BRI & MIGHTY

Cody's ready to restore Cats to power in his 20th season

BRIAN CODY knows the perception is from outside. He realises what people are saying - that Kilkenny are facing into a difficult couple of years. But Cody insists he had no hesitation about coming back for a 20th year.

“If I were to pause to think do I or don’t I want it... I haven’t had to pause,” Cody explained. “If I did, I should have only one answer.

“It’s always just been year to year for me, and I haven’t checked the actual contract... it doesn’t exist, so I don’t know.”

The 63-year-old delivers his message within the hallowed halls of Kilkenny’s renowned hurling nursery, St Kieran’s College. He’s in relaxed mood as he reflects on a difficult year and as he contemplates what’s still ahead.

“I would say we weren’t as competitive as we needed to be,” admitted Cody, whose side were gone from the Championship after three games on July 8.

“We never really played at a level that was going to allow us to be really, really competitive.

“It’s a tribute to the players that they did bring Waterford to extra time (in the qualifiers). With 10 minutes to go it looked as if that wasn’t going to happen.

“The resilience they showed was excellent. But overall through League and Championship we never played at the level we’d be expecting of ourselves.

“I won’t put my finger on exactly what it was. But it’s always the responsibility of management to ensure that you’re going out there ready to play.

“Essentially it is my responsibility, and that of the management team working together, to do as much as humanly possible to make us more competitive next year. That’s going to be difficult.”

Did the summer’s events surprise him? “I would never presume where we’re going to go any year,” came the reply. “We just try and get things ready to roll.

“I would always think the competition is serious – in the last couple of years, it’s been really serious.

“It’s not the first time it’s happened, either. You go back to 2013, we got knocked out in the quarter-final as well. So we can never say, ‘Look, quarter-final. We’ll get there’.

Cody hopes injury-hit

Michael Fennelly (right) will be back in harness, but acknowledges that’s an unknown right now. Colin

Fennelly and Paul Murphy are on army duty in the

Lebanon until May. And the supply line isn’t too bountiful right now.

“In the last number of years at under-21, we haven’t had success,” acknowledged

Cody. “We got to the final this year and were well beaten by a very good Limerick team. In the past number of years we haven’t got out of Leinster. The general thinking would be that it’s going to be very difficult for us to get back being really competitive, maybe for a couple of years.

“Obviously that’s not the mentality we would be approaching it with ourselves. We would be doing everything that’s humanly possible to get back.

“It starts essentially with the Walsh Cup. We realise that we’re not in the top four or five teams at the moment.

“The challenge is there for us – but it’s a good challenge to have in front of us.”

Cody is asked if it’s the biggest one of his stellar career, and he smiles.

“Well, I’ve probably been there a while but it has been presumed more than once that we were going to go away by people who consider these things,” he remarked.

“So there have been many challenges. It’s a challenge every single year. That’s the great thing about this sport and every sport.

“But is the challenge great now? Of course it is.

“It’s light years away at the moment, the All-ireland. It’s light years away every year we start. We never look as far as the All-ireland final, even when we had some good success.

“We always look at where we are now and what we need to do from now on.

“We’ll put our heads down, we’ll work and get on with it. We won’t even mention the All-ireland.”