Really goals kept them in the game yesterday. Glenmore firing over points from all angles in the 1st half but comer got 2 soft goals. Another goal seconds into the 2nd half and all the momentum was with them.
Brian Cody: ‘I didn’t own the job. You move on and that’s it’
Two years after he stepped down, Brian Cody speaks for the first time on his glittering managerial career
Former Kilkenny hurling manager and current Hurling Development Committee member Brian Cody during the Hurling Development Committee media event at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Thu, 19 Sep, 2024 - 02:31
John Fogarty
In the 789 days that Brian Cody has been retired from managing Kilkenny, he has barely spoken publicly about his decision to bring down the curtain on a largely glittering 24 years.
Until Wednesday morning that is. Launching the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee (HDC) of which he is a member, he spoke about bringing down the curtain on an era that produced 11 All-Ireland SHC titles, 18 Leinster championships and 10 Allianz Hurling Leagues.
Cody’s voice is a little softer these days but the dry wit that he could display when so inclined was on show in Croke Park’s suite 686. He’s asked what convinced him to retire. “Check my birth cert maybe!” he offers quickly with a wry smile.
“I was enjoying it but I didn’t own the job. An opportunity was there for someone else to come in and take it on. So it was just a natural evolution of what happens. I suppose I spent longer there than most people.”
When he prepared to stop Limerick in the 2022 All-Ireland final, had he decided beforehand it would be his last dance?
“I knew at the time, yeah. It wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction after a match. I was never going to announce it but my mind was pretty much made up.”
Kilkenny delivered the news for him, six days after Limerick completed the four-in-a-row. No, he wasn’t glad that they failed this year to go one step further than his great Kilkenny team in 2010. “Not in the slightest. I wouldn’t be thinking like that at all, They’re a super team. It’s obviously a very, very hard thing to do, and it should be a very hard thing to do.
“Clare are now the All-Ireland champions and all you can say is fair play to them. They were terrific and it was a brilliant All-Ireland final as well.”
Does he think new champions are good for hurling? “Not necessarily,” he responds with the shade of a wink. And, no, he says he hasn’t reflected on his long list of achievements. “Not even remotely. At the end of the day, I didn’t hit a ball in any of those matches. The players, that I was privileged to be involved with, won whatever they won.
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“Obviously, you need a good set-up, the whole backroom, everything has to be good, but players go out and make those achievements for everybody.”
The 70-year-old has no regrets about handing over the baton, which was eventually taken on by his trusty midfielder and former selector Derek Lyng. “If I was going to miss it, I would have maybe tried to stay doing it but I think you move on and that’s it, really.”
By the time 2025 comes around, it will be 10 years since Kilkenny’s last Liam MacCarthy Cup success. Such gaps between All-Ireland success didn’t bother Cody.
“You never look on that. You look at, ‘Are you being competitive? How are you playing?’ You could go through the other strong hurling counties and start counting years as well. Kilkenny are not alone. It’s hard to win these things.
“Since Derek came in, we have been very competitive. They were barely beaten by Clare this year, who went on to win the All-Ireland final. Won a league and two Leinster finals as well.
“We are doing very well and that’s what we get on with. It’s easy to say you want to be successful, but to be successful you have to be competitive, and we are.”
What might worry Cody more right now is keeping his James Stephens side in the senior ranks. His club face Eoin Murphy-less Glenmore in a relegation play-off on October 5 and The Village’s manager agrees it’s one of the most important games for him and a club with a proud senior heritage.
“Every year that game happens for two clubs, in so many counties. Our game is an absolutely massive game. Everybody knows the consequences of not winning, for the two great clubs involved in it this year.”
Brian Cody during the Hurling Development Committee media event at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Cody offered his considered opinion on wider hurling matters too. The inter-county season is too condensed, he says. “It is short, for sure. Short and snappy. A fella could get a fairly basic injury, roll an ankle or a hamstring, and miss three or four games. That could put an end to a fella’s championship for that year and that’s hugely disappointing, obviously.
"July is really, really early to have it over. It’s a big change for the people who were always so used to September. But the split season has panned out like that. Certainly, people need to sit down and discuss it, look at potential tweaks that can be done to it. Not a wholesale change but it can be tweaked here and there.”
Illegal handpasses are “an issue… for certain”, but he wonders about the legit ones that are often ruled wrongly. “I think that what happens now, unfortunately, is that there is so much talk about it and so much pressure on referees, that they are almost looking for an opportunity to give a free. When it is shown back then, maybe it transpires that actually it was a decent pass. That’s tough too.”
Cody isn’t totally convinced Conor O’Donovan’s proposal to hand-pass from the hand not holding the ball is required. “I’m not sure you need to go that far. Handpassing has always been an integral part of the game. It’s a vital skill. It has certainly changed over the years, from the point of whether they are definitely handpasses or not, but I don’t think penalising the player with the ball too much is a solution to it either.”
Hurling, he feels, is in a good place but is “struggling in certain areas”, one of the reasons he agreed to join the HDC. What’s in it for him, he’s asked?
“It’s spreading the game of hurling the love of hurling and giving the opportunity to all the people in the country and particularly the young children in the country the chance to play hurling.”
For the game’s greatest manager, there are few more noble pursuits.
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Intermidiate 1/4 finals and junior 2nd round & section v semis this weekend.
Think I’m right in saying this is 5th weekend in a row of intermidiate so there’s probably players playing carrying knocks.
Pity all these matches are on Sunday, 2 intermidiate sat and 2 Sunday would have suited fans better.
Lisdowney v st martins.
Championship favourites lisdowney continued their winning run by beating gowran in the league final. St martins pipped conahy by a point with young James ó Neill scoring an incredible 8 points from play. He’ll need more help from Cody, Mulhall and Sean Hunt here.
Lisdowney are a very even team with strong bench options. Expect them to win by 4 or 5.
Danesfort v rower inistioge.
Danesfort won their league meeting at the start of the campaign. Both clubs won 3 and lost 2 matches. Rower struggled to get over fenians last week and will need Eoghan Lyng, mick galavan and Kevin Murphy in top form
Danesfort backs are very strong so they should have enough.
Tullogher v mooncoin
Mooncoin are the form team with 5 wins on the spin. Paul heneberry and Martin ó Néill are I great form. tullogher should have wally Walsh back from injury and look to have the better forwards. This will be very close.
Gowran v blacks and whites.
The skeagh men pulled off a big surprise by beating carrickshock but can only see a gowran win here.
In junior i think galmoy and graiuge will have wins over piltown and slieverue.
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Good summation there, wouldn’t disagree with any of it.
Our lads played Graig already in the league section and bet them scoring 5 goals in the process which is unlikely to happen again. Graig have good forwards but porous enough in defence. 2 of our best players limped off in the last round of the league against Lachtains and are touch and go for Sunday apparently. Probably a 50-50 game if they both play, advantage Graig if 1 or both don’t make it.
Piltown were very erratic in the league section, beating Windgap but getting bet in 3 of their other games including a trimming by Galmoy. Bit of a shock them beating Ballyragget last weekend, but Galmoy have been very consistent only losing to Windgap in the league section and I’d expect them to get the job done on Sunday.
Intermediate championship is very interesting with every remaining team except B&W probably feeling they have a realistic shot at winning it out if the cards fall their way. Lisdowney will be hard bet but have a feeling Danesfort will go very close to returning senior.
Graiuge have put up big scores in last couple of games. Good forward line on paper alright.
That was a big win for piltown last week. They always kind of promise more than they deliver.
Presume minor matches Saturday are the reason all the junior and senior is Sunday.
Tullogher, graiuge and danesfort I think have minors involved with the adult team.
According to KCLR podcast reason there all on Sunday is minor championship on Saturday and with that at u18 there is possible overlap.
Danesfort beat Rower-Inistioge on penalties in the intermediate. Sounded like a cracker.
Heartbreak for the rower. Seemed to dominate most of the game but didn’t score in last 10 minutes. Paddy hógan equalised with a goal from a 21.
Penalties are cruel. Say both teams would take a replay after 60 minutes
Mooncoin very impressive winners over tullogher. Their short passing running game is very un kilkenny like but so well done. Their goal must have involved 7 or 8 passes through the centre of the field. Not just hand passing but little flick passes using the Hurley.
Will be hard to beat.
Why in god’s name do we need penalties in a game that has scores every 30 seconds. Why not have first team to score a point and opponents then have one attack to score a goal or something like that. Asking lads to hit a peno and never have done it before. Pointless
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There’s no easy solution in fairness. Rower will be more sick over letting a 7 point lead slip in normal time than penalties.
Intended calling into Mullinavat for the 2nd half on the way home from Hugginstown this afternoon but didn’t have the stomach for it after how our own game panned out.
KCLR were effusive in their praise of Mooncoin and their movement, another semi vs Lisdowney beckons for them. Should be a right good tough game.
Yes right crowd at it. Everything about mooncoin was impressive, their first touch, passing by hand and hurl, how they closed down tullogher forwards. Their confidence in passing from the backs is something else.
The old timers would be having heart attack over it!
Anyone get the final score in gowran black and whites? Not up on website
Fair going for Mooncoin. I heard at the start of the year they were down a load of starters from the final last year.
They’ve the majority of the lads back now.
I watched them v Gowran on Clubber the first day out and they were brutal, I’ve bet against them twice since and they’ve won well.
Don’t think any of the KK intermediate will Walk the all Ireland title like Thomastown last year.
Gowran beat them by 10 points in they’re 1st match but they’ve won 6 on the spin since then.
When were they last senior?
Danesfort & Lisdowney only down the last two years whilst Gowran was the late 00s?
Jeez a long tíme is Say. Think they might have beat carrickshock in intermediate final 20 years ago.
Someone older than me here might know.
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The day Power cut his hand on barbed wire on camera.
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Went up in 1994 beat Clara in the final, relegated in 1997