalty should never have been: “Did I sound annoyed? Yeah I was, I was. It was, to me, a question I didn’t understand to be honest.
“At no stage did I consider the referee at all in the game. He was there, he was doing his job at all times. I only look for one thing from a referee - that he appears to be trying to do his very, very best; to be totally impartial and I never questioned at any stage in my head Diarmuid Kirwan’s impartiality and knowing the guy to a very limited extent I wouldn’t expect anything else from him.
“You’re there having won the All-Ireland final, four-in-a-row, and suddenly the question turned to maybe a poor display of refereeing. I couldn’t comprehend the sense of that at all to be honest. If we were to dissect every mistake by every player and every official at every game we’d gone on forever. I never comment on referees after the game.
“If anyone thinks it turned out easy for us just look at the free count. I’ve no problem with that, and if we lost the game I wouldn’t be suggesting for one second anything about the referee.”
Before leaving he pays one last tribute to the attitude of his panel, particularly Martin Comerford and Noel Hickey - after leaving them out of the team: “It was very difficult, obviously, but from a good point of view.
“It wasn’t as if we were grasping at straws, thinking: ‘Jesus, can we chance yer man?’We were looking at players in great form in training, and we always say that has to matter. I would count them as big decisions, though, because everyone is equal in our panel.
“And I always say the players take over the dressingroom. It’s not about me at all, and in the dressingroom before the game the first two players to speak, to drive and inspire everybody, were Noel Hickey and Martin Comerford. Two players who weren’t starting, and were disappointed, naturally. They’d love to have been playing. But that didn’t come into it.
“The panel is everything. The spirit is everything. And they epito- mised it. And if I could change one thing about the year it would be that Noel Hickey could have been on the field. Because if ever a player deserved it then it was him.
“What he’s done for Kilkenny, and for our panel, has been phenomenal. He’s been ravaged with injuries all year, but, if ever there’s been a driving force in our dressingroom and our training sessions, it’s Noel Hickey.”
Brian Cody on . . . . . . goalkeeper PJ Ryan
“ He got that opportunity, which goalkeepers don’t always get, to stand up and say, ‘look, see what I can do in goal’. It was reflex saves, spectacular saves, which look brilliant. In actual fact, PJ Ryan could do that all day. He’s that good. It’s just instinctive stuff and that’s what he’s being doing all his life as a goalkeeper.
Brian Cody on . . . . . . the tactics to beat Tipp
“ An awful lot was spoken about Tipperary’s goal threat, and our goal threat was kind of overlooked in the build- up to the game. Our goal threat is a constant thing as well, and I was kind of amused at that, to be honest, because no one suggested we might be capable of scoring a goal at all. That’s all we concentrated on, ourselves.
Brian Cody on . . . . . . the 2009 Championship
“ Some commentators have been saying it wasn’t a great year for hurling. The league final was a superb game. I know our game against Galway was superb. We’d a real competitive game against Dublin, and I believe the game against Waterford was excellent as well. And then the final was just an outrageous game.
Brian Cody on . . . . . . not starting team captain Michael Fennelly
“ It wasn’t a question of him whingeing or giving out. He put his head down and worked, he was inspirational. He trained magnificently, his form coming up to the All-Ireland final was really, really top class. When we brought him in there and I thought he was outstanding, his first touch of the ball, over the bar.
Brian Cody on . . . . . . whether another team can win four-in-a-row
“ Well the potential is there. It’s been done so Imean, I wouldn’t rule it out. You’d be tempted to say it’ll never happen again, but sure why wouldn’t it? That’s the way things work and you get a group of fellas together and the sky’s the limit. Who’s to say Tipperary won’t do it? That’s the way it works.
