Brian Cody points to ‘relentless spirit to just drive on’

Only when Brian Cody starts listing off the reasons why Kilkenny should not have won this All-Ireland title can we fully appreciate why they did.

Cody may not instantly rank it among his sweetest of victories – title number 11, and counting – yet some of his players do, and for good reason.

The spate of retirements at the end of 2014, followed by the rake of injuries through 2015: no Jackie Tyrrell, only a half-fit Michael Fennelly and Richie Power, Richie Hogan nursing a pulled quad muscle, and Eoin Larkin with a cracked thumb. Yet they all played central roles – even Tyrrell, in terms of his dressing-room speech at half-time.

Then, in the game itself, Kilkenny played second best for the first half. Galway were doing to them when Kilkenny would normally do to others, and there is no easy way of suddenly turning form around in an All-Ireland final.

Yet such was Kilkenny’s turn of form in that second half, Galway seemed further away from victory at the finish than at any point before.

Scoreboard

“Well, the scoreboard only matters in the end,” said Cody, looking more assured than ever. “You don’t have to win the first half. And you’re not going to win 73, or 74 minutes. That’s just not possible. So to be ahead at the final whistle is the goal.

“Three points down in hurling is not a big lead, like we were at half-time, and it’s fair to say we didn’t hurl as we would liked to have hurled in the first half. Galway hit us in every way possible. They were outstanding in the first half. Their work rate, and relentless kind of physicality.

“We knew we had to up the game in every aspect, and I thought the players response was magnificent, really. Our attitude, and relentless spirit, to just drive on. We would never have considered at all that we were going to dominate this game. You hang on, hang on, and it’s how you play under pressure, and hang in there, really defines how you do in the game. And we hung in, when the going was tough, and drove on then, when we got our spell. We fought it out, and got our reward, really.”

Power was only a late addition to the panel, having missed the last year with a knee injury; Fennelly hasn’t been able to train for much of the summer with a back injury; and Tyrrell was completely absent with a stress fracture in his foot,

"We had a tough year with injuries, no doubt about," said Cody. "Jackie fought like a dog to get back, was so close to making it, but just wasn't absolutely there to play. So Shane Prendergast comes in, plays his first All-Ireland final, and does a great job.

“And Richie Hogan pulled a quad muscle, 10 days ago, and it was just completely touch and go, whether he’d be able to play this game or not. Michael Fennelly’s injuries are obviously well chronicled. Eoin Larkin too. It’s a tribute to the resolve of the players and the panel, and it’s a tribute to our medical team. They played a huge part. But that’s what team is about.”

Forward drive

“And certainly Jackie drove forward the thing, before the game and at half-time, very, very much. He was very, very vocal in his drive. As were so many of the players, starting players and non-starting players. It’s a whole panel thing really.”

No wonder players like Power and Fennelly count it as possibly their sweetest ever, and they’ve now won eight titles each. “Yeah, talking to a few of the lads, it’s definitely one of the sweetest that we’ve ever won,” said Power. He replaced Richie Hogan, on 60 minutes, who had apparently defied all the sporting science to even last that long.

“I only got back training two weeks ago,” added Power. “It’s been a frustrating year. I had a couple of keyhole surgeries, but just couldn’t get it right. I’ve spent the last five months in the gym every night of the week trying to get it right, and thankfully, it came right for me at the right time and we pulled it off today.

“So it meant everything, to get on the field, for the last 10 minutes It didn’t look likely, three or four weeks ago. I just said to Brian during the week that anything I could do to help I was more than willing to do, whether that was one minute or 15 or 20, I was more than happy to come on.

“And to be honest, the players took it over. A few guys spoke, Jackie in particular spoke really, really well. We just threw the gauntlet down to the lads. We didn’t hurl well in the first half, I thought, and we were still only three points behind. We always seem to have a purple patch in the ten-fifteen minutes after half-time, and that’s how it proved.”

Cherished

Fennelly also rated All-Ireland title number eight as among the most cherished, again because there was no guarantee he would be a part of it: “And you would wonder how we do it every year and come back with the same hunger,” he said,

“but I see it in relation to myself. I want to get on that team, get the number eight or nine jersey, and if you are driving towards that target, the games will look after themselves.

“And once you are mentally right that will bring you a long way through it. It wasn’t looking too good at half-time, but thankfully we dug the heels in and we started to do what we do best.

“We started winning breaks, winning puck-outs and got to grip with the game. When you are mentally solid like that you can go places where no-one else can go.”