Thurles isn’t an issue, says Cody
KILKENNY manager Brian Cody insists that he doesn’t mind travelling to Semple Stadium for the Leinster final replay as the GAA find themselves at the centre of another venue controversy. A Michael Bublé concert in Croke Park next Saturday evening means that the stadium is unavailable for the second act of GalwayKilkenny after yesterday’s provincial decider ended in a draw, 0-18 apiece. It means that both teams must travel to Thurles next Sunday, although Cody doused the flames of any potential controversy when he claimed that his team don’t mind where they play. ‘Seemingly, it is in Thurles,’ Cody said. ‘It is a neutral venue. We don’t mind where it is on or when it is on.’ Cody heaped praise on his players, who had to battle back from three points down
THIS was a performance that nobody expected out of Kilkenny, except maybe their manager. Brian Cody was clearly pleased with how his team rallied to secure a replay against All-Ireland champions Galway.
He spoke for almost six minutes in the post-match press conference, even cracking a joke or two. When he was informed that it was Michael Bublé keeping the teams out of Croke Park next week, Cody gave his own take on the Canadian crooner. ‘He [Bublé] played special junior for someone else years ago. He was a good hurler in his time,’ the Kilkenny manager smiled.
Cody was in good form afterwards because he felt that all of his players had performed well. Just over a month ago in Salthill, there looked to be a chasm between Kilkenny and Galway. But that seems to have closed pretty quickly.
‘You are supposed to progress as the year goes on,’ Cody said. ‘Otherwise the training wouldn’t be up to much, really. That game took place at a different time of the year.
‘It’s the just the way it works. But you can’t legislate for what is going to happen on any given day. We would hope to be as competitive again next Sunday. But who knows? As regards how we played today, we would be happy.’
Billy Ryan fired over two points from play on his Championship debut, one of nine rookies that Cody has played over the course of this summer so far.
‘No surprise there. Billy is a good hurler. He got some nice scores, there wasn’t one player that I would not be happy with, to be honest,’ Cody said before expanding on the youth he gambled on.
‘It’s obviously a good indication of the sort of lads that they are. I have been saying since the start of the year that I have great confidence in the panel of players we have. It is not the general opinion around the place, not even in our county. There isn’t a huge amount of expectation. But all we are is in a Leinster final. Now we are in a replayed Leinster final so we will see what happens.’
Micheál Donoghue suggested that some people were getting carried away with the way the AllIreland champions had cut through the round-robin format and they were prepared for an intense battle yesterday.
‘We knew coming up that it would be a fairly intense battle and there would be very little between the teams. Coming up towards the end, we were three points up and we were in a good position but you expect nothing less from Kilkenny than to come back. Fair play to them.’
The Galway boss accepted that there is improvement needed before next weekend. ‘There are obviously some elements of our play we need to improve on. We are well aware of that. We improved in the second half but it was a very physical and intense game and were just glad to go again and looking forward to next weekend.’
Donoghue believed that it was the most intense game that the All-Ireland champions had to play this year.
‘It was probably the most physical and intense game we have had in a long time, so we knew that we were under pressure. Some of our play looked a bit off at times but that game will stand to us.
‘We have the height of respect for them. They have quality players. They won the League and had massive wins in the Championship. People have written them off and think they have gone away but that’s not true, and it was very evident in their performances.’
Galway have been overwhelming teams in the air but yesterday, they were matched in the aerial battle by a hard-working Kilkenny side.
‘They are strong in that area as well but there are areas we could have varied a lot more. Our game management wasn’t as good as other days, but you are going to have days like that and once you take learnings from it, and we will, we can analyse properly where we should improve.’