No room for sentiment as Brian Cody contemplates loss

There is a bitter cold realisation which comes with losing an All-Ireland final, only no one presents it better than Brian Cody. When you've already won 11 to the now four you've lost, there is no room for sentiment or emotion, and not necessarily any room for gracious soundings either.

So hounded as he is for the reasons behind Kilkenny defeat – the 2-21 plundered from his full back line, the absence of Michael Fennelly, the lack of depth on the bench even – Cody point blank refuses to go there. Kilkenny lost because the better team won, and that's about as deep as he does go.

There was a moment, about 10 minutes from the end, when Cody called an impromptu sideline huddle with selectors Michael Dempsey, James McGarry and Derek Lyng; the game was running away from them, and in that moment all four seemed to realise it, helplessly cut adrift on the sideline as much as the players on the field.

Running repairs

The question of why Cody didn’t carry out any running repairs on his full back line of

Paul Murphy

,

Joey Holden

, and captain Shane Prendergast (who ended up torn asunder by John O’Dwyer, Séamus Callanan, John McGrath) is not necessarily avoided, but rather deflected.

“You look at everything,” said Cody. “When a full forward line is on top, it isn’t always a question of what is happening the full back line either. It is a team game, and everybody talks about defending all over the field.

“So certainly I wouldn’t be pointing the finger at anybody. Their full forward line is very talented, there is no doubt about that, but our full back line has done great work for us many, many times.

“It is a collective thing, right throughout the field. Sideline, management. We win together and lose together. And today we got to lose together.”

That apparent lack of depth on the bench, at least compared to the riches of other years, is similarly downplayed; yet only two substitutions, neither of which made any impact, is surely one tell-tale sign of a team not in the ascendency but in decline.

“No, no, it wouldn’t be fair to say that at all,” said Cody. “You judge what’s happening out there and you do what you do. Like I said many, many times, I would have great time for the panel we have, all good players. And we were in the All-Ireland final with them, one game away from being All-Ireland champions.

“I just think the usual thing after an All-Ireland final – the better team wins the game. The better team won today. There are no excuses, there is no if only this had happened, or only if that had happened.

“There was nothing in it at half-time, essentially. The first half was just to-ing and fro-ing I suppose – two points in it at half-time. We got a good start to the second half, we got a goal, but we didn’t drive it on after that. When they got their goal they did drive it on.”

Showing the way

This time last year, when Kilkenny drove on in the second half against Galway, it was Michael Fennelly showing them the way. Had he been here, instead of nursing a torn Achilles tendon, might things have been different?

“You see, I’m not going to go down there, because that’s an excuse. And there are no excuses and I’m not even going to begin to talk about excuses.

“Michael Fennelly wasn’t playing so he couldn’t influence the game.”

Still, Kilkenny never stopped trying to drive on, Richie Hogan’s goal, with 10 minutes remaining, keeping hopes alive.

“A goal is a great score to get, but we didn’t get that bounce. They came back, they were strong, they were resilient.”

No one has better record of coming back from All-Ireland defeats than Cody, but he’s definitely not going there yet either: no one puts the question of retirement to Cody because that’s one he’ll only ever answer in his own time.

“When you lose an All-Ireland final, you don’t even think about positives. You have to go through the suffering of what it’s all about. We don’t even consider what might be coming down the tracks. And again, lookit, we’ve had great times, great days.”

Only rarely have those days seemed as numbered as they do now.