IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR EOIN
V PAIRC UI CHAOIMH, SAT, 4.30PM Treaty rule the roost as country’s top dogs insists Cats ace Cody
EOIN CODY says Limerick are the best team in the country - by far.
Cody’s Kilkenny and the five-in-a-row All-ireland chasing Limerick side go head to head this Saturday afternoon in a highly-anticipated League semi-final encounter at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
It’s a repeat of last year’s League decider, which Limerick won pulling up on a scoreline of 2-20 to 0-15.
Cody says that defeat was
“a wake up call” for Kilkenny and a positive as they used it to up their standards for the Championship.
The sides went on to meet in the Allireland final for the second consecutive year, with Limerick emerging victorious again and in more convincing fashion than in 2022.
Since John Kiely came on board at Limerick boss in late 2016, the score in the Championship between the sides sits at 3-2 to Limerick. In the League it stands at 2-0 to Limerick, which is a surprisingly low number of League encounters across seven seasons, with the sides in different groups for that spell.
It may also explain why it doesn’t feel like one of the game’s great rivalries, despite their epic Championship duals, including back to back All-ireland finals. Not yet anyway.
“If you win or you lose (this weekend) it doesn’t mean anything for the Championship but it gives you a fair idea of where you are and where you need to be at,” said Cody (23).
“Because Limerick are the benchmark and they are by far the best team in the country. It’s about putting your hand up for the jersey for Championship as well.
“It’s going to be a really challenging test and it’s one we are really looking forward to.” Cody views last year’s League final defeat by Limerick as having an impact on Kilkenny, but “in a positive way.”
“That’s the benefit of the League,” he explained. “When you go out and you don’t win games, you can really use them to your advantage and learn from them. Whereas Championship, it’s probably more negative if you lose a game, it has more of an impact.
“But League, you get to use the negatives and turn them into a positive.
“I think that performance against Limerick last year probably drove us on for the Championship.
“We probably didn’t let a performance from that day happen again for the rest of the Championship.
“We probably let our standards down a bit that day and really upped them after that. It was really a wake up call.
“We definitely have no regrets. Unfortunately enough we weren’t on the winning side on All-ireland final day.”