CODY WON’T CHANGE... AND WHY SHOULD HE?
HE’S BACK: LIAM HAYES TACKLES THE BIG ISSUES
IBELIEVE Brian Cody. Not just because he was a schoolteacher all his adult life and probably told children not to lie. And not just because he is the ‘Boss of Bosses’ in the GAA and is now starting out on his 20th year in a long and punishing stretch on the sideline.
I believe him because… well, just look into his eyes.
Or, better still, look at him as he sat alone on one of the lower rows in the stand in Nowlan Park last Sunday, having been thrown out of the field. Cody has seen it all. Done it all. Walked. Talked. We see it in his eyes, and in his disposition. The man is 63 yearsold. He has upended referees with his words after games. He has turned tables on members of the media and grilled individuals almost to the point of early retirement.
He seldom excuses himself, and apologies have been a rarity over the last 10 years. He says what he thinks, and what he believes, and when he tells us that he did not rudely crease the sensitivites of a linesman last Sunday as Kilkenny were being beaten by Wexford in the Walsh Cup, we should believe him.
He says he told the official that one of his men was being mauled and dragged. And he says that the same man told him, ‘I’ll put you off the field!’
‘You won’t put me out of the field!’ Cody says he replied, before a flag was raised high in the air, somebody else (according to Cody) let out a roar, and the referee decided to put some manners on Cody by ejecting him from where he was standing.
Truth is, Cody doesn’t need anybody to introduce him to a new set of manners, and neither does he need Davy Fitzgerald commenting the next day about how ‘disappointed’ he was to hear the Kilkenny manager’s comments about one of his players – whom Cody accused of being overcome by selfsympathy and ‘bawling and roaring.’
It’s too late to change Cody. Whether we admire him, or wish him out of our sight, Cody is the man he is.
I’m reminded of Uncle Bawley’s words of resignation in the movie, Giant that are a lesson to us all.
‘Bick… you shoulda shot that fella a long time ago. Now he’s too rich to kill.’
WE don’t want Cody changed, and it is far too late for any number of people to decide to do away with him. Cody is now too powerful. He’s quite clear in his own head about what he thinks is right and what he thinks is wrong.
He saw wrong-doing on the field in front of him last Sunday and he had something to say about it to one of the officials nearby.
Was he animated, and possibly quite loud, when he expressed his feelings?
Sure he was. Cody is usually one hundred per cent certain that he wants to be heard when he decides to open his mouth on the sideline.
However, the Leinster Council’s sheriff’s department quickly made it know that they would be taking no further action against Cody after this latest incident, indicating that it felt the referee had ‘dealt’ with the matter by ordering Cody behind the wire in Nowlan Park.
And, therefore, Cody will be present, standing tall in Páirc Uí Chaoimh this evening as Kilkenny begin their League campaign against Cork.
He’ll be there, and he may well have a sometimes suffering, occasionally pained look on his face — looks that mostly tells us how much he has seen on the hurling fields in his lifetime.
There is little doubt that Cody believes he is right more often than not. But there is also a high chance that he is nearly always right.
Certainly at this point in his distinguished life and times we’re sure that he has no particular interest in conning anyone or sneakily trying to get his way, or trotting out falsehoods. He’s too old for that variety of malarkey. He has seen too much, he has won too much, and lost quite a lot in his time which is fairly normal for someone who has chased All-Irelands for two decades.
Yes, this is his 20th year, and he begins it sitting in the stand in his own Nowlan Park — a ground that is akin to the kitchen or the front room of his own home — after being told to behave himself.
It looked like an unnecessary decision by the match officials, and a complete waste of their time. It also felt too early in the year to be standing up to the most distinguished manager in the history of either hurling or football.
There will come a time, even in his 20th year, when Cody will get up on his high horse and perhaps ride roughshod over a referee or some other venerated person in the GAA. We have little doubt about that.
But when that time comes, and just like last Sunday, he will absolutely believe he is justified in his role of righting another maddening wrong.