KILKENNY MANAGER BRIAN Cody spoke of the impact his talisman ‘King’ Henry Shefflin has had on hurling after the All-Star forward clinched a record ninth All-Ireland SHC medal yesterday.
The Ballyhale Shamrocks legend, who has been gracing the championship for 13 years, was once again instrumental for the Cats and waded in it with nine points as they ran out comfortable winners against Galway in a replay at Croke Park.
With team-mate Noel Hickey, Shefflin has now won the Liam McCarthy Cup more times than any other hurler and Cody was quick to focus the praise on the 33-year-old after the game.
“He set the tone from early on around 1999 from the point of view of playing senior with Kilkenny,” Cody said. ”He hasn’t just played for Kilkenny, he has done everything for Kilkenny, he’s led for Kilkenny, he’s scrapped for Kilkenny and that’s the difference in Henry Shefflin and players who just go out to get on the scoreboard and be the top scorer or whatever it was.
His work-rate is immense. Everybody raved about him the last day and rightly so – he just came out and led from the front when we were under severe pressure.
“Today again, there he was working, working, working. His achievement is unique because nobody has ever done it before and that tells its own story.”
Hickey also won championship No.9 after being introduced as a 65th-minute substitute, and on the Dunnamggin club man’s achievement, Cody added: ”He won almost all of them on the field of play and it was just terrific to see him on the field of play today to finish that game because what Noel Hickey means to our dressing room you couldn’t quantify – to Kilkenny, to hurlers and everyone involved in our panel.
“You couldn’t even begin to describe it, a leader. He hasn’t been starting of late. Again, a player who had a savage time with injuries and a few years ago he was knocked back with sickness.
“He just kicked back every time. The leadership and the selfless role that he has played as a driver in our panel has just been outstanding.”
Cody made the brave decision to throw 21-year-old forward Walter Walsh into the deep end by starting him in his first championship game yesterday and it paid off as the youngster put in a man of the match performance – scoring a goal and three points.
“You see how a fella’s going,” said Cody. “He’s very imposing physically for starters and he’s a huge amount going for him. The opportunity didn’t really arise for him to start any other match, really, even though he was very much in the running.
He was obviously heavily involved with the U21s. He hurled himself onto the team and you could be afraid to do that and say ‘oh my God, sure you couldn’t do that’. Or you could go on and do what you believe is the right thing to do.
“I think he proved his worth and certainly had a terrific game.”
