THE CODY FACTOR STILL KEY FOR CATS
THERE is something endearingly old-school about Brian Cody’s Kilkenny. A seat towards the Hill 16 end of the Cusack Stand gave a bird’s-eye view of the team warm-up ahead of last Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork. In the 20 years since the 1999 decider when Jimmy Barry Murphy’s emerging young side prevailed in the rain, the routine hasn’t changed much. The players, in pairs, pinging balls at each other, before moving to that corner of the pitch for some stickwork. A few straight-line drills between the end line and 20-metre line — the basics of the game, just done at 100 miles an hour. Simple, uncomplicated, unchanging. The fact that various players run through it all with helmets off is like a throwback to another era. Before the second quarterfinal between Laois and Tipperary, the modern favourite of grid games and simulated match play were on show, Tipperary’s new thing to group all the players in a circle and fire multiple balls to hand at the same time. And yet, when the ball is thrown in, the more things
change the more they stay the same. By afternoon’s end, the Laois players rightly milked a momentous summer by enjoying the adulation of their proud support on a lap of honour. Even in defeat, Eddie Brennan’s team remain the story of the summer.
But the hurling story of the weekend? That was the eternal wonder of Brian Cody’s Kilkenny. Because it’s Kilkenny, it’s almost accepted as a given, that of course they would have the capacity to spring a surprise and upset a Cork team that came into it as warm favourites.
It’s a testament to Cody’s remarkable legacy, which has hardly been afforded the credit it deserves, that the focus quickly shifted to Cork’s first decade without a senior All-Ireland, Laois’s honour in defeat and the cracks in Tipperary’s armour ahead of their own semifinal against Wexford.
But the manner in which Kilkenny went about their business deserves to be recorded. It’s a lesson for Cork, in particular. Because this was a game that could so easily have gone away from the Cats.
The movement of the Cork attack had them at sixes and sevens for much of the opening half. Huw Lawlor has grown into the Kilkenny number three shirt with every game, but Patrick Horgan’s form was other-worldly as he notched 3-10.
And yet after threatening to over-run Kilkenny in the opening quarter in particular – Seamus Harnedy bossing the exchanges down the central channel of the attack — the manner in which the day unravelled saw Kilkenny expose old flaws.
When Cork’s running game from defence began to unravel — Kilkenny thriving off turnovers from Sean O’Donoghue and Niall O’Leary — the second half quickly became a battle for primary possession.
‘The flakiest team in the country’ is how they were labelled by Anthony Daly in his analysis, and it’s that sort of verdict that cuts to the bone. Far too many Cork players disappeared.
It didn’t ultimately boil down to talent, more nerve.
Conor Fogarty’s switch to wing-back in place of Cillian Buckley helped to blot out the Cork half-forward line and Richie Leahy prospered in filling the gap at midfield. Conor Browne’s performance after being parachuted into midfield is testament to the Cody way. So, too, the manner in which players like Joey Holden recovered from a tough start to make big plays as the game wore on.
‘Without the application of everybody throughout the field it would have been very, very difficult,’ acknowledged Cody afterwards. ‘Some of our players did have a tough enough time early on in particular but showed real character and real resolve and real honesty and real genuineness not to just drop the head and just to keep going until the very, very end.
‘They’re serious, serious players, obviously we know that. But again, the application of our players right throughout the field and again the team, and obviously the panel and the players coming in off the bench, it’s just a whole heroic effort from everybody.’
Real character. Real resolve. Real honesty. Real genuineness. It’s the Cody and Kilkenny mantra.
How are those qualities a signature of any Cody team?
Evan Shefflin, a nephew of Cody’s former on-field general Henry, gave an insight. Speaking ahead of tonight’s Bord Gáis Energy Leinster U20 final against Wexford, he described his first training session after his senior call-up this year, being detailed on Richie Hogan.
‘There’s not many soft introductions when you go into Kilkenny. It’s either kill or be killed in there.
‘It’s the attitude you have to bring to it and if you don’t, you are going to know about it. It’s as simple as that.’
“Far too many Cork players disappeared”