FOR KILKENNY TO go into an All-Ireland final as underdogs hasn’t happened too often during Brian Cody’s managerial career.
Despite their impressive semi-final hammering of Clare, the Cats are considered outsiders against the three-in-a-row chasing Limerick.
You probably have to go back to another side chasing a three-peat, Cork in 2006, to the last time they were available at such long odds in a decider.
Heading into that All-Ireland 17 years ago, Cody relished the unfolding narrative that there would be no stopping Cork’s running game.
It fed into a siege mentality in Kilkenny that Cody harnessed as an extra source of motivation.
The parallels with Sunday’s clash with Limerick are unavoidable.
During Kilkenny’s All-Ireland press night, Cody hammered home the point about their underdog status.
“Not only are we coming in as underdogs but we were not considered to have any chance of being in the All-Ireland final this year up to a few weeks ago,” he said.
“Somebody told me we were 12/1 (to win the All-Ireland) after Cork beat us in the league semi-final so that wouldn’t suggest there were great expectations for us to get there. So it was probably a big surprise for everybody that we’re there.
“And I don’t have a problem with that, that it’s a surprise. You couldn’t look at it and say, ‘Jeez, this team is definitely going to make the All-Ireland final this year’. We’re beyond where everybody would have expected us to be so understandably Limerick would (be favourites).”
Leinster round-robin defeats to Galway and Wexford did little to create confidence that Kilkenny were on the verge of making their first run to the final since 2019.
Yet the mood music changed when the Kilkenny of old reared its head in the Leinster final defeat of Galway. The manner by which they put a stranglehold on the game was notable. It was good old fashioned ferocious work-rate and intensity. They simply didn’t allow Galway’s main players any room to manoeuvre.
While the rest of the country felt the stars were aligning for an all Munster All-Ireland final, Kilkenny went to work and put the four-week wait to good use.
Things were going so well that Cody reportedly remarked to the squad after one training game in Nowlan Park: “This is how we were training when we were winning All Irelands.”
The break between the provincial final and Clare game was significant, admitted the manager.
“We weren’t expected to be in the final, the Kilkenny people didn’t expect us to be in the final. It’s a tribute to the players, the absolute honesty of the panel, the ambition and the genuineness of the panel that are there.
“They put in a massive performance to win the Leinster final because coming into it the form you couldn’t say it was great. The Leinster final performance, it was a big challenge we faced against Galway and we won that.
“What did help certainly was the four-week break from the Leinster final to the All-Ireland semi-final.
“Contrary to what people might think, they love training and taking on each other and it opened up the opportunity for everybody to fight for a place in the team because we genuinely have a very good panel, a very even panel of players. We could replace two, three or four players I believe with players of the same quality.
“That gave the opportunity to all those players to say, ‘Pick me’, and our performance (against Clare) was good, there’s no point in saying it wasn’t. It was very good. And again it’s like everything, what won for us then won’t win for us won’t win for us next weekend. You just have to build on it, improve on it and go further.”
Cody has always retained great faith in his players, even if outside voices questioned their credentials of taking Liam MacCarthy back to Noreside.
“I’ve always had great faith and belief in the team and great trust in the team so I always think we have a chance, of course we have, because that’s the way I am. I would always be positive on things.
“But am I going around thinking, ‘We’re going to win this All-Ireland final’? I would be very foolish if I was. It’s just a phenomenal challenge.
“It’s the greatest challenge a Kilkenny team had had in a long, long time in lots of ways because where we’re coming from and where they (Limerick) are.”
Would beating Limerick represent his greatest achievement in management?
“Well, probably from the point of view of other people’s expectations of our team. Most other years if we were in an All-Ireland final, we’d have been favourites a fair few number of times.
“We were always there with a very, very strong chance in people’s minds. But I know for a fact that in people’s minds we don’t have a very strong chance and Limerick are very, very strong favourites. So from that point of view obviously it’s a huge challenge. There’s no doubt about that.
“They’re All-Ireland champions the past two years, we have seven or eight players who haven’t played in an All-Ireland final. Even though we played in one a few years ago. But that’s how new our team is.
“That has to be an advantage for them, the fact that we do have that inexperience against their great experience. But again, that doesn’t bother me either because they’re the players we have. I have great faith and trust in them and they showed last weekend why I should have.”
