No disgrace losing to best team in the country, says Cody
THIS was another day of growth for Kilkenny’s new kids on the block, absorbing lessons dished out by a Galway side that Brian Cody reminded everyone was ‘the best team in the country’.
Cody was stood outside his team’s dressing-room in Semple Stadium, wearing the polo shirt from the 2016 All-Ireland final. That afternoon was supposed to signal the end of the empire when the Kilkenny full-back line were filleted by Tipperary’s attack. But, less than two years later, the Cats are still there. Still fighting, still making teams earn every score against them.
‘They are obviously learning on their feet, learning as they go,’ Cody said of his young players.
‘They’re at the top level now, getting huge experience. It doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t happen easy. The first thing you want in a team is that absolute never-say-die attitude and I think they showed that today which is obviously the most pleasing thing.
‘But I think we have been learning all year, really. When we were in Nowlan Park against Clare, we did the same thing.
‘We gave a huge lead to Clare and came back into it. It happened against Wexford in Nowlan Park, too. And we came back into it here, but we just weren’t able to keep it sustained.
‘There has obviously been a lot of change in our team but it’s a question of gaining that experience. I am absolutely certain of the character, the spirit and the commitment and never-say-doe attitude that is there. When you have that, you can work on other things.’
Kilkenny’s second-half comeback was a study in their remarkable defiance, assisted by the appearance of Richie Hogan and Colin Fennelly off the bench.
Cody suggested that his two veterans might be in contention for a starting place next weekend against Limerick.
‘I think they’re ready to play, absolutely. It’s a question of seeing how they recover. They’re after putting in a huge amount of work to get to this level and we’ll be looking at every possibility and every option.
‘Of course, they made a difference but that’s their quality. But I don’t want to make the second-half about one, two or three players. It was about everybody. We would have been blown away if the response hadn’t been magnificent all over the field and I felt it was.’
Micheal Donoghue was pleased by his own players’ character in a game that they effectively had to win twice. In the story of this Galway team, perhaps this will go down as a significant afternoon.
‘We knew after last week that we had to try to impose our own game on it,’ Donoghue said.
‘And the players did that brilliantly. They totally understand the responsibility that goes with wearing that jersey. But testament to
Kilkenny, they came back in total Kilkenny fashion and style. It was some game and some game for us to win,’ added Donoghue.
He wasn’t too concerned by how Kilkenny wrestled control of the match away from his team.
‘Anyone that thinks a hurling game at this level, you are going to dominate for 70 minutes, knows nothing about it.
‘We knew and expected nothing less from Kilkenny, they were going to come back, they’ve proven it all season. The calibre of team that they have and they’re still going to have a massive say in this Championship. ‘Every day, we keep saying the same thing, we’ll get the learnings from this game now, the biggest advantage is we’ve the couple of weeks to regroup and to refocus and go again.’ Donoghue praised the leadership from within his own squad in the past week as one of the key aspects in their improved performance, although the recalled Johnny Glynn also caused havoc in the edge of the Kilkenny square.
‘He did, yeah. He was motoring well for us. But it’s not just about Johnny, we’ve a massive squad.
‘The competition to get into the team, to get into the match-day squad, huge competition. We’ve a few weeks again for everyone to put the shoulder to the wheel and put the hands up.’
And so Galway have three weeks before an All-Ireland semi-final, boasting 11 games unbeaten in the Championship and looking as strong as they ever did last summer.
‘Look, it’s going really well for us,’ Donoghue admitted. ‘It’s been a brilliant week for Galway hurling with the Under 21s winning during the week as well, there was a massive connectivity with that group, so it’s been a good week.’