‘Tough love from Cody was just what I needed’
RICHIE POWER believes that Brian Cody was showing him ‘tough love’” when telling him he no longer wanted him in his panel.
Power, who already published a joint autobiography with his father Richie senior last year, revisits the gambling addiction that he battled with while winning eight All-Ireland senior medals with the Cats in tomorrow night’s opening episode of this season’s Laochra Gael on TG4.
Despite trying to keep his addiction a secret from his team-mates, Power was summoned to a meeting by Cody just days after his club Carrickshock lost the 2013 county final, informing him that he no longer wanted him in his dressing room because of his issue.
‘I suppose Brian and the management team were hearing stories off the field and maybe there were people relating how I was spending my time,’ recalls Power.
‘I have spoken to a good few of the players since then and going by Jackie’s (Tyrell) input in the programme, the players had no idea.
‘I was good at going into training and putting on a brave face and a persona (that) I was grand when really I wasn’t,’ he adds in the programme.
But after Cody’s intervention, Power admits he was left devastated by being left outside the group.
‘It was something that they didn’t want around,’ explained Power.
‘Coming out of the meeting, it was quite raw at the time because we were after being beaten in the senior county final and, as a lot of people would do, you spend the week after drowning your sorrows. I was probably a little fragile at that stage.
‘It was only on the Tuesday morning when I woke up that reality really hit me that this could be the end of my inter-county career.
‘I obviously had gone through an awful bad dip in form. My form was very, very poor. We got to the senior county final that year and I wasn’t performing anywhere near the levels that I should have been. That probably came into the decision as well.
‘In relation to the off-field problems, there probably wasn’t any help offered but they just felt that I needed to go and sort my offfield issues.
‘Maybe by telling me that I wasn’t part of their plans, it was going to give me that chance to concentrate on getting the help that I needed and trying to focus on doing both.’
Power did just that, having an All-Star season when breaking back into the panel in 2014 to play a key role — including scoring two goals in the final against Galwayto win the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
However, the ruthless manner in which Cody dealt with his problem raises an obvious duty-ofcare question as to how he was treated by the Kilkenny management.
‘Maybe. Maybe they saw this as their way of helping. I don’t know. I’ve never really had that real honest conversation with Brian.
‘I had a really honest conversation with him when I had to retire and I rang him on the way down from Belfast. I think Jackie refers to it in the show as a bit of tough love, and maybe that’s what I needed.’