The state of Gilroy
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No, read Henry’s books though. Good read.
Some unmerciful shite talk there
What do you expect from a pig …
Who dah fcuk is John Duggan?
He looks like a Brown Thomas Daithí O’Regan.
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Ah come on now. A man with your connections in the world of Irish journalism should know who John Duggan is…
Early contender for POTY
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Oh yes 
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Not a jot…
Maybe that makes me ‘doh’ but I will carry, happily, the burden.
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Gives his majors tips on Newstalk and Todayfm every year. Takes them straight off Steve Palmer on the RacingPost and fobs them off as his own.
From Denis Walsh in the Sunday Times - Graigue-Ballycallan get a mention as possible source of some debate on the matter. Also of interest, the fact that Cahill was the 101st manager Cody faced during his time in charge!
Whispering grows louder but Brian Cody still at heart of Kilkenny
Lack of an obvious successor does not stop supporters growing restless
SPORTSFILE
Denis Walsh
Sunday January 03 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
At a sponsor’s launch in December the former Kilkenny hurler Aidan Fogarty gave full voice to the whispering. Kilkenny supporters, he said, were asking questions about Brian Cody: “Should he stay or should he go?” Respectfully, Fogarty framed all of his remarks with a homage to Cody’s staggering achievements as Kilkenny manager, and he repeated the local acceptance that the timing of his departure would never be forced upon him.
But he addressed the change in mood nonetheless. The belief that Cody is the right man to build Kilkenny’s next All-Ireland winning team, it seems, is no longer unanimous on the ground. “When you’re not winning, I think supporters can be fickle,” said Fogarty, “and we haven’t won an All-Ireland in five years. To us, I suppose, that’s nearly a drought.
“So, look, on the Kilkenny front, tongues are beginning to wag alright. It if was any other manager in Kilkenny, I think his head would be on the chopping block. But, it’s Brian, it’s going to be his decision.”
In Kilkenny, the process for appointing a manager is straight forward: the county board executive proposes its preferred candidate and the club delegates accept it or reject it. At the first board meeting of the New Year on Monday week, only Cody’s name will be in the conversation and there won’t be a word of dissent from the floor.
It was suggested earlier this week that Graigue Ballycallan would at least try to whip up some debate, but this has been dismissed out of hand by club officers, who say they have no idea where the suggestion came from.
It is understood, however, that DJ Carey has stepped down as a selector, after just one year in the role. Carey commanded a low profile on match days, particularly in the championship. Under the Covid-19 match day protocols, only the manager and one other member of the management team were allowed on the sideline; for Kilkenny, Martin Comerford was Cody’s wingman.
Because of the restrictions, though, many counties nominated one of their management team to be a hurley-carrier, to maximize the number of key personnel they could get into the venue. For two of Kilkenny’s games Carey performed that role, on the far side of Croke Park, with no obvious tele-communications link to the other selectors on the near side.
Who will replace Carey? Will a replacement be identified with more than one eye on succession? The obvious candidate for such a role is Henry Shefflin. It is our understanding that Cody approached Shefflin about getting involved at the beginning of last season, but Shefflin declined the invitation.
After he led Ballyhale Shamrocks to successive All-Ireland club titles Shefflin took a year out from coaching, but he has committed to Thomastown for the coming season, an intermediate team only a few miles from where he lives. Could his arm be twisted to change course? Unlikely.
Much like Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, there is no question that Cody will have a massive influence on the appointment of his successor, whenever that day comes. When James McGarry and Derek Lyng were appointed to the management team in 2014 the general assumption was that this was the beginning of their apprenticeships, and that one of them would ultimately take the reins.
McGarry is still part of the management team, but the likelihood of him taking over has receded over time. Derek Lyng stepped away after the 2019 All-Ireland final and took over as the Kilkenny U-20 manager, alongside Peter Barry and Michael Rice, all of whom were hugely respected players from the first half of Cody’s reign. When that management team was assembled it carried all the hallmarks of a senior management team in embryo.
A poor performance against Galway in the Leinster semi-final before Christmas was an early setback, but nothing as alarming as Kilkenny’s defeat to Westmeath in Eddie Brennan’s first year in the role; the trajectory of Brennan career in management since then has been hugely impressive, and he appears now on every short list of possible successors to Cody.
Would Kilkenny’s chances of winning the 2021 All-Ireland be any greater if somebody other than Cody was in charge? Given the players at Kilkenny’s disposal right now, it’s hard to see how that would be the case.
For Kilkenny to win the Leinster final against the head last year was another illustration of the gumption that Cody has instilled in all his teams, but Kilkenny’s second half performances against Dublin and Waterford revealed a kind of vulnerability that would be anathema to him, and would have been inconceivable for the vast majority of Cody’s time in charge. In recent years, those spells of faintness have become an unexpected feature of Kilkenny’s seasons.
Cody never had any truck with the notion of a team “in transition”. It was his purpose, always, to win the next All-Ireland. He has managed that 11 times, more than any other manager in the history of the GAA.
His stamina is truly remarkable. When Kilkenny played Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final, Liam Cahill was the 101st different manager he had faced in 22 seasons.
But he will stop one day soon and the question of his successor is still unresolved. Kilkenny have kicked the can down the road, for another year at least.
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Only catching up now. Henry Shefflin looks the stand out option as Cody’s successor in my opinion. Superb track record with Ballyhale who had gone a couple of years without winning Leinsters/All-Ireland’s etc. and he could take over in a less pressurized environment of 6-7 years without an AI title. Only negative from his perspective would be the supply lines have dried up at underage. The Minor AI in 2014 was a smash and grab and they haven’t contested too many since.
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Would he do it along with his brother?
Awful shite about Cody here. remember kilkenny have bate Limerick underage, very recently. Steady up
Would anyone by any chance have the full text of Michael Verney’s Indo article today on Kilkenny?
Thanks in any case for reading.
I have it out in the car. I’ll throw it up tomorrow.
Thank you, Mike.
If anyone has online version, please throw it up too.
You must be welded to the couch Mike.
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