Cody calls for no more tinkering

GAELIC GAMES NEWS ROUND-UP:GIVEN THE way his team are playing it's hardly surprising that Brian Cody doesn't favour any more tinkering with either the competition rules or structure of intercounty hurling. He doesn't like the experimental yellow cards and says the league format is fine the way it is.

“There is nothing dirty in the game, as far as I’m concerned,” says the Kilkenny manager. “Television, the way it highlights games, has done away with that.

“You might have an isolated incident, but the rules are there to govern those things anyway. If it’s a red-card offence then he’s sent off. And that’s fine. If he gets a yellow then that’s a warning and if he’s stupid enough after that then he’ll go then.

“But to be gone for the match on a yellow card, I don’t like it. It’s a shame to see a player getting a yellow card maybe five minutes into the game. It could happen in a Leinster final, or an All-Ireland semi-final or final. For maybe a clumsy challenge, but certainly not something deliberate. I don’t think players go out to deliberately do anything stupid. I don’t think there is any problem in the game.”

Cody was speaking in Croke Park yesterday at the launch of the 2009 All-Ireland minor championship, as the hurling actually gets under way this weekend with the first of the round-robin games in Leinster. ESB will be the competition sponsors for the fifth year.

No surprise either that Kilkenny will start that minor hurling championship as defending champions, and favourites, just as the senior team will. Yet never has any team been so highly fancied to win back the title as the Kilkenny seniors, for the fourth year in succession – and not just because of last Sunday’s 27-point hammering of Cork in the league.

Kilkenny’s dominance is escalating on several counts. While their average margin of victory in this year’s league is 10 points, their average winning margin in last year’s championship was 17 points; in 2007 it was 11 points; and it 2006 it was seven points.

Several hurling commentators have already labelled this Kilkenny team the best ever, but that’s something Cody is not even interested in hearing.

“That just doesn’t come into it. It’s irrelevant really. That’s not what we’re about it. There is no such thing as the best team ever. We were the best in Nowlan Park last Sunday, but that could change if we met Cork in three months’ time.

“But last Sunday was unreal, really. Cork were just back playing hurling, training on their own, and that’s no preparation for a physical game like that. Things will even themselves up over the next couple of months. And that’s not even related to a pointer for the championship. I think Cork will catch up for the championship. I’m certain of it.”

Cody also says the current league format is working just fine, despite the fact that the final pairing is already known ahead of the last round of matches on Sunday week (Kilkenny v Tipperary), as it the team to be relegated (Clare).

“I would prefer if they’d left it the way it was,” he suggests. “It’s something we’ve always been used to. We’ve been used to semi-finals as well. And I think it would be a shame not to have a league final.

“We’re trying to win the league the same as every other year. And we respect the league very much. It’s been very good to us, and we always put our best efforts into it. And I’ll be disappointed if we don’t win.

“You go out happy to win by a point. We’re just preparing as we usually do . . . That hasn’t changed. We’re as far away from winning the championship now as every other team.”

As if Kilkenny couldn’t get any better, they probably will. Noel Hickey is back training after a groin operation. Derek Lyng is completing rehab after a hip operation. And while James “Cha” Fitzpatrick has played very little recently, after getting mumps, then another virus, he is slowly getting back into training.

The Monaghan County Board have voted overwhelmly to oppose the adoption of the experimental rules when they come before congress in Cork next weekend.