Im getting more optimistic about Dublins chances by the day. This sort of optimism normally ends with Kilkenny beating the shit out of Dublin
The stuff about lads not travelling back from Salthill on team bus is not true. This slice of reality came from two players – non Ballyhale Shamrocks – who were on said bus.
What counts as true is that BC has been losing the plot for several years at this stage. I mean, could he not realize that the carry on with HS after the game would only bind in tighter the Galway players behind HS? I repeat: BC has lost the plot.
What was said about HS at the team meeting before the Galway game and after that game in the dressingroom remains a hot and sore topic of discussion in Kilkenny circles. We stayed on this topic last night in The Nore Bar for beaucoup pints. BC has taken dynamite to his own reputation.
Richie Hogan told someone I know he is fully fit but cannot make the 26. I reckon Cillian Buckley, Conor Fogarty, RH and Walter Walsh were only retained in the 2022 panel for optics. BC did not want four big names leaving all at once.
Kilkenny hurling is in a poor place. Dublin have every chance.
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Probably the best ale in KK!!!
Expect two tactics from KK tomorrow, long and longer. Paddy Deegan will have that left side in overdrive.
Word has it, Mossy full flanked by EC and TJ.
In fairness to Cody all of those players are 30+ now bar maybe Cillian Buckley who is 30 this year I’d say? They all have a lot of mileage on the clock. Even with a HS in charge you’d be gradually seeing those players fazed out anyway.
Reading this from a Wexford perspective I’m beginning to think we have a chance in Nowlan Park next weekend.
Would you seriously suggest that Richie is IC standard at this stage?
Well, they have an exceptional pint of Guinness in The Nore. I only drink ale when in Blighty.
Paddy Deegan should be playing at midfield. There is a lot of speculation around him being sent into full back.
Here is a story about the sort of stuff that has been going on in the Kilkenny camp since 2017. Back in 2020, Colin Fennelly and Walter Walsh played poorly in the Leinster Final. CF, the captain, and WW were taken off in the second half (51m and 44m, respectively). Fair enough. Less understandable was BC hauling both of them over to the sideline at the next training session and scalding them out of it from a height, concluding by telling them their immediate fate: “Fuck off down the B end, because that’s all ye are good for!” This episode followed another recent one where BC had rung up CF in a fury about a pre Leinster Final press conference where CF made – harmlessly, he thought – some sort of comment along the line of “Kilkenny don’t do tactics”. For a reason no one could grasp, this comment infuriated BC and he ended up hanging up that phonecall.
At that point in 2020, Billy Ryan was unfit. Having not participated in the Leinster Final, BR was due a fitness test the week before the All Ireland semi final against Waterford. So BC, having told CF and WW where to go for that training session, wandered over to Ger Aylward and said: “Now, Ger, if Billy doesn’t pass this fitness test, you’re in.” GA, putting it mildly, was boggled. He had been on the B side all during that summer, not going well, and BC had hardly spoken to him. Of course, with CF and WW sidelined, and BR possibly not ready, Kilkenny forwards were becoming scarce.
Although nine points down not long before halftime, Waterford won by four points via a brilliant second half surge, 2-27 to 2-23. Colin Fennelly came on for Billy Ryan (49m) and Walter Walsh came on for Martin Keoghan (38m). Ger Aylward came on for Eoin Cody (57m) and made a hames of a good point chance. None of these three subs scored.
Losing the plot, as I said. Not thinking through the percentage bets. Anyone who reckons BC has been getting the best out of these players, over the last six seasons, has lost the plot in another sense.
There are plenty more cognate stories.
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Well, I think you have mistaken my point – inverted my point, in fact. My slant is that these players, whose intercounty race is run, were retained simply for optics. I would have had no problem, on grounds of 2021 form, in seeing all of them retire.
WW is going okay at the minute, I guess, but BC told him in late 2020 to retire. WW asked to stay on because he was only 29 at the time. BC grudgingly assented to another year. But in late 2021 BC said to WW, who thought he would now definitely get the chop: “Sure, you’ll come back in, Wally, and encourage the young lads.”
You could not make up some of this stuff.
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The big thing for me is Eoin Cody. If he was playing in the Limerick system he would be Gillane like. The kilkenny system or lack there of is not maximising the talents of their best players .
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Yes.
Kilkenny are not good enough to beat Limerick at the moment unless Limerick had a significant off day for whatever set of reasons. Nor are Kilkenny good enough to be pretty sure of beating Clare, Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Waterford at the minute. But the current panel is not performing to its optimal level, which comes down to BC in large part, and anyone who tells you different is living in the past known as cloud cuckoo land.
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Who would be the next man after Cody though? Shefflin, Brennan? DJ? Or is there anyone inside the county ? I’m not saying that’s a reason for him to stay. I think he should have went in 2016.
Does BC get any enjoyment out of it nowadays? Or did he ever?
A great quiz question on zoom during the pandemic; “Name the last Kilkenny manager before Brian Cody”.
I’ve great admiration for Brian Cody’s achievements and what he has done outside the Kilkenny sphere too in giving his spare time in an unfussy way, but there has to be something in his head to keep him in the job for so long. Also his wife must be a bit harmless (I jest).
Kevin Fennelly.
Hew Lawlor is out with a broken hand, reported on OTB this evening. Richie Hogan is fully fit and raring to go.
Richie wants to get Cody to tell him to fuck off - there’ll be no retirement announcement there.
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I’d be surprised if he did. But he’s fierce articulate, would be a great pundit.
Richie sells me sliotars. He is a smart man and a real gent.
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Well… Who knows…
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Your guess is as good as mine on a successor…