You know Brian Cody isn’t engaging in small talk when he describes some of the criticism of his All-Ireland tactics as “very, very cheap sort of analysis of the game”. And that’s just for starters.
Having won 11 finals to the four that he has lost, Cody is entitled to be bullish – and he’s certainly not making or accepting any excuses for Sunday’s nine-point defeat to Tipperary. Even if it was Kilkenny’s heaviest final defeat in 52 years.
The suggestion his full back line of Paul Murphy, Joey Holden and captain Shane Prendergast were somehow being scapegoated for the nature of that defeat (given they conceded 2-21 to the Tipp full forward line) rises the Kilkenny manager in quiet anger: don’t even go there, in other words.
“That’s the simplest thing in the world to do,” he says. “It’s very, very cheap sort of analysis of the game, if that’s [what is said]. And they certainly won’t be scapegoated by us. I would hate to think that would happen.
“But at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks. I know what I think. We win together, we get beaten together, we attack together, we defend together. And our full back line had been heroic. And were manful to the very end as well. As were all our players.”
People’s opinion
Still, the fact Cody didn’t make any changes to that full back line – by choice or otherwise – suggests that his bench wasn’t as strong as it once was; again, he’s not going there.
“I feel, again, it’s an opinion, people’s opinion. They want to compare teams with other teams, and all the rest of it. But if a team, we won the last two All-Ireland finals and we were beaten in this year’s All-Ireland final, with a poor panel, that’s fair going. You know?
“You’d have to wonder about how we do it to be honest about it, because it couldn’t be done. Our lads defended as strongly as they could, and I would have no sense of anything except great respect for all the lads, the way they went out and played. They gave it every single thing they could. Most of those guys have won the previous two All-Ireland finals.
“We didn’t win this one. We’ve no entitlement to win even one. Ever. And we didn’t win this year’s All-Ireland final. That’s the way it went. But the players are top class.”
Indeed, nearly every word Cody says at Citywest Hotel before their losing homecoming is in defence of his team. He does say the Tipperary forward line are “very, very skilful players, always have been” and “the ball that was being given at times was very, very good”, but that doesn’t mean Kilkenny don’t make the players to match them.
“There are players on our panel, who haven’t been seen yet, who will be top players. And quickly. You can rest assured of that.”
This lines up the next question, about his own future, and you know Cody is just being Cody when he answers that: after 18 seasons in charge is there any immediate need to stop counting now?
“Like everyone else, lads will go back to the club, I’ll go back to the club, and that’s the way a hurler’s life works, every GAA person’s life works, everyone involved. And what I’ll do myself then next year who knows, God knows. But I don’t even think about it,” he says.
Better team
Any regrets though, about the way Sunday’s game unfolded?
“Losing,” Cody says, without pausing for breath. “There’s no sense of, you know, ‘if only this’ or ‘if only that’. There are no excuses. We were beaten by a better team. This happened us before. The better team always wins it, as far as I’m concerned,” he says.
“It’s like anything in sport. You prepare and you train and you plan to win. Regardless of how often you do, and whatever it is you do, when you don’t win, there is disappointment.
“And we’ve been privileged, I suppose, to have had a very good run. It doesn’t change the fact it wasn’t just another All-Ireland. People talk about it being another All-Ireland. It wasn’t. It was this year’s All-Ireland. It was the only one we could play in, and obviously we were very, very disappointed that we didn’t win.
“The build-up was fine. The genuineness of everybody involved was total. The want was there, everything was there. Somebody wins it every year. Automatically, somebody loses it every year. I mean everybody tells me, ‘It’s whoever wants it most’. Everybody wants it, completely. And when you don’t achieve it, it’s obvious there has to be disappointment.”
As for any potential retirements, Cody “wouldn’t even begin to think about that” because “that’s their call, that’s their decision” – although for the likes of players Eoin Larkin and Jackie Tyrrell that decision will likely come sooner rather than later.
But again nothing will tempt Cody into admitting his panel wasn’t as strong as recent years, despite the injured Michael Fennelly and Ger Aylward.
“There’s been a huge change in our team over a number of years, over a short number of years even if you like, and there’s no sense of saying, ‘We should be winning this thing’. It’s a struggle,” he says.
“It’s a challenge all the time, to be competitive, and we have been competitive again this year, and we were competitive on Sunday as much as we were able to be against a very good team that ran out convincing winners. Previous to that people were saying lads had retired and all this, but they are no longer part of the team so there’s no point talking about that. That’s a natural evolution with every team.
After-match feeling
“Injuries are something that are hard luck stuff and I always say it’s the toughest of all on the players themselves; those that can’t play. Would you like to have everybody available? Of course, everybody would love to have everyone available. But make it very, very clear, we have no excuses about anything.
“And I suppose ask anybody in sport, regardless of what sport you’re talking about, the wins are terrific. But very often people do remember the times you didn’t win. As I said, we’ve had a good run, but the after-match feeling doesn’t go away straightaway.
“The winners’ dressing room is a brilliant, brilliant place. The losers’ dressing room is the place you’ve got to go when you don’t win, but it’s the place you don’t want to be.”
