Players know Cody is always looking to the future

DESPITE FILLING a tape with quotes from two Kilkenny hurlers very little new information is gained. Tommy Walsh or JJ Delaney can hardly be accused of being uncooperative, and it is certainly not the line of questioning, it's just they have said it all before.

Walsh has four All-Ireland medals since coming on to Brian Cody's panel six years ago. This is his second tilt at the much sought after three-in-a-row. After talking to Kilkenny hurlers intermittently before big championship matches these past five years it becomes apparent that this carrot is of little interest to them.

Cody commands a respect clearly superior to rival hurling managers these past 10 seasons by avoiding such trivial, romantic motivational tools.

Winning and maintaining the highest standard, albeit from a golden generation, is what they are about in Kilkenny.

"He has a great hunger," said Delaney. "Genuine hurling person as well. That comes out naturally. If he wasn't training Kilkenny it would be an under-14 club team. That genuine love for hurling.

"He just has a hunger there every year. Once the All-Ireland is over he looks at it for a couple of weeks and that's it, he looks forward to the next year. He doesn't live in the past. All the players know that as well. If you have an All Star last year and aren't hurling well it doesn't make a difference, you won't be playing."

How has he evolved as a manager? "There is a great presence about him. He is a big man. Great man to speak in the dressingroom as well. That hasn't changed at all."

The complaint coming out of Waterford was that Justin McCarthy's pre-match talk failed to stir the players' motivational juices.

And yet, the winter months have been difficult for Kilkenny with Tipperary beating them in the National League semi-final in Nowlan Park. They go into Sunday's Leinster hurling semi-final not having lost to old rivals Offaly since the 1998 All-Ireland final and they are expected to maintain the 14-point winning margin despite a significant list of wounded.

Richie Power is out with a hamstring injury while it will take until tonight before a decision is made on Noel Hickey, Henry Shefflin, James Ryall, John Tennyson, Aidan Fogarty and PJ Delaney. Maybe they are having us on but no other county could survive such a queue at the physio door.

Shefflin is expected to return after snapping his cruciate ligament just before half-time in last September's All-Ireland final defeat of Limerick. Both players reflected this week, at a sponsor's function, about the devastation within the panel on news that goalkeeper Richie O'Neill suffered a recurrence after a similar period of rehabilitation to Shefflin and Tennyson.

"Yeah, there are three of them who came back together," said Walsh. "Himself (Henry Shefflin), John Tennyson and Richie O'Neill - who did it again, so I suppose that's not easy for the two boys looking at that as regards having confidence in their knees."

Irrespective of who starts, Paddy Power priced them at 1 to 50 to win in Portlaoise on Sunday. The points handicap is 16. Twelve months ago Offaly were applauded off the field for staying within one point at the interval.

Thirty minutes of resistance? "Ah, they stayed with us for a lot longer than that now. They stayed with us for 50 minutes. I think we got a goal or something like that.

"They'll be a year further on and that bit more experienced. They're hurling very confidently at the moment.

"We're looking no further now. We honestly aren't."

Will the most famous knees in hurling remain sturdy under the O'Moore Park turf? Will Kilkenny continue to dominate the Leinster hurling landscape? The answer to both is probably yes.