KILKENNY CLIPPED CLARE’S wings on Saturday, leaving Brian Cody 70 minutes away from claiming his 12th All-Ireland title as manager.
The mood music prior to the season was that Kilkenny were stagnating and the atmosphere at training was poor.
Then after the initial handshake incident in Salthill, there were rumours the Ballyhale contingent were unhappy with how situation with Henry Shefflin played out.
And yet Cody surfed all that talk with minimal fuss. He sent out a Kilkenny team against the Banner with their usual ferocious work ethic and hunger.
They sealed three Leinster titles in succession and another appearance in hurling’s showpiece game.
Not bad for a manager supposedly trading off past glories.
“I find it hard to understand,” said Davy Fitzgerald on the Sunday Game.
“At times you’ll hear rumblings out of Kilkenny about ‘we need a change’. He’s gone through a few great teams, built a few different teams, but he always seems to have Kilkenny there or thereabouts. He’s in another All-Ireland final and they have an opportunity.
The panel pay tribute to the achievements of Kilkenny boss Brian Cody.#TheSundayGame #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/QxPU9DUA38
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“He’s not there to make friends. He has one thing on his mind – Kilkenny winning. Nothing else comes into this. No one person is bigger than that Kilkenny ream. If you come across him you’ll know that.
“He’s going to make changes and be it big or small, there’s no one bigger than Kilkenny. There aren’t many people out there that manage like that and that would probably get away with some of the stuff he does, but it’s incredible what he’s managed to achieve.”
Donal Óg Cusack added: “For that length of time, theres huge demand son inter-county mangers. You have to have huge respect for his desire. His teams are often brilliant but always turn up.
“Everybody likes to find chinks in the armour. Over the last couple of years we were all asking could Kilkenny adapt to this latest iteration of the game.
“But that’s been one of his greatest achievements, that he’s played through a number of different evolutions of the game and he’s been able to adapt and win at each of the different stages.”
