Brian Cody braced for biggest challenge yet as Kilkenny hurling manager

The last thing Brian Cody likes to do is play any sort of told-you-so game, about his team or indeed any other. In his now 24 seasons as Kilkenny manager everything he sees has been illuminated in real time.

At the start of the championship, few if anyone predicted Kilkenny as leading All-Ireland contenders. Now, after breaking into his 17th final as manager, only Limerick stand in their way on Sunday. Still, Cody won’t be rubbing that in, will he?

“Somebody told me we were 12/1 after Cork beat us in the league semi-final so that wouldn’t suggest there was great expectations for us to get here,” Cody says. “So it was probably a big surprise for everybody that we’re here. 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.”

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Which in the here and now means Limerick will start Sunday as favourites; “understandably,” Cody agrees. “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.”

Not that Cody ever lost any belief in the ability of his own team, that’s not his style either.

“Look, I’ve always had great faith and belief in the team, 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 ‘here, 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.”

“But look, we’re in the final. 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.

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“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. Prior to that, it was week on week and we didn’t have time for training and players enjoy training.

“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.”

When Kilkenny narrowly beat Limerick in the 2019 semi-final, few if anyone predicted that would be Limerick’s last championship defeat for the now best part of three seasons – a win on Sunday landing them the first three-in-a-row in the county’s history. Cody is not playing any told-you-so on that either. Still, it hasn’t surprised him.

“The way they were coming together as a team, and the type of player they had, the physical power they had in every aspect, and skill, you could see that. For the last couple of years you’d be expected they’d be the favourites in people’s minds to go ahead and win it and that’s what they’ve been doing.”

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So is this Cody’s biggest challenge yet as Kilkenny manager?

“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.

“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. Like I said, I have great faith and trust in them. There is a build-up but at the end of the day when the whistle blows, once the hurling starts then and the ball comes, you’re killing it and catching it and striking, you’re literally back playing hurling. Regardless of where you are.”