ONCE UPON A time Brian Cody’s Kilkenny team almost picked itself.
It’s not quite stop at the Red Cow for 20 players territory, to quote Anthony Daly, but it’s not far off as Cody tries to pick a team for Saturday’s Allianz Hurling League opener against Cork.
The list of players unavailable to Cody for the Leeside trip is quite something. Goalkeeper David Herity, Tommy Walsh, Aidan Fogarty, JJ Delaney and Brian Hogan retired following last year’s All-Ireland success. But Cody’s also without his Ballyhale contingent – the Fennelly brothers Colin and Michael, TJ Reid, Henry Shefflin and Joey Holden. Still with us? Because that’s not all.
Eoin Larkin could miss the entire league campaign after undergoing groin surgery and Richie Power was also under the knife to sort out a knee cartilage problem. Richie’s brother John lined out for UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup yesterday but Cody has hinted that he may plan without the All-Ireland final replay hero for the weekend. That’s a dozen players unavailable to Cody for the start of the League campaign for a variety of reasons – three short of an entire team.
Cody smiled when informed that the holders are still favourites with the bookies to retain their League title and secure the four-in-a-row. Almost incredulous at the suggestion, Cody joked: “For the National League?
“Have a look at an alternative there and put in a few bob there. Look, we’re going in next Saturday night and we’re going to have a lot of players with limited experience or whatever and it will certainly be a team that won’t look very familiar to a lot of people. I’m not even sure what it’s going to be yet because with the panel we’re working from, we’re looking at niggles as well that we’re not sure of.”
And last year’s double winners are going in cold – having pulled out of the Walsh Cup as a mark of respect to the late Johnny Ryan, father of 2014 captain Lester. Consequently, Kilkenny have not played a game of consequence this year and Cody fears they may struggle during the spring. Cody said: “We’ve had no opportunity to play any match at all before next Saturday night. That’s not by choice – that’s just the way it panned out for us. We’re going into a challenging league, for sure.”
